I'm not a financial expert, in fact I'm still studying finance at university, but from personal experience and from the people in my life these are just a few of the things about money that I learned as a teenager and just wanted to share them with you.
Casual Jobs
I started working when I was 15 years old and now I'm a young adult. For the first few years I saved pretty much all of the money I made from my casual jobs, firstly because I had been taught to save and secondly because I didn't really have anything to spend it on, I mean I wasn't into fashion as much as I am now and when my friends I hung out it was either somewhere where we didn't have to spend money or just somewhere cheap like the movies. Oh another reason would be because I just don't earn that much on a casual wage. But saving up for those few years has really helped now, because I don't have to worry about it as much as I did if I didn't have any savings. However if I spent it all on a really extravagant holiday then it would most likely be all gone but I'm not going to do that! It helps with the everyday expenses like food and necessities and I buy a lot more clothes these days and I go see musicals etc. I still work in a casual position cos I am still studying but everytime I do need to spend money I don't have to "dip" into my savings I use the money that I have made for the week, which means I am able to leave my saving in the bank to accumulate interest.
Pay Yourself First
I've always had friends tell me that they have worked so much this week that they're going to be paid about $800 for the week. A few days later I go out with them and their complaining that they don't have any money and I ask what happened to the $800 that you got paid and the reply is always "I spent it" whether it was on dvds, clothes, alcohol, things that they don't necessarily need, either way it's gone! Now I'm pretty sure that most people who have read books on how to be financially secure or watched the financial experts that have been on Oprah talk about the concept of paying yourself first. To my knowledge this is when you put some of the money that you have made away for you before you pay all your expenses. I believe this concept would work pretty well for teenagers who have a casual job because they don't have all the bills to pay and they don't have a family to look after yet and even if they did but still had a job it's possible to save. I've told one of my friends you should pay yourself first and he says I do by buying myself stuff like dvds and then he goes on to say that he has a lot of "assets". Unfortunately assets are considered to be something that puts money in your pockets and things like dvds, books and clothes are not assets because unless they are a special limited edition items, the value of these things go down by as much as half their price, so even if you sold them you would most likely NOT make a profit.
So you should pay yourself first, even if it's just putting away $10 every week from your paycheck. I think a good way of not being tempted to spend all your money would be pretend that the $10 doesn't exist, like you never made it cos think about it those times when you don't make that extra $10 you obviously cannot spend it. Open up 2 bank accounts one where you use to spend and the other one which is your savings, which you don't touch unless it is an emergency. As the weeks go on you'll find that you will have a good amount saved up.
Credit Cards?
I'm not a big fan of credit cards (yeah I know that sounds strange) don't get me wrong it feels great when you're purchasing something with the card and you realise you have the item but none of my money has gone out yet! But when that bill came I felt inconvenienced, I had to pay this amount from my wallet but I also wanted to use the money I already had on something else, which meant I had to take more money out from my account, pay the credit card bill and then the money I had left in the wallet I spent on whatever. So now it feels like I have paid twice!
Most teenagers don't have credit cards (that I know of) but when you get into your early twenties, that's when it begins. So all I would say is probably not a good idea to get a credit card if you never have any money, cos it's not "free money" (I heard someone say this before).
Don't spend more than you make
This is one of my main rules for myself, I'm on a casual wage so I don't make as much right now as I hope to in the future. Therefore my plan every week is to always spend less than what I made for the week. Sometimes it's hard because you plan on big events that require more than what you made for the week but that's why I have money saved up in a bank account. Sometimes if there is something I really want but don't necessarily need I wait until it goes on sale or I wait until the next week when I have worked to cover that amount.
