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Does (or did) your teenage child work? Did they pay any bills? (1 Viewer)

Son - 17....has been working the same job for about a year and a half.  He pays for his car insurance and gas for the car...as far as regular bills.  He also pays for when he goes anywhere with friends or grabs a coffee...and the kid likes to go thrift shopping and buys most of his own clothes that way (other than what he gets for like birthday and Christmas).

 
Both my daughters played college volleyball so they loved being in the gym and working out.  So they both worked at Lifetime Fitness in HS part time, then worked volleyball camps and were supervisors for youth summer sport camps.  So even thought it was "working" to them it was something they loved anyway. So they always had pocket money to go to the show or out to eat.

Last Saturday my older daughter made 550.00 cash giving individual training and then group training to HS VB girls, my younger one made 350.00 the next day doing the same thing. I missed the boat.

 
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The scheduling and willing to work with school activities is a big thing.  We are lucky to live in a small community (less than 10k people) and the grocery store here is a student friendly employer.  
Same.  The grocery store was great for my daughter.  Flexible scheduling around her numerous activities and she got to put the Spanish she was learning in HS to use.

 
18 yo son, Senior in HS, has been working since last summer at a fast food joint. Was working Friday nights and Sunday days, with occasional Saturday shift or coverage during the week if someone called out. He just cut down to 1 Sunday every 2 weeks, as varsity baseball kicked in, plus his final push in his HS classes. 1/2 (or more) of his paycheck goes into savings for college, rest is his for gas/date nights, etc. 

 
16 year old son started working at Home Depot about a month ago. Works 20 hours a week making $14/hour. He started working at 14 reffing soccer games so he could pay for half of his car. He pays all his own gas and whatever he wants to spend eating out with his buddies. Now that he’s had a couple of paychecks he’s going to start depositing money in his Schwab account.

14 year old son has been mowing lawns for a year or so. Just started working at a grocery store as a bagger a few days a week for $11/hr. Kansas has pretty strict laws on how much kids his age can work. He also has his own online fishing lure business and actively trades in his Schwab account.

11 year old daughter doesn’t work yet but she will.

 
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16 year old son started working at Home Depot about a month ago. Works 20 hours a week making $14/hour. He started working at 14 reffing soccer games so he could pay for half of his car. He pays all his own gas and whatever he wants to spend eating out with his buddies. Now that he’s had a couple of paychecks he’s going to start depositing money in his Schwab account.

14 year old son has been mowing lawns for a year or so. Just started working at a grocery store as a bagger a few days a week for $11/hr. Kansas has pretty strict laws on how much kids his age can work. He also has his own online fishing lure business and actively trades in his Schwab account.

11 year old daughter doesn’t work yet but she will.
Your 14 year old is a real entrepreneur. He's learning what they don't teach at Harvard business school. Mowing lawns is rare these days for kids. It's hard work and it seems like many of those jobs go to immigrants who have their own businesses. My older brother and I mowed lawns in a neighborhood around the Orange Bowl in the 1970s. We had about 5 lawns and when he left for college I expanded it to 7. In the summer, some lawns needed mowing every week. We used a couple of gasoline push mowers and an edger. And manual clipping shears for hedges and a wide broom for sidewalks. No electric or gas blowers. I did it until I finished my undergrad at UM. The entire family, single mom and 4 kids shared one car, a 6-cylinder Plymouth Duster, for many years. That saved on car expenses. We made it work. I went to UM, sometimes using 3 buses when I couldn't use the car. When I graduated from undergrad (not high-school), my grandparents bought me a used Capri. Times and expectations have changed.

30 years later, my 2 daughters had an extremely busy school and extracurricular schedule so working during school wasn't possible. One of them got a summer job after 11th grade helping researchers at the marine school study cobia fish farming. Now she works in research in SF for a neuroscience biotech. The other worked retail at Victoria Secret several summers starting after 12th grade. Now she works in the Marijuana industry in LA. Neither had a car, so no financial expectations there. My stepson, who lived with us until he graduated from FIU, had a very active business in our backyard doing haircuts and fades for many of his friends. He paid for gas, I think his mom helped with insurance, which was costly.

 
This "look" is what's in :style: now so that's part of why he likes it. Not necessarily about being thrifty or money conscious.
Oh…it’s both for him. He likes finding the deal…but yeah his style is all about trying to fond vintage or that right look.

 
Id also say…when kids closing in on possibly going to college are looking for part time jobs…encourage to search for a place that may offer a scholarship or college fund.  

 
My 17-year old worked for 6-months at the movie theater - started in summer and quit right after Christmas.  It just got really tough to balance with school and sports, especially given that his HS is a 30-40 min drive from home.  He still earns a decent amount shoveling driveways (though there wasn't much snow this year) and pet sitting for several families in the neighborhood.

Compared to me at that age, who spent any discretionary income on books and records, he hoards his cash.  The movie theater $ went into a Roth IRA (as suggested above) and, aside from going with his friends to the local pizza place or chik fil-a, he spends next-to-nothing.  If I ever need cash unexpectedly, he's the bank.  I blame his childhood monopoly obsession.

 
Son 1 worked at Jersey Mike's for almost 2 years. They give him shifts at his old store when he's home from college.  They share tips there so he was averaging $17 or so an hour and left for school with over $20K saved up. He's invested the bulk in stocks and has a nice cushion in savings.  He also got a job at Oregon setting up lighting and sound for conferences and sets up Zoom calls for professors. He doesn't need the money but he loves working and this is a great way to network.  He pays for all spending money or gas when he drives but we cover everything else.  If he plays his cards right, he'll graduate early and be able to pay off all his student loans with one check.

Son 2 worked at Shake Shack for a while but he didn't like it.  Made $15/hr but he said it was soul draining.  Now he's at Target and fills online orders for $16/hr and get time and a half on holidays. He calls it brainless work but he likes it enough to stay with it.  Unfortunately, he spends his money on things like shoes, movies, and a GF.  I've told him several times he needs to save save save but he hasn't arrived to that same conclusion by yet.  Gonna be hard to join a fraternity in the fall without savings.  I ain't paying for it.

 
The real question is, do they even lift, bro?

(Mine are 11 and 6, so hasn't come up yet. I never really had part-time jobs when I was a teenager. I support the idea in theory, but I guess we'll see how things develop in the next few years. They're both on the autism spectrum, so also not sure how that will affect the situation.)


I have an 11-year old that wants a legit iPhone in the next 6-12 months, so she's been begging me to give her "extra" chores (aside from the typical ones we have our kids do).  So I've been putting her to work, mainly on the weekends, doing stuff like cleaning the bathroom (which she is mainly responsible for messing up, actually), and tidying up the backyard (again, mostly kid stuff but still).  I have her write everything down she does during a 2-week period and then I'll tally it all up and give her some cash.  Past two weeks' worth of work I gave her $15 and that was being pretty kind.

She has "dogsat" a few times, and is going to help me accumulate stuff and run a garage sale in the summer.

 
I think all teenagers should have to work in a service industry (fast food, retail, grocery, etc) so they can get appreciation for how to treat people properly.  Working in those places you can see how terrible people are and how disrespectful they are.  It gives the kid a taste of how crappy it is to be treated poorly so they won't treat people bad when they are the customer's.  It also helps them see how crappy a job can be so hopefully it pushes them to get an education/skill that will get them out of those type of jobs.   

For my kids they must do something.  Extra curricular school activities count for that so as long as they were playing sports they didn't need a job.  That doesn't mean they can't "work" around the house though.  

 
13 year old is asking me if he can do some extra chores to get $45 for Elden Ring.  Told him to save his allowance (he gets $15 twice a month, assuming he is already counting on the $15 coming up at the end of March so needs $45 more)

so of course that isn’t fast enough for him but I don’t really have anything special I need done, and im trying to teach him to save for situations like this and not just hand him cash for some menial task to make up the difference  

anyway I tell him maybe his grandparents need some help.  So today grandpa offers him $200 to help him lug around and run wire bundles on an electrical job…”$200 but it’s a full days work”.  Now he’s not sure he wants to do it because it sounds hard and he only needs $45 :wall:

 
I worked since the day I had a car and a license and find it unfathomable anyone did the same and saved up $20,000 before going to college WTF.

 
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My daughter is a high school senior.  She babysits.  Has two great gigs where she makes more money than her friends who work at grocery stores. 

 
Our oldest, 19, has been working since 16. McDonald’s and now fedex. He’s looking for a new job while attending community college. No bills - but we tell him he’s paying rent which goes into his Roth IRA. 

Second, 17, volunteers and get good grades (4.0 unweighted), he’ll earn his keep in scholarships. no bills. He has worked but we let him volunteer and keep his grades up instead. 

 
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Both my daughters played college volleyball so they loved being in the gym and working out.  So they both worked at Lifetime Fitness in HS part time, then worked volleyball camps and were supervisors for youth summer sport camps.  So even thought it was "working" to them it was something they loved anyway. So they always had pocket money to go to the show or out to eat.

Last Saturday my older daughter made 550.00 cash giving individual training and then group training to HS VB girls, my younger one made 350.00 the next day doing the same thing. I missed the boat.
The bold is really smart. I coached and worked at a gym doing kids camps and that was good because I enjoyed being there. I also worked in libraries from the time I was 12 through law school - which is a super smart job to have because it's like 80% downtime and I could basically get paid to do my homework and/or look at sports on the internet or instant message my friends. 

 
The bold is really smart. I coached and worked at a gym doing kids camps and that was good because I enjoyed being there. I also worked in libraries from the time I was 12 through law school - which is a super smart job to have because it's like 80% downtime and I could basically get paid to do my homework and/or look at sports on the internet or instant message my friends. 


Yes, and they both could work out at Lifetime there for free, they still do as technically they are still on payroll and have ID even though they don`t work there anymore

 
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My then 15-yo son applied to a job at a local restaurant and never heard back.  He was talking about his desire to work and was overheard by a neighbor who owns some 7/11s.  She immediately offered him a job, and it has been great for both.  He gets paid ~$16/hour and she has a great employee that she now trusts with any and all functions in her stores.  He has had some life lessons.  His co-worker (that he considered to be a friend) was fired and charged with felony theft.  My son cried that day.

 

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