How To Save Money As A Teenager

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How to save money as a teenager? It’s a question that has been lingering in all of our minds. Saving money as a teenager can be one of the most difficult tasks to do, and is also one of the most important. When we enter the teenage years of our lives that’s when we start to do most of the financial transactions. We get our first jobs and open our bank accounts during our teens. So having sound knowledge of money is important when you are a teen.

The teenage years are the most important because we tend to pick up certain habits related to financial expenditure at this age. So the attitudes we have about money during our teens will carry on into the future. Hence, learning how to save and spend money is quite crucial for any teen.

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How To Save Money

Well, the first step is to open a savings account of course. I’m sure your parents would help you make your first deposit. And nope, under the bed is not the best place. So when you are selecting a bank you should look out for interest rates and minimum deposits. These factors might be different compared to each bank so you must research and pick a bank that suits your needs.

Once you have your bank account sorted, it’s time to put some money in the bank. By now you might be getting pocket money or you might be that responsible child who started a part-time job early on. Whichever it may be, you need to have some money in your bank account.

For this instance, I’m going to assume that you are a person who is doing a small part-time job, earning a certain amount of cash per day or even perhaps per week. So depending on the job that you do you will eventually have to have a goal in mind. A financial goal. For example “I’m going to earn $1000 by the end of ……..” likewise many of you will have different sorts of goals. And of course, it should be a realistic and achievable goal too. So don’t plan on earning 1 million dollars in a month by doing a small job :P.

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Once your goals are in mind, it’s time to make a budget. A budget will help you cap your monthly expenditure allowing you to save more and even get rid of some bad spending habits. You can start to note down how much money you earn per month. And then note down the expenses for the month. Then you can select the unnecessary expenditure and you can try to get rid of those. Once you do you can compare your income and your expenses and tally them and see how far away from your goals you and then you can take steps to reach your saving goals.

After you made your budget sticking to it Is going to be a real challenge. But if you are going to achieve your goals then it’s a must. A great way to keep track of our expenses is to have a mobile app that calculates our income and expenses.

Spend Wisely

Another way to save up some extra cash is to spend wisely. When you are in your teens you are most probably a student. Did you know that your student ID card is more than just a card? Well yes, it can save you up a ton of money if used wisely. For example, there are many stores out there that offer up to 10% discounts for student IDs. There are also online services and student packs that are granted by your university enabling you to get free services. Those services include a lot of software and things like Canva.

Another perk I personally use is the student subscription from Spotify. By proving to them that we are students we can get a huge discount on the total price. And Apple music has an excellent package for students where they even throw in apple TV. These packages will change from time to time but you get the idea, right? So all you need to do is look.

Share Costs

Another way of saving money is to share costs. I’m going to assume that your peers are teenagers too, and are of similar economic conditions. So one of the best ways to entertain yourselves and keep the cost very low is to share the expenses. For example, you and your friends can share a Netflix account or any other subscription service. If you’re grabbing a taxi to get somewhere, ask someone if they need a ride as well and share the cost. All you need to do is a bit of creative thinking and I’m sure you can come up with a way to save money and have fun at the same time.

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Ways To Earn Money

Before asking yourself how to save money, you first need to earn money. Let’s face it, as a teenager, the ways you could earn money is very restricted. If you are a teen above the age of 18, well then, of course, the entire job market is available for you. Till then you have a very limited amount of opportunities. And these opportunities obviously depend on which country you live in. So here is a list of jobs that you can do as a teen.

• Fast food attendant
• Car wash attendant
• Grocery store attendant
• Cashier
• Restaurant waiter
• Barista
• Life guard
• Host/Hostess
• Library assistant
• Camp counselor
• Dog walker
• Web designer
• Tutor

And also there are plenty of ways you can earn some extra money online. Such as freelancing, blogging, YouTube, selling products online, dropshipping, etc.

I’m sure you will come across at least one of these opportunities. So you have to think about your school life or even your university and then select a job that won’t take up much of your time but will enable you to reach your goals.

This article was written as a guest post on Smartiac by Rumeth Dasanayake – founder of Journiez and The Cash Foundry. Journiez has amazing content about travel destinations and travel tips which I’m sure will come in handy for any one of you. The Cash Foundary has really insightful personal finance-related content that you really need to know. Do visit his blogs and scroll through. I’m sure you will come across things that you never even knew existed! Don’t forget to check his social pages too!

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