One Snarky Chica with Issues

With summer in full swing, it is not too late to start thinking about how your teens will spend their summer. If you do not want them sitting in front of the television or playing video games for three months then why not spur a little entrepreneurial spirit and get your kids started on some money making ideas for this summer vacation. Not only will this get your kids out of the house and doing something productive but it also offers a great opportunity to teach them about being an entrepreneur, managing money and even things like saving versus spending and investing for retirement.

The most common means of money making for teens during summer vacation are paper routes and baby-sitting jobs. A paper route job is great if your kid has the discipline to get up early each morning. It is also great because it only takes a few hours of work each day meaning that it can be paired with another money making idea as well. And baby-sitting jobs are good for teens as a lot of responsibility is required for the position. However, most baby-sitting jobs are not constant which means that your teen will not have a steady stream of income. In fact, baby-sitting jobs are best paired with other money making ideas for teens.

A traditional lemonade stand is not something that you and your teen will want to overlook. If you live in a large subdivision or near a park or even in a place with a lot of foot traffic or construction workers then an updated version of a traditional lemonade stand is a perfect money making idea for teens. Teens can sell lemonade, bottled water, baked goods and other snacks. This particular money making idea is great because it teaches so much in terms of finance. Your teen will need to evaluate the cost of potential items to sell and then calculate the return on investment to see if it is a worthwhile item to sell. Pricing for items will provide another lesson in terms of supply and demand as well as things like the break-even point.

If you happen to live near a golf course or country club, your teen might want to inquire to see if they can “clean” the golf course at the end of each day. When I was a kid my brother did this. The owners of a country club allowed him to come onto the greens to pick up any debris as well as lost golf balls. Then he would take his loot of found golf balls and sell them to golfers the next day. The golfers got nice golf balls at low prices, the country club got their greens picked up for free and my brother made a nice amount of money off of the golf balls.

If your teens like pets, then offering a pet sitting, pet walking and/or pet grooming service for the neighbors is a fantastic way to make money during the summer. The majority of people are likely to be stuck at work all day which means that this is a great market for teens that are available during the day. It is important that you do not let them take on too many clients at once though and may want to suggest that they have a friend join them in this effort.

Offering to help people out around the house is great way for teens to make money during the summer. If you live in an apartment complex your kid could offer to come and pick up people’s trash to take to the designated location for a set fee each week. Cutting grass is another great way for teens to make money during the summer. Teens should go door to door in the neighborhood offering their grass cutting service for a set amount of times per month at a constant rate. Washing neighbor’s cars is another great way to make some money during the summer; however it typically can only be done on weekends as most people are at work during the day. And if you live in a subdivision where a lot of the families have swimming pools, your teen could offer their pool cleaning services. If your teen does one of these things then this is a great opportunity to teach them about invoicing clients and dealing with accounts receivable issues as they arise.

These are just a few ideas to get you started thinking about some great ways for your teens to make some money during their summer vacation. You can even encourage their creativity and ask them if they have any money making ideas too. It is also a good idea to use these money making ideas to teach them about other principles of personal finance such as saving and investing. In fact, you may even want to try to talk your teen into putting some or all of the money that they earn over the summer into an IRA for retirement.