Accreditation and qualifications
Nathan Jeeves | September 22nd, 2022
Introduction
Acquiring new skills can also take place further outside of your immediate family and friends. You may have the inspiration to learn other skills which people are willing to pay, and be willing to pay even more for giving you hold desirable qualification: jobs for teens such as babysitting, tutoring, and lifeguarding all fall under this umbrella and which often the desirable or required qualifications do not take much more than weeks or months to attain.
Earning qualifications can help separate you from the crowd and earn a higher wage than others in your high school who choose instead to seek out lower-wage summer jobs that most other high schoolers apply for and require more general skills that are rarely short of supply in the sea of other applicants.
It’s a great idea to earn now and reap the rewards this school term to your friends’ envy.
Starting a business
If you aspire to be an entrepreneur or want to express a newfound entrepreneurial spirit, it might be a good idea to have a go at founding a business of your own. Don’t make things complicated and daunting, you don’t have to have your own office branch, have call centers, or have a board of directors; starting a business in your teens can be as easy as buying candy bars and refreshments in bulk from a local store and reselling them at your school (with permission of your school of course) , alternatively you and a friend can start up a homemade jewelry business, creating intricate, trendy and attractive bracelets, necklaces and keychains that could be the craze of the entire school body.
In the first example business idea will help you learn negotiating, how to be confident talking to a supplier in order to get you price of goods down through wholesale and this business venture will help you learn the basics of developing a business relationship.
With the second business idea, you will learn the balance of production time input and relative reward output- How intricate and complex do bracelets have to be in order for them to be desired to be purchased? And when do the designs get too complex that the price tag inhibits customers from purchasing the jewellery pieces? This will simultaneously teach the basics of supply and demand.
Furthermore, the benefit of this activity in both examples is that you will be able to take advantage of the abundance of potential customers right in front of you! As students you associate with every day may be happy to purchase your goods on mutually beneficial grounds-they get a great looking piece of jewellery and you get money for designing and producing it - which can help you get a kick start in entrepreneurship before you go off to the world where you customers will be stranger, possibly be a little more intimidating to sell your product or service to than your friends you play basketball with at lunchtime.
The key is to not procrastinate, start now and you could be soon finding yourself growing into bigger and better businesses as a young adult spurred on by confidence and inspiration you gained from starting off a small business as a young entrepreneur in your school grounds or neighbourhood area.
All tips and activities thus far will guide you on the path to earning money, a prerequisite to the following- handling money.
Financial discipline
Hopefully, after implementing the tips and completing some of the activities mentioned you soon will have ample funds at your disposal, it will then be up to you how much of it you would like to trade, save, or invest. The most important focus in this guide will be investing. Of course, you may have to spend a portion of your money of essentials but always remember to ask yourself before buying something ‘do you really need it? ‘Often time we think we do but later realise we were entranced by the moment you saw it in the shop window or feeling of missing out on the new trend all your friends are in on (FOMO). To avoid pitfalls such as these, start setting out for yourself a strict investment doctrine, set out a specific percentage amount you will allocate to investments and the remaining percentage that you will allocate as free spending cash.
As a teen you probably won’t have as many financial obligations as an adult, so try to maximize your investment portfolio, designating 50-75% of your income to investing.
Another key tip to help you obey and set your own rules is to get in the habit early as you can of keeping record of your finances: recording down with pen and paper or spreadsheet of how much money you begin with each month and what you end up with. This tip will not only implant a good habit no matter your age but also help you realise how quickly your money can vanish on consume goods if your discipline slips.
Obeying your own investment allocation rules and keeping on top of your expenses will fill you with confidence and pride, whilst keeping your wallet healthy, on the other hand breaking your rules will make you feel guilty and likely upset-seeing your once padded wallet looking scarce will never be a pleasant experience - so set your rules, start healthy financial habits and you will not only waste less money but your money will soon be multiplying.
What to invest in?
There is plentiful information online about what are safe stocks and investments and I for this article will not attempt to go in depth into investing strategies or overly simplify why certain investments are safe investments, as both topics deserve many articles each to their own, but I will give some basic advice to those wishing to delve into the world of investing, starting with risk allocation.
Much like your investment and spending cash allocation, investment portfolios too should have an allocation strategy or rules. Some investment may have the potential for excitingly high returns but likewise have as dauntingly high-risk potential, others may seem to have a low pay out prospects but with very little risk potential. As often, risk and profit potential have a positively linear relationship, it is important to make sure whatever money you designate to investing pays out well enough to make investing worth your while by being appropriately risk involved. So as a good rule for beginners, attempt to allocate 75-95% of your investment capital on something considered a safe strong investment and explore with the remaining 5-25% riskier investments.
Once you have ‘skin in the game’ by purchasing some investments you may have high expectations as to how large returns might be or how soon you will see profits form in your portfolio, as with anything it takes time for good things to happen, so adopt a strategy, make investments and if your strategy isn’t showing to be successful consistently then experiment with new strategies and investment tactics. But in all cases stick to your portfolio allocation rules no matter how tempting it may be to allocate more to speculative assets, because remember the goal of investing is to make consistent profits-and not to gamble.
Credit cards
One last bonus tip/ task worth mentioning is to apply for a credit card as early as legally possible. Despite many scare stories out there about people struggling to pay off credit card debt because of high interest rates credit cards can entail, credit cards can be a tool instead of a hinderance in your financial and investment journey if you treat them responsibly.
To be put simply credit cards work by giving you a monthly spending limit referred to as a credit limit, which can be spent up to during the month and at the end of each month you will have to pay back what was spent on the credit card with another form of payment such as a debit card, but most importantly paying off your credit bill in full and on time in order to avoid those dreadful interest rate fees. If you obey the principles of responsible credit card use by always paying off your bill on-time and in full each month you will boost something called a credit score, and this score will improve with the more you spend and repay consistently .Being prudent in paying off your each month will also help you increase your monthly credit limit and intitle you attain new cards with useful card holder benefits, like money off your grocery shopping, discounted holidays and free travel tickets.
However, one of the most impactful benefits that comes along with a good credit score is that you will be able to finance expensive goods and most importantly assets, for a lower cost than you would otherwise. For example, with a high credit score you have a higher likelihood of being granted a low interest rate loan for an apartment that you’ve been dreaming about for an investment retail property to add to your portfolio from a bank than someone with minimal years of credit card experience, bad history of repayment and subsequently a terrible credit score. Or more simply you may be looking to split the cost of a laptop for college into multiple payments and having a high credit score often will enable you to divide payments into smaller ones than you would otherwise with a low credit score.
Important: Hold on however, before you apply for a credit card, do some thorough research into the best card for you as a beginner card holder. For this you can look at several helpful YouTube credit card guide videos or use online tools such as the MoneySavingExpert.com’s ‘Credit Club’ tool, which can help inform you the best credit card options out there for you based on a few questionnaire questions. Tools such as the Credit Club tool will also give you direction hint on which cards are most likely to approve you as a card holder and therefore which are best to apply for, as not all cards are likely to be granted to you and having an application for a card being rejected can damage you existing or future credit score.