College tuition consistently gets higher each and every year. According to recent stats from College Board, public four-year colleges for in-state students now cost an average of $9,410 per year. And the average cost of a private four-year college has risen to over $32,000 per year (a good reason to NOT choose a private college, by the way).
If you’ve been researching college at all, you’ve probably got one big, burning question. How are you going to pay for it? One of the best things you can do for yourself right now is to start saving money!
For most teens, their parents or some other adult in their lives pay the major bills and expenses. That means, with the exception of a little pocket money, nearly your entire paycheck can go straight into savings for college.
However, trying to make money as a teenager isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Some companies require people to be a certain age before they can get a job there. Then, of course, there is the reality that school keeps teens from being able to work for a large chunk of the day Monday through Friday of each week. State and federal regulations also dictate the number of hours teens can work in the afternoons after school and on the weekends.
19 Ways to Make Money as a Teenager
But if you’re a teen who truly wants to make some extra money, don’t let these things discourage you. There are plenty of alternative ways teens can earn cash that they may not even realize. So if you’re a teenager looking for creative ways to make a little extra money, here are 20 great ideas!
1. Dog Walking and Pet Sitting
Another easy way you can make money as a teenager is by being a dog walker or pet sitter. Plenty of people have pet dogs, and those dogs need daily exercise, especially if they are inside-only dogs.
Sometimes, though, pet owners can’t walk their dogs. This could be because of a health issue or illness, their work schedule, commitments to family and friends or simply because they are too busy or on vacation. Whatever the case, the dogs still need to be walked. And you’ll probably have a hard time thinking of a more enjoyable way to make money as a teenager.
Just as there are sites for posting your babysitting resume and profile, there are also sites where you can create a profile to be a dog walker or pet sitter. One such site is Rover.com. These sites match up clients with potential walkers in their area and help facilitate the introduction process.
The actual process of dog walking is as simple as it sounds. You go to the client’s house, pick up his or her dogs, and take them for a walk. You’ll need to be good with animals, know the basics of how to take care of a dog and be able to walk a good distance. Get started with Rover.
2. Teach Music Lessons
If you are uncommonly skilled with a particular instrument, you can use that to your advantage to earn some cash. This is especially true if you play the piano, guitar or violin, as these are three of the most sought-after musicians for giving lessons.
The best time to teach someone to learn to play an instrument is when he or she is a child. However, getting private lessons for any instrument can be outrageously expensive, particularly if it is with a teacher who plays one of the three aforementioned instruments.
Depending on where you live, there may be only one or two – or even zero – music teachers in your area. This is even more true if you live in a rural area or small town. When there is a teacher in the area, her time is usually sought after by many people, so some parents may never even get an appointment.
Others simply can’t afford to pay the hefty fees charged by the teacher. However, teens work cheaper than professional teachers, and parents will have a much easier time affording a couple lessons a week with them.
Children need to learn the basics of their instruments and playing music. And if you have any skill at all with your instrument, then you should easily be able to teach them that.
3. Babysitting
Babysitting has long been one of the best ways to make money as a teenager. Depending on a teen’s maturity level, babysitting is something he or she can begin doing as early as freshman year of high school. There are always neighborhood parents or relatives with small children who need someone to watch their children while they work, run errands or simply have a date night.
If you don’t have any close neighbors or relatives with children but would still like to babysit, there are other ways to do that. Creating a profile on online babysitting sites like Care.com is one great way to get your name out there. Sites like these also allow people to leave reviews for you after you’ve babysat for them so that other parents will get to read more about you and feel more comfortable leaving their children with you.
You can also post flyers with information about yourself in appropriate places. For instance, if your church has a church bulletin board, post a flyer with your qualifications and contact information on it. Local community centers, such as the YMCA or the Boys and Girls Club, are also great places to hang flyers if they allow it.
4. Be a Tutor.
If you are especially good in a certain subject, such as geometry, English or pre-calculus, then tutoring might be an excellent way for you to make some extra cash. There are always parents who want some extra academic help for their children, especially if they are struggling with a particular class.
However, hiring professional tutors is expensive. Some tutors charge $30, $40 or even $50 dollars per hour! Hiring a teen to do the job is much less expensive. The going rate for teen tutors is usually $10 or $15 an hour, or you could choose to charge by the session instead.
Either way, the parents are coming off a lot cheaper. Plus, teen tutors can be very effective because they have usually done the work they are tutoring a lot more recently than adult tutors.
5. Complete Online Surveys.
There are several sites online that allow people to take surveys in exchange for either products, gift cards or and/or cash. A quick Google search will list dozens of sites, but a few of the best are SurveyJunkie, InboxDollars, GlobalTestMarket, and 20|20 Research.
These sites give teens access to hundreds of different surveys. Some will be relevant to teens, and some will not. For the ones teens can’t take, they will be screened out and sent back to the home page of the survey site. For most survey sites, each completed survey awards the teen a certain amount of points. Teens can then cash those points in for gift cards, cash or products.
Some sites don’t offer to pay in cash, which seems antithetical to the goal of making money, but there are ways around this hurdle. Sites that don’t offer to pay in cash almost always give the option of cashing out via gift cards, and one of these gift cards is almost always a PayPal gift card. Teens can cash out with PayPal, and then transfer the money directly into their or their parents’ bank accounts.
6. Swagbucks
Swagbucks is similar to the survey sites listed above in that users can occasionally complete surveys and in that they build up enough points or money to cash out with actual money deposited into a bank account or gift cards. However, Swagbucks is more than just a survey site. It pays teens money for doing things they already do anyway.
For example, teens can earn what are known on the site as “Swagbucks” for shopping online simply by going to the Swagbucks site first and clicking on the stores they’re going to shop in anyway and being linked to them through Swagbucks. Teens can also watch videos, play games or search for things online using the Swagbucks search engine to earn Swagbucks. Those are all pretty fun ways to make money as a teenager.
These Swagbucks can then be cashed in for actual money. No one will ever get rich and be able to quit their jobs with Swagbucks or any other survey site, but they are great ways teens can earn cash on the side in their spare time (and for adults to supplement their income as well).
7. Wash Cars.
Washing people’s cars, trucks, boats, and other vehicles is a great way to earn a little extra cash. You can purchase your own cleaning supplies for a little of nothing and take them with you to different houses around your neighborhood or have people come to you at your house if they prefer not to use their own water.
Another option is to talk to local businesses and see if they will allow you to hold car washes in their parking lots once or twice a month. If you can get enough businesses to allow you to do this, you can have a regular rotation of car wash spots all around your city, opening up a whole new customer base for yourself each week.
8. Paid Advertising
This is definitely an unusual way to make money as a teenager. But hear me out! If you have any ability with graphic design, making online advertisements for companies can be an excellent way to make money as a teenager. There are all types of websites needing contract employees to make advertisements for them.
If you have your own website, podcast, blog or other internet site, you don’t even have to make advertisements for companies. You can simply display their advertisements on your sites, and they will pay you for this.
Adding embedded links to your sites that, when clicked, send visitors to sites like Amazon to purchase things is another way to make money via online advertising. When the customer clicks on a product advertisement on your website, they are sent to Amazon – or another store – to purchase that item, and you get a percentage of that purchase, almost like a commission.
Learn how to make money with Paid Advertising.
9. Freelance Writing
For people who have any degree of decent writing ability, freelance writing could be a great way to make money as a teenager. There are plenty of sites out there that need ghost-writers to write articles, blog posts, reviews and all kinds of other things.
For example, SlicethePie is a site that shows you pictures and descriptions of products and asks you to write your honest reviews of those products. Each review pays only a few cents; however, you can do two or three reviews a minute, which means the cents add up quickly. You can cash out any time after reaching ten dollars.
Other freelance writing sites include Upwork, iWriter and Freelancer.com. These are legitimate sites that pay via direct deposits into your bank account. You’ll be required to submit proof of identity and your social security number, so be prepared to do those things.
And if you fall in love with freelance writing, you could even turn it into a full-time job like yours truly. Learn how I was able to become a full-time freelance writer.
10. Make and Sell Handmade Crafts or Jewelry
Another popular way to make money as a teenager is to become crafty. Handmade gifts are hugely popular in today’s society. If you can make something to sell on Etsy or at local craft stores or fairs, people will often go nuts for it.
Handmade jewelry is always a favorite option. Handmade soaps, lotions and other bath products are also best-sellers. T-shirts with funny or inspirational sayings are also popular.
There is also a huge market for all things geeky, nerdy or nostalgic. However, if you’re wanting to make things from specific books or shows, such as Game of Thrones, Supernatural or something else, be sure to check for licensing restrictions so you don’t get yourself in trouble.
11. House Cleaning
Although it may not be the most glamorous way to make money as a teenager, anyone can clean a house. All it takes is a little bit of hard work and some time. Cleaning houses can be a very lucrative way for teens to earn some extra money. Everyone wants a clean house, but not everyone has the time or energy to clean his or her house the way it should be cleaned.
Put ads in your local paper; hang flyers up at churches and community centers; let your teachers know you’re available for cleaning houses. No one really enjoys cleaning house, and most of the time, if people can afford it, they’d much rather pay someone else to do it for them. Put together a cleaning kit for yourself and be that someone else.
For more tips on how to start a cleaning business, check out this guide from Savvy Natural Cleaning.
12. Do Yard Work.
Another of the most common ways for teens to make money is by doing yard work. This can include mowing people’s lawns, raking and disposing of or burning leaves, pruning trees and/or shrubs or any number of other outdoorsy, lawn-related tasks.
Traditionally, this has been a teenage boy-dominated job, but it certainly doesn’t have to be. Just as anyone can clean a house, so too can anyone rake or mow a yard. A lot of the time, people will allow you to use their equipment, but if this is something you’re going to be doing often, you might want to consider investing in your own equipment – or sweet-talking your parents into letting you borrow theirs.
13. Creating a Blog, Podcast or YouTube Channel
When it comes to technology, no one is more connected than teens. So it’s only logical that someone looking to make money as a teenager should turn to YouTube, blogs and podcasts.
These things are traditionally free, yes, but if you get enough followers and/or go viral, you’ll possibly be able to get sponsors or people/companies who want to advertise on your channel, blog or podcast.
For this to happen, you have to have something incredibly interesting that is going to draw a lot of people to it. Getting eight thumbs-ups from both sets of grandparents, your siblings and your Spanish teacher won’t cut it.
As someone who runs a blog and podcast myself, I can assure that they can end up being a lot of work. But over time, creating content can be one of the great ways to creative passive income.
14. Working as a Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant, also known as a VA, basically performs the duties of an administrative assistant. But they do these things for a professional or businessperson they’ve never met from the comfort of their homes via the internet.
Some of the duties a VA might perform include, but are not limited to, the following: scheduling, managing social media accounts, answering the professional’s forwarded phone calls, graphic and website design for the professional and more.
If you are a well-organized teen who can proofread and edit, answer phone calls, schedule appointments and take care of multiple social media accounts, you likely have what it takes to be a virtual assistant.
15. Have a Garage Sale.
This particular way of making money is not something you can do regularly; however, if you plan to have a large garage sale once every year or two, you can actually do quite well.
Teenagers grow exceptionally fast; they go through clothes, shoes and interests faster than seems possible. This leaves them with plenty of outgrown junk to get rid of every year or so. Having a garage sale is a great way to get rid of a lot of that old useless stuff and to make some decent money.
If you’re a teen looking to make some quick cash, go through your closet. Dig out all those old clothes and shoes that are too small or that are simply not your style any longer. Go through your old toys if you have any leftover from childhood. Dig through your board game, computer game and video game stashes and get rid of the ones you never play anymore.
If you have sports equipment that you can no longer use or for a sport you no longer play, put it in the sale too. Old CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays and records (if you have any) make great garage sale material. Try not to hang onto too much stuff. Your life just gets all cluttered up, and remember, the more you can sell, the more money you’ll make!
16. Teaching Computer/Technology Skills to Older People.
As has already been established, when it comes to computers, mobile devices and the internet, there is not much out there that a teen can’t do. Some of us older people, though, aren’t necessarily up-to-date with all the tech, devices and apps we should be. So offering tech advice and assistance is a great way to make money as a teenager!
Talk to neighbors, relatives and friends of the family. See if any of them would like to know more about coding, social media, social networking, blogs, podcasts or other net- and mobile-related activities. Sometimes it’s harder for adults to admit they don’t know something and need some help. If you approach them, though, they are more likely to take you up on it.
Put ads on Facebook or other places where you have adults as friends or followers. Again, put paper ads up in your church, at community centers and anywhere else where older adults or the elderly might go. Let people know you’re willing to teach them the basics of using their phones, their laptops or any other device with which they need help.
17. Teaching English to Non-English Speakers.
The internet has made it easier than ever to connect with people around the world; it has also made it extremely easy to teach people around the world.
With sites like SameSpeak and DaDaABC popping up everywhere, there are all kinds of opportunities for teens to make money by teaching English to non-English speakers. The best part is, you don’t even have to know a second language. What a cool way to make money as a teenager!
SameSpeak, in particular, only requires coaches to be 16 years old. You need the internet, of course, and Skype with a webcam and microphone. Then, you simply connect to students around the world and talk to them in English. You don’t have to speak their language, and you don’t have to be a certified teacher. Basically, you’re just carrying on an English conversation with them as best as is possible.
The sessions run for 30 minutes at a time, and you get paid $10 a session. That’s $20 an hour if you do two sessions back to back! That is good money for an adult, but it is an amazing price-per-hour for a teen! You choose your own days and hours to work, and you can work as much or as little as you’d like.
18. Pick Up Seasonal Work.
If you are a teen looking to make some extra money but you’re having trouble finding a steady part-time job, try looking for seasonal work instead.
There are always things to be done for each different season. And a lot of times, these jobs aren’t filled because people don’t want to take the risk of only getting to work a few months and then getting laid off. However, this kind of work is perfect for a teen.
In the warmer months, get a job at a pool as a lifeguard or a swim coach. You could also find work at the ball field. There is almost always room in the concession stands for someone who knows how to cook and serve hot dogs. Depending on where you live, you might also be able to find a job in an orchard or on a farm.
In the fall and winter months, try getting in to work at a haunted house, haunted corn maze or other Halloween-themed attraction. If there is a local place that sells Christmas trees or sets up a Santa’s Village, apply there. They will definitely need young, strong people who can lug around trees.
Around the holiday season in December is also the best time to try to find a job in retail stores that hire teens. Even if you’ve applied there before and were not hired, don’t be afraid to try again. Christmas is the busiest time of the year for malls, Wal-Marts and other retail stores, and they always need extra help.
19. Be a DJ.
If you are musically-inclined and have your own turntables or other music kit, hire yourself out as a party DJ. A lot of times, your school will prefer to hire DJs for prom and other dances from inside the school rather than bringing in outside people.
There are also kids’ birthday parties, bar mitzvahs and other events where people are willing to hire younger DJs who are hip to today’s music and can play what the other kids or teens want to hear.
If you do decide to do this, getting your name out there is key. Once you’ve had a few good gigs, word of mouth will greatly help you out. But before then, you’ll need to advertise for yourself.
Flyers could help you get started. But be sure to do a lot of advertising online and on social media sites. LinkedIn and Craigslist could be great places to find gigs too.
Conclusion:
If you’re a teen looking for work, don’t get discouraged. There are so many jobs out there for you to do. Whether your schedule will allow you to work outside the home or if you need to make your own hours from inside your home and online, there is something you can do.
Just remember to always be careful if you are meeting someone for the first time or if you’ve found clients online. Have your parents go with you the first time you meet a new client, and never take a job that doesn’t feel safe.
Always remember, you guys are our future; so start investing in your future today.