Three Money Management and Saving Tips for Teens

Tip #1: Time is Your Friend, Use It!

Teenagers are incredibly powerful investors, not because they usually have a whole lot of money to manage, but because they have something even more valuable: time. They have the power of compounding interest, which Albert Einstein called the most powerful force in the universe.

If a person starts putting away only $20 a week at age fifteen, and does it every week, they can easily retire with a million dollars, with only average earnings on that money over time. To show the power of being fifteen, if that person waits ten years and starts saving $20 a week at age twenty-five, that million dollars will be reduced to $450,000 by retirement age.  Make life easier, start saving early and save a little each week.

 Tip #2: Stay in School and Study Hard.

More education means more money, which means more fun, which means more happiness.  It is that simple.  If you want to have a fun and happy life, stay in school as long as you can.  Getting a high school diploma increases our average pay by twenty five percent.

 Tip #3: Having Children.

Having a child as a teenager is the easiest way to throw ourselves and our children into poverty for the rest of our lives.  Being a parent makes it hard to handle school, so many young parents drop out of school as well.  It takes $12,000 a year to take care of a baby.  High school dropouts make minimum wage, about $8.00 per hour or $16,000 per year.  Sixteen thousand dollars for the family minus twelve thousand for the baby equals poverty for everyone.

 Jonathan Carr is a former financial adviser and author of "Fixing Capitalism," available on Lulu.com and other online booksellers.