Today I’ve got a killer guest post from Ben, the creator of BlueDollarBull. Ben is passionate about helping people create intergenerational wealth. A big part of that is teaching children about money and finding great ideas for how to make money as a kid to grow their earning muscles. That’s what this week’s post is all about.
Enjoy!
This post contains affiliate links.
Part of raising successful children is teaching them the value of money. Too often this key part of knowledge is lost between generations leading to a rapid dissolution of wealth from one parent to the next. When you start life with a keen understanding of the value of money, how to get it and how to multiply it, you are miles ahead of most elderly folks.
Book Recommendation: Smart Money Smart Kids: Raising the Next Generation to Win with Money
Know that pocket money teaches your children little about the value of what they’re receiving. Even in exchange for chores around your house or yard, this money is too easily received. This is their home as it is yours.
Do you get paid for vacuuming or cleaning the bathroom?
I wish!
Kids should be handed responsibility for their environment gradually as they grow up – but that’s a post for another time!
What we recommend over at BlueDollarBull is to get your kids earning young, bringing in revenue streams from outside the family. This will teach them to bring wealth into the family, instead of sending it out.
If you’re aiming to build intergenerational wealth, this is a must.
How to Make Money for Kids and Teenagers
So what kinds of challenges would your kids be tackling to build revenue streams outside of the family?
Here are 10 easy ideas for how to make money as a kid.
Fruit Stand
Difficulty: Easy | Potential Earnings: $$
Have fruit trees in the yard? We all know how these can get away from us and we wind up with excess fruit on the ground that ‘feeds the tree’ instead of people.
For the modest investment of a very cutely painted sign, a plastic table and some bags (and maybe borrowing the kitchen scales!) your kids could set up a fruit stand of their own.
This stand could be situated out the front of the house, or on a busy road (with parental supervision).
At a couple dollars a bag and with a few trees, it’s feasible your kids could pull in a couple hundred in a few days.
Collect Aluminum Cans
Difficulty: Easy | Potential Earnings: $-$$$
I know of a particular entrepreneur who actually did this to get back on his feet.
It’s something so simple, and so useful that even a child could do it. Every can your child sees, they simply have to pick it up and put it in a bag. It can be done while riding their bike, at school, at a park or anywhere!
Every can adds up.
Once you’ve got a few bags, they can be taken down to the local bottle depot and traded for cold hard cash.
Your kids could also ask their local schools if they can set up bins and collect the cans weekly. This will build a real little business for your kids that they can grow to be as big as they can manage (or outsource to other kids!).
Overall, it’s one of the simpler ideas for how to make money as a kid.
Rake Leaves
Difficulty: Medium | Potential Earnings: $$
Bit of a seasonal one here. Most homeowners (or renters!) don’t like to rake leaves.
If you want to know how to make enemies for life, go use a leaf blower and let me know how that works out for you and your neighbors’ relationship.
Not only will your little angel learn how to make money as a kid, but it will bring relational harmony.
For the cost of a rake and a few door knocks, your kids could drum up business raking neighbors’ leaves.
It’s easy work, saves people the hassle and they can come back a few times throughout the season to get repeat business.
If they’re particularly adventurous, they can offer to take the leaves away and compost them. When spring rolls around the compost can be sold as mulch to gardeners.
Snow Shoveling
Difficulty: Medium | Potential Earnings: $$
Kids shoveling snow for neighbors is a business nearly as old as winter itself! And when it comes to how to make money as a kid, this one is beautiful.
Why? Because people hate shoveling.
Most houses have snow shovels if they live in a snowy region. Industrious children can take to the streets after a snowfall and put those shovels to work to clean the driveways and sidewalks of their neighborhood.
Every snowfall spells dollars for your kids.
If they build up a clientele, they could look at hiring other children and taking a cut of the profits. If your children have siblings, it can be a great start to a family business.
Dog Walking
Difficulty: Medium | Potential Earnings: $$
People love dogs. Unfortunately, many dog owners don’t have the time or energy to walk them.
Enter the free time of childhood.
Children can start a small dog walking enterprise with little more than door knocking or flyers. Craigslist and other similar sites can also serve them well in building up clients.
What’s better, is that stronger or older kids can walk several dogs at once and enjoy the beauty of compounding returns!
Owners love this as the dogs could be taken to a local dog park to play with one another and it’s another killer idea for how to make money as a kid.
In addition, intensely entrepreneurial children can offer dog grooming or washing services too!
Car Wash
Difficulty: Medium–Hard | Potential Earnings: $$
The classic carwash. A great business for adults and a staple on the list of how to make money as a kid.
There are a few approaches to this.
Kids can offer a ‘to your door wash’, where they take the wash to the house. This is really convenient and people will pay extra for this!
Alternatively, they could ask to use your local school or church parking lot and offer some of the proceeds to the lot owners.
For the cost of a bit of car soap, sponges and buckets and some time, your kids could be earning in a flash.
There can be a few add-ons to a car wash too.
While the people wait for their car to be washed, kids can offer the paper (free-to-borrow or pay-to-keep) or other publications. They could also look at offering cool or hot drinks to the carwash patrons as well as snacks. Waxing services could be a high end upsell, but it takes a bit of practice to get right – good first clients might be Mom or Dad!
Nonetheless, kid-powered carwashes make a great multi-faceted revenue stream and a fantastic way for kids to make money.
Private Tutoring
Difficulty: Easy–Hard | Potential Earnings: $$$
If your child has a knack for academic pursuits then tutoring before and after school should be high on their list of the best ideas for how to make money as a kid.
There are always some kids at school who want to get ahead of the curve or catch-up to where they should be. Maybe they struggle with a particular concept or missed a chunk of school due to illness.
Your child could help bring them up to speed.
This can be a huge earner for your children.
Pet Feeding
Difficulty: Easy | Potential Earnings: $
People want to go on vacation. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, their pets can’t come with them.
Pet feeding can be one of the most fun ways to make money as a kid and a great hustle to drum up some extra cash for your kiddos.
Besides friends and neighbors, they could look at putting flyers up at local establishments or using Craigslist. For parents, meeting and approving of any of the people wanting your child to enter their home to feed pets is a must for obvious reasons.
How to Make Money as a Kid Online
Make Youtube Videos
Difficulty: Hard | Potential Earnings: 0-$$$
Youtube is tough, no question about it.
But imagine making a channel from scratch with videos you made years ago still bringing in revenue. This is totally a possibility with Youtube.
If your child has a particular talent, a good sense of humor or a skill to teach then Youtube may very well be a great way to go. By creating video content centered around these aspects, a real business with recurring revenue streams can be built.
While Youtube ads aren’t a great revenue source in and of themselves, an audience can provide a platform on which to build additional revenue streams.
With enough diligence, the sky is the limit when it comes to Youtube.
Thrift Store Reseller
Difficulty: Hard | Potential Earnings: $$$$
This can be one of the most profitable ideas for how to make money as a kid, and can also be an awesome business for adults.
The basic premise is to hunt through thrift stores and garage sales. Simply find an item of interest you believe is undervalued, purchase it and then resell through another channel, typically eBay.
It’s a great one for Mom and Dad to help out with too.
I read a post where a guy’s kid had managed to buy a ship and a bottle and resell it after fixing the mast. She then used this money to purchase books to resell, then tools and toys and managed to build a small revenue source out of it. She was eleven years old.
She’s going to go far.
How to Make Money as a Kid - Bringing it all Together
So there you have it, ten super easy ideas for how to make money as a kid. Not only will building a revenue source of their own pad their bank account, but it will teach them the true value of money.
And as they grow in their ability to make money, they’ll learn how to use it as leverage to turn it into even more as they get older.
What are some ideas you’ve used to teach your children how to make money as a kid? What hustles did you use back in the day to figure out how to make money as a kid? Please share in the comments below!!
Thanks so much to Ben for bringing some great insights to us this week. If you’re still hungry to find more ideas on how to make money as a kid, you can check out the post on his site for more business ideas for kids.
Ben creates resources to help you bolster your family coffers and writes no-fluff content to help you reach your financial goals, and then build a family legacy of your own at BlueDollarBull.
He managed to build a seven-figure net-worth on a single income in a blue-collar profession by age 26. Now he’s working towards building a dynasty with his wife, Mrs. Bull.
