I grew up in a very entrepreneurial family. It seemed as though everyone had an opportunity to work an extra side job to earn a little money no matter how young they were.
When you grow up in a family that encourages you to work for your own money, you learn the value of a dollar pretty quickly. You can probably relate if you grew up in a similar family!
Families today have an entire new way to make money through online opportunities. Here’s a look at how your family members can use traditional-offline and new online ways to make money.
Elementary Age Kids
I don’t think it’s ever too early to start teaching kids about money. One of the best ways is to let them experience money on their own. Paying an allowance for small jobs outside of their normal chores will show them that hard work results in rewards.
Get creative and encourage them to be entrepreneurial with these ideas:
- Make crafts to sell online
- Sell old toys in a garage sale
- Manage a lemonade stand at a garage sale 🙂
Teens and High School Students
If your children are a little older, they can venture into a little more skilled work. While it may be a challenge to find good jobs for teens, it’s definitely possible for them to make a few extra bucks with these ideas:
- Odd Jobs (Mowing, cleaning and yard work are just the tip of the iceberg. I once had a full time summer job as a teenager working for someone doing odd jobs like creating mulch areas around trees, cleaning garages, and sweeping their workshop.)
- Sell Stuff on eBay
- Music Gigs and Lessons
College Students
When you’re in college, you need to focus on your studies, but you can still make some extra money! It’s better than living on student loans and it may lead into a sustainable business if you work hard enough.
Here are some good ideas for college students:
- Tutor High School or College Students
- Find campus work – work study, admin work and event setup are just a few of the options available to students on campus. Check with your student development office for even more openings.
- Freelance Your Skills – Don’t underestimate or undervalue your skills! Use your summer or winter breaks to sharpen your tech skills and try to use free time to monetize your passion.
Parents
Let’s face it, with gas at $4 a gallon and the price of everyday goods inching up, a few extra dollars can make your family budget breath a little easier. So how do you manage to make a few extra dollars when you’re working a full time job and trying to raise a family? No one ever said it would be easy! But if you’re up for the challenge, use these ideas as inspiration:
- Rent a room – This can be a great passive source of income, especially if your home is set up to rent out a basement room or garage apartment.
- Sell items on Craigslist – Since Craigslist usually involves meeting up in person, it’s a good idea to make this a job for the parents. You can still have your kids get involved by letting them take pictures and post the description online.
- Start a Blog or Freelance – This is the most involved option, but it can really provide long term income if you stick with it. There’s no reason why you couldn’t make an extra few hundred dollars a month by writing for blogs and starting your own.
Does your family encourage each other to be entrepreneurial? What other jobs would make the list?
Tim is a personal finance writer at Faith and Finance a Christian financial help blog that provides financial insights for individuals, businesses, and churches. Outside of finance, Tim enjoys spending time with his wife, playing the saxophone, reading economics books, and a good game of RISK or Catan. Find him on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to the Faith and Finance RSS feed.
awesome blog post, by the way what theme are you presently using?
My family wasn’t very entrepreneurial – my dad was a firefighter and my mom worked as a ticket agent at the airport. Like most kids from my generation, I started working my first job at age 15 – at the local KFC. To this day, I still remember how awesome that job was !
I frequently worked as a waiter on the weekends while I was in high school. The work was tough but I always had extra money in my wallet!
Very motivating post. Having source of extra income is essential now a days. Its better if students go for part time simple jobs and elderly people go for freelancing in order to make it possible at ease. This way both parents and kids will be able to explore themselves to the outer world and also will have an experience to taste something different.