Help Kids Earn Money

Here are the best ideas to help kids earn money.

Perhaps the most obvious way of helping kids earn money is to pay them an allowance for doing chores around the house or other tasks. Of course, allowance is a controversial topic, so if paying an allowance is not right for you there are other options.

One Idea That Worked For My Kids

When my oldest son and daughter were 6 and 4 years old, my wife and I helped our kids by starting a vending machine business. We did our best to teach them how to handle it like a real business. We loaned them cash and helped them buy 2 vending machines along with all of the other necessary items to get started.

We taught them how the machines worked, how to restock them, how to keep track of the money, and other things. As things progressed, they began to pay the loan back and also earned a small wage.

The vending machines were not located in a high traffic area, so sales could have been much more in other places, but they were located in very convenient places for us. We would help our kids get to the machines about one or two times a month.

At that young of an age, it was a fair amount of "hassle" for us, the parents, but they learned a tremendous amount about the real world and about money management. Besides that, when everything was said and done, we really did help the kids earn money. They each earned about $200 a year and learned great kids money management skills.

This was just one idea and it may be a great way for you in helping kids earn extra money. It was a great experience in teaching kids about saving money. Before deciding how to help your kids earn money, take some time and consider what will work best for them and for you.

Other Ideas

Here are some creative financing ideas to help kids earn money:

• Set up a lemonade stand on a hot day.
• Sell something at a local event, like a parade or carnival. Once we went to the west desert in Utah to watch the Ares missile get tested. There were at least a few thousand people there doing the same thing. With no accommodations and the hot sun beating down on us for several hours, I was wishing we had stopped at the grocery store and filled up coolers with ice-cream for my kids to sell. They would have made a killing. Can you think of similar ways of helping kids make money?



• Growing vegetables and selling. If you are in an area where they have county fairs, many times cash awards are given out to entries.
• Selling unused items around the house. Use a free classified listing to advertise what you are selling. You may also consider using an online auction.
• Set up a vending machine business. You can buy products from a local bulk store. If you live in a safe neighborhood and next to a well traveled sidewalk, you can even set the vending machine up in your yard.



• Collect aluminum cans for recycling. Also keep your eyes open for copper. If someone is doing a remodeling job in your neighborhood ask if you can dig through the garbage and salvage the copper, aluminum, or other recyclables. Keep your eyes open for old copper wiring. It can usually fetch 2 or 3 times as much as aluminum.
• Do lawn care. You can offer to mow people's lawns on a regular basis for a set amount of money. You can even make this a business and buy your own lawnmower to do it with. Also consider aerating lawns in the spring. Most people do not have their own aerator and are happy to hire someone to aerate their lawn once a year. You can either purchase an aerator or rent one from a local implement store.
• Shovel snow. Offer to do it every time it snows for a set amount of money.
• Babysit. A lot of parents are on the look out for good babysitters. Make sure you are trustworthy and do a good job the first time you are asked, so they will use you again.
• Pet sit. Many times families leave town and are unable to take their rabbit, cat, fish, dog, or whatever. If you know your neighbors are leaving town volunteer to watch their pets.



• Make and sell piggy banks. You can sell them on an online auction store or a free classified listing.
• Helping with Mom or Dad's business. If your parents have a business, there are some serious tax advantages to getting paid by them. Have your parents ask their accountant about this. Do the work your asked to do and get paid.

Have A Great Story About How You or Your Kids Earned Money?

Do you have a great story about how you or your kids earned money? If so, we would love to hear about it.

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