Helping a teen get started earning money

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Lucy Brewster, a 14-year-old who's getting ready to go to a new school. Lucy had a number of financial questions and wanted to talk with a financial advisor about money, spending and saving.

One of the questions Lucy asked was how she should go about getting a job to earn some money. I was really impressed with her money attitude: She knew if she wanted some additional spending money, she would have to earn it.

When it comes to learning money management skills, one of the best lessons for teens is to work an occasional or part-time job. Managing your spending and saving is something you learn by doing. And working a part-time job teaches a lot of things about money that we adults often take for granted, such as tax withholding allowances, the W-4 worksheet, Social Security tax and basic banking by depositing paychecks in a personal account.

But Lucy was also aware of her first priority: focusing on school. Therefore, she's concerned that during the school year she wouldn't be able to work many hours outside the house, but she still wants to earn some extra money.

So, we talked about her taking a look at home. Do her parents pay others to do some things around the house? If so, maybe Lucy could ask to do that additional work and get paid for it? Of course, this can be tricky. As a member of the household, one has certain responsibilities to fulfill without pay.

But if her parents hire others to do such chores as additional housecleaning or yard work, perhaps Lucy could take that on and work out a deal with her parents. If this approach pans out, Lucy would have an opportunity to earn a few extra bucks -- and to start learning how to handle her own, hard-earned money.