How Did You Make Money As A Kid/Teen?

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It's a wonderful thing when your young and you haven't been effected by media or the education system as such telling you the only way to be succesfull is to study hard and get good grades!

When in fact some of the richest people are not 'school' clever at all.

So it bring's me to the question...

What did you do when you were younger (kid/teen) to make some cash?

Im sure we are going to have some wonderful idea's from past experience of succesfull and some what failed project's but all the same if it made you a dollar or two then they are still great.

Mark Blaze
#cash #kid #money #young
  • Profile picture of the author Jagged
    I got golf balls out of the local creek that runs along the golf course, cleaned them off & sold them back to the golfers for .5, .10 & .25....this is when I was 8-11 yo....somedays I would make $20....not bad for an 8yo back in those days...

    My friends father use to tear down burnt out homes.....we would help out clearing much of the loose lumber & burned it......getting paid to burn things....cool job when your a kid...lol did that till I was about 14...
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    • Profile picture of the author Mark Blaze
      Originally Posted by Jagged View Post

      I got golf balls out of the local creek that runs along the golf course, cleaned them off & sold them back to the golfers for .5, .10 & .25....this is when I was 8-11 yo....somedays I would make $20....not bad for an 8yo back in those days...

      My friends father use to tear down burnt out homes.....we would help out clearing much of the loose lumber & burned it......getting paid to burn things....cool job when your a kid...lol did that till I was about 14...
      I am very much liking this first idea.

      Especially seeing as you probably ended up selling them back to the same golfer who put it in there in the first place now that's business.

      Second one is alot more worrying... i just hope you don't have the same burning urge as you did then!!!!

      Mark Blaze
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      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by Mark Blaze View Post

        Second one is alot more worrying... i just hope you don't have the same burning urge as you did then!!!!

        Mark Blaze
        Yeah, and SOME cities require a license to do that, and limit WHAT you can burn, when, and where. It ties in with your name though. 8-)

        I was a handyman from about 6 to 17. At 6, for example, I built a bookcase for a neighboor. She probably kept that until she died 20 years later. It was solid. I can't take credit for it's design, but I did put it together. It WAS from a kit, but a NICE one with wood and glass. In highschool, I DID help wire the principal's home. When I was about 18, I sold hardware and software, and was a computer consultant, SELF employed. I DID have a job as a PC board inspector for a while. My job was to patch errors in the etch resist so that they would develop into good PC boards.

        Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author Kurt
        Originally Posted by Mark Blaze View Post


        Second one is alot more worrying... i just hope you don't have the same burning urge as you did then!!!!

        Mark Blaze
        I strongly suggeest listening to any advice on fires from a man named "Blaze".
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Thorsett
    As a kid, I bought and sold used books (I've always had a thing for books and knowledge, I guess) and also went door-to-door selling those metal replacement Social Security cards (this was the early 70s).

    Also had two or three paper routes.

    Oh! And I had yard sales. Imagine, today, driving up to a yard sale to find a 10-year-old in charge. Wouldn't happen.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sleaklight
    I worked in roofing with my dad from the young age of 9. I was tough and the strongest kid in my classes because of it
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Mark Blaze View Post

    What did you do when you were younger (kid/teen) to make some cash?
    I got my business license when I was 16.
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    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Blaze
    Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

    I strongly suggeest listening to any advice on fires from a man named "Blaze".
    Ha ha, Valid point!

    Originally Posted by Ken_Caudill View Post

    I was a pretty accomplished thief in my teen years.
    Wasn't really the answer i expected to see but i certainly do hope you have changed your way's now or it was a robin hood kinda setup

    Mark Blaze
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    • Profile picture of the author ThomM
      Worked dairy farms from when I can remember till I was old enough to caddy and make some easy money
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  • Profile picture of the author Andie
    When I was 13 I worked at an ice cream parlor/sandwich shop. Did it for about a year and learned the trick to the perfect scoop is to have a wet ice cream scoop.
    (give it a shot!)

    Andie
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  • Profile picture of the author Andie
    Originally Posted by Ken_Caudill View Post

    I was a pretty accomplished thief in my teen years.

    lol...I had a phase like that too - so glad I got past it~
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    • Profile picture of the author Karen Blundell
      I was a mother's helper for a while, a babysitter for a while, and a grocery store cashier during my last year of high school
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  • Profile picture of the author Justinfm
    When I was 12 years old my younger brother and I traveled to fairs with this guy who sold boot leg audio tapes and "Sand Paintings" a certain art piece. We would handle the tape sales for him. We got paid 50 cents a tape, so I guess this was my first commission sales position. Additionally, when I got a break, I would make deals with the food vendors to help out in exchange for meals (not that I needed it, I just wanted the fair food).

    When I was 18 I started my first business. I would buy glow in the dark light ropes (light up necklaces) @ wholesale and sell them at events. I funded this business by working at a feed store, and in fact the owner of that store funded the wholesale purchase on her credit card because if we paid it back within 30 days she didn't pay any interest. I sold the light ropes for $3 each or 2 for $5.

    Looking that first venture I see some foundations for thinking about leveraging capital, discounting, selling, relationship building, promotion, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    I wasn't allowed to work when I was a kid. My parents thought that kids should be kids and I was also a little girl, and girls, of course, were taught to be excellent hostesses to help further their husbands careers. Needless to say, my first job was overseas after I married. I worked in the day care center at my ex's army base.

    Actually, I really resent the fact that the only thing I was taught was how to handle money - with the expectation that it would be the husband's money and not mine that I was handling. My parents meant well and had the world stayed like it was when I was a kid, the teaching I got may have done well for me, but in the long run it really has been a struggle to catch up with the rest of the world. I have to work twice as hard for my independence as others because I had to figure it out for myself. It was either that or marry well and be "comfortable" and forget having a real life. I just don't think so.
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  • Profile picture of the author seepia30
    I worked as a babysitter
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  • Profile picture of the author mainstreetcm
    At 13 I had our whole street signed up for me to mow their lawns. By 15 I had signed up every house three streets over and had two friends help me. I remember one summer week in particular my grandpa drove his pick up truck up and down the streets letting us dump our bags into the back (he loved using it for mulch).

    I remember that year the PS2 came out in October and me and my two friends were the only ones in the group who got one lol...
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  • Profile picture of the author SVLABS
    I can't resist responding to this thread.

    I started first off at about 7 years old doing the old golf ball grab from the drink. But I was a little bit cheeky. So I'd also wait under the trees over the hill and when the golfers hit their balls my brother and I would run in grab them, go around the other side and we'd walk out so it looked like we'd come from the pond.

    When the golfers couldn't find their balls, we'd sell them some. Gotta hustle as Gary V says.

    Later on, around 12 or so, I'd go around to garage sales on my push bike, use that poor little kid face, and get as many cheap power tools as I could. On Sundays I'd take them up to the trash and treasure market and sell them to the stall holders. Eventually I ended up getting a job in one of the stalls.

    I guess I was destined for this life.
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  • Profile picture of the author JagSEO
    I remember when I was 9 me and my friends pick up some edible snails from the river and then sell it house to house and then we got money from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author HorseStall
    I worked on a farm feeding animals, collecting chicken egss, you get the idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Blaze
    Some very inspiring story's coming out from fellow warriors.

    Keep them coming

    Mark Blaze
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  • Profile picture of the author Kelly Verge
    In middle school, my brother and I along with a couple of other kids in the neighborhood had a little business selling snakes.

    We'd each bring a pillowcase into the woods and catch as many snakes as we could on a Saturday. Whatever we caught we'd sell to a downtown pet shop. He'd buy anything we caught. $5 for common snakes like copperheads or moccasins up to $20 for green garter snakes and king snakes. The most we got was $40 for a rather large diamondback. He said he'd pay $50 for a coral snake, but we never found one.
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    • Profile picture of the author bizfox
      Originally Posted by Kelly Verge View Post

      In middle school, my brother and I along with a couple of other kids in the neighborhood had a little business selling snakes.
      Whoah that was scary!

      All i did was mow lawns
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    • Profile picture of the author Mark Blaze
      Originally Posted by Kelly Verge View Post

      In middle school, my brother and I along with a couple of other kids in the neighborhood had a little business selling snakes.

      We'd each bring a pillowcase into the woods and catch as many snakes as we could on a Saturday. Whatever we caught we'd sell to a downtown pet shop. He'd buy anything we caught. $5 for common snakes like copperheads or moccasins up to $20 for green garter snakes and king snakes. The most we got was $40 for a rather large diamondback. He said he'd pay $50 for a coral snake, but we never found one.
      That was and im guessing now is illegal to capture wild snakes and sell them! But still a very very very different way to make money.

      Take it youve dropped the crocodile dundee approach to life now then?

      Mark Blaze
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      • Profile picture of the author Kelly Verge
        Originally Posted by Mark Blaze View Post

        That was and im guessing now is illegal to capture wild snakes and sell them! But still a very very very different way to make money.

        Take it youve dropped the crocodile dundee approach to life now then?

        Mark Blaze

        No person shall buy, sell, or possess for sale any Florida pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus mugutis), nor shall any person possess more than one Florida pine snake, except the said restrictions shall not apply to amelanistic (=albino) specimens.

        No other written regulations except for Protected Species (Drymarchon corais couperi, etc.)



        I haven't done that since I was a kid. I'm not really scared of snakes, though.
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        • Profile picture of the author glchandler
          Like many spent years 11 and 12 delivering newspapers---two different papers and about 150 total customers. Nice check at end of month!

          Then at 13 went to work summers in Boy Scout camp in Sierra Nevada---time was spent between camp maintenance and leading a five day 55 mile hike through the hills. Camp was at end of two lakes, only way in was taxi boat so at age of 15 got a "for-hire vessel operators license". It was #151 in California at that time.

          Took that license and went to work at Chalet on other end of the lake. Everything from there was hauled by boat---people/food/lumber/trash and propane. Really neat job and many many eligible young ladies living in that area during the summer!

          Fantastic job---college in winter and mountain lake in summer. Whoops! Let the old grades slip a bit and a favorite uncle offered me a job testing olive drab clothes, M-14 rifles as well as other things that went BOOM or BANG! Things sort of went downhill from there for a bit!

          Bottom line? When I was "excused" from that job I got straight A's in all other college classes I took!
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        • Profile picture of the author ADVERTISINGGUERRILLA
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          • Profile picture of the author KevinTorrence
            I was always a loner in middle school / high school ... so I cut grass for a bunch of neighbors instead of working for someone else at the fast food joints like my buddies. Made just as much if not more $$$ as them, but only worked weekends for part of the year.

            In college (late teen/early 20s) I worked at a lead smelter during the summers. Used fire hoses and bobcats to clear the floors of debris as well as shoveled piles of heavy (and sloppy wet) lead sinter dust back onto conveyor belts while wearing full protective gear (coveralls, knee high rubber boots, leather gloves, full face mask with respirator attached to my belt, and hardhat). No matter where you went in the plant, it was HOT!

            Many times we stood in near pitch black areas of the plant in shin deep "pits" of slop (sinter dust mixed with water) where everything was covered in fine gray dust, shoveling it back onto the belts ... it made you feel like you were going blind and it looked like the pits of hell!

            Other times, we stood near the jet burners (that melted the sinter down) scraping/washing the floors or jack hammering out clogged hoppers overhead ... and it was literally 130+ degrees. In all that gear, it FELT like the pits of hell! haha

            Oddly enough, I still have "kinda" fond memories of that place. All of us college dudes had fun in between the hard jobs playing around (and racing) the heavy equipment & spraying unsuspecting guys with the hoses. lol
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        • Profile picture of the author Mark Blaze
          Originally Posted by Kelly Verge View Post

          No person shall buy, sell, or possess for sale any Florida pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus mugutis), nor shall any person possess more than one Florida pine snake, except the said restrictions shall not apply to amelanistic (=albino) specimens.

          No other written regulations except for Protected Species (Drymarchon corais couperi, etc.)


          I haven't done that since I was a kid. I'm not really scared of snakes, though.
          Wow. Obviously Florida isn't one for liking snakes then

          Mark Blaze
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        • Profile picture of the author ThomM
          Originally Posted by Kelly Verge View Post

          No person shall buy, sell, or possess for sale any Florida pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus mugutis), nor shall any person possess more than one Florida pine snake, except the said restrictions shall not apply to amelanistic (=albino) specimens.

          No other written regulations except for Protected Species (Drymarchon corais couperi, etc.)



          I haven't done that since I was a kid. I'm not really scared of snakes, though.
          I used to hunt snakes in Fl. back in the 70's.
          If I remember right you could pick up a snake, but it was illegal to release it.
          At the time we where selling them to the Miami Serpentarium (Bill Haast) and Ross Allen up in Silver Springs. We got $1.75 a ft. for Eastern's, which where milked for their venom.
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  • Profile picture of the author EMediaPR
    I worked at a McDonald's and at Linens-N-Things. I had no worries and Life was simple. Fun times.
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  • Profile picture of the author HP Bryce
    I worked in a factory making shampoo when I was still in HS
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  • Profile picture of the author Preben Frenning
    When I was 16, I painted houses for $2k-4k/each (Depending on if it was 1 or 2 layers, and the size)

    And it was all by myself. (*Note: I'm only 20 now, so it's only 4 years ago )
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  • Profile picture of the author digital29
    Doing it right now, started earning some bucks on the net from web design and coding since 17
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  • Profile picture of the author alexbbbh
    Ah, childhood. The good old memories of being young and without any money. Nothing can compare to it.

    What I used to do is buy something from someone, then sell it to another. I was running quite the top class operation. Started by selling clothes, and then moved to mobiles. I did this for some time than later found the internet and moved it up a notch. I was importing a lot of stuff that I later sold in my country by using sound offline marketing principles. Quite the time, indeed.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kelvin Brown
    I grew up in the country.

    The first money I probably made was probably, weeding or picking vegetables from rather large gardens.

    We used to do a lot of hunting and fishing, selling anything we did not need to neighbors. Fish, turtles, rabbit, squirrels, quail, etc

    Exercised horses ( went riding for the hell of it) and got paid. Worked roundup for rodeo, events.

    In high school, got a job in a grocery store, as a janitorial technician 'clean up, aisle 4'

    Then went to a work at a salvage resale type store.

    Kelvin
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      When I was 9, my brothers and I sold sweet potato pie, pecan pie, and custard pie door to door for about 4 years. Made them at home in our kitchen, and went out after school. It's illegal now (and maybe it was illegal even back in the 60's), but hey, no one ever got food poisoning from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author illianafrazer
    I did some vegetable selling.. we had a small farm and i found some cash by selliing it directly to home
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  • Profile picture of the author Pauline60
    Selling snakes - can't compete with that!

    Used to collect shells and stick them together into little figures and sell them to a local gift shop.
    My uncle Paddy worked the boxing booths at fairs from a very early age and made some money (bare knuckle some of it ). Was known for boxing at 8st 8lb 8oz. Went on to be a well known bantamweight.

    Sadly no great signs of early entrepreneurship in my family.

    Pauline
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  • Profile picture of the author Josh MacDonald
    I still am a teen. I am making money from CPA lead atm.
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  • Profile picture of the author EthanDenney
    I use to be the bad word (curse word) cop and charged people 25 cents every time they cursed. But I retired from that and picked up IM years later ;-)
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  • Profile picture of the author nixhexum
    When I was a kid we used to have 15 or 16 mango trees in our backyard. My brother and I collect the ripe ones, we wash them and sell them to the near subdivision next to our compound. We carry both backpacks for our mangoes (around 20 -30 pieces) and we sell if for 25 cents each. LOL We are not that poor but we really enjoyed selling and shouting "mangoes". How I just wish we can do it again! LOL
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    • Profile picture of the author Mark Blaze
      Originally Posted by nixhexum View Post

      When I was a kid we used to have 15 or 16 mango trees in our backyard. My brother and I collect the ripe ones, we wash them and sell them to the near subdivision next to our compound. We carry both backpacks for our mangoes (around 20 -30 pieces) and we sell if for 25 cents each. LOL We are not that poor but we really enjoyed selling and shouting "mangoes". How I just wish we can do it again! LOL
      What's stopping you?

      Just go and employ a little kid and pay him $5 to carry the bags and sell them to them and then come back with the money for you

      Mark Blaze
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      • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
        I started my first newsletter when I was twelve.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    When I was 9-10 or so, I was a "seeing-eye kid" for blind door-to-door salesmen, including my step dad during the summer months.

    They could get along fine without me, but I would help speed them up a lot and they'd tip me at the end of the day.

    I remember being proud at how well I could read and telling my dad, "There's a sign that says 'No Solicitors'".

    He replied, "I'm blind. I can't see any sign", then knocked on the door and made a sale.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mark Blaze
      Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

      I started my first newsletter when I was twelve.
      What was it Dan?

      Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

      When I was 9-10 or so, I was a "seeing-eye kid" for blind door-to-door salesmen, including my step dad during the summer months.

      They could get along fine without me, but I would help speed them up a lot and they'd tip me at the end of the day.

      I remember being proud at how well I could read and telling my dad, "There's a sign that says 'No Solicitors'".

      He replied, "I'm blind. I can't see any sign", then knocked on the door and made a sale.
      That's fantastic Kurt!

      Plus i really doubt you expected to be paid for it when you first started and did it out of the goodness of your heart. The tip's/pay just made it even more worth while

      Mark Blaze
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  • Profile picture of the author silverwaterfall
    I babysat. Not very original, but can be pretty lucrative for a teen if you're good and families compete for you
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