When my daughter was a teenager she got her working papers at 14 and got her first job at the local library. Not a lot of hours, maybe 2-3 after school, and relatively easy work, tidying shelves and whatnot. She has always been a hard worker. She didn't make a lot of money, but it was on a W-2. She bought herself things that she wanted, and she saved most of it (smart kid!). I opened her a Roth IRA and I matched what she made and put it in for her (so she didn't deposit any of her earned income, but I put that much in for her.) I did this until she actually made a decent income when she was 18 or so. All in all, it ended up being $4500. It is at Schwab right now, invested in a fund that tracks the S&P 500. She doesn't really know it exists (I told her about investing and how it worked and had her look at her statements at the beginning, but she never asked about it again. She is older now (20) has a full time job with benefits and I talk to her about her own investments, but not about that Roth). When I crunch the numbers, if she doesn't use it until she's 65, it should be about $350k... maybe 500k if the market is kind. I have two more young ones coming up... Ages 13 and 9... so when they get their first teen jobs I plan to do the same. Hopefully, when they are old and find out they have a lump of cash, they will remember me lovingly :)
