My son recently got his first job at age 15, making ~$10/hour for around 10 hours per week. I hope/expect he'll work/earn more during the summer. It's very likely he'll attend college (tuition will be about $6000/year, plus living expenses). There's a decent chance he'll get some academic scholarships, although I'm not counting on it. My wife and I haven't decided yet whether/how much we'll contribute towards his college expenses, but in any case we'd like him to have a financial stake in his educational costs.
Currently my thinking is to set up an arrangement so that whatever amount my son can put into long-term savings before he graduates high school, that's how much we'll contribute towards his college expenses (we'll do so via a 529).
I'd like to get some feedback from the MMM community about the investment order for a teenager (or maybe I'm overthinking this and it's the same as the standard investment order post on these forums). My thinking is that since his income is so low he should put as much as possible (up to $6K/year) into a Roth IRA, and then the rest into an after-tax brokerage. Any other suggestions, or things we should be considering as we're trying to help him get off on a solid financial footing?
Among other things, I plan to have him read through the MMM blog posts as part of his financial education before he leaves the nest, but currently I don't think he has enough interest to do his own research about investment options. On the plus side, he is very frugal and seems perfectly content to put substantially all his earnings into savings (I think his $15/month cell phone bill is his only regular expense).
Thanks in advance!