How to make money as a kid
Read our guide to kids making their own money, we’ve got lots of child friendly ideas to help you get them started!
How can kids earn money? Here’s our top ways:
- Household chores – Getting the kids to do extra household chores outside the ones they usually do is a great way allow them to start earning money
- Dog walking – Get neighbours with pets or a dog yourself? Get older kids to offer dog walking – many dog owners are more than happy to pay someone else to take the dog out!
- Washing cars – This traditional way for kids to make money still works well in a close or with known to your neighbours
- Tutoring – If your kids got a talent for a subject, tutoring younger kids is something many parents are happy to pay for
- Lawn mowing – Starting with their own lawn, kids can clean up in summer mowing peoples lawns
- Selling online – Online selling platforms give kids a way to learn about marketing and selling for profit
- Baby sitting – Older kids might like to babysit – it’s a good way to kids to make money
- Designing T-Shirts – T-Shirt design and print on demand is huge and there’s no shortage of customers
- Gaming – Kids love playing video games? There are some kids making h-u-g-e amounts of cash doing just this
- Crafting – Got crafty kids? Sites like Etsy offer the perfect place to hone their skills and sell their wares
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Earning money as a kid
Having their own money means that kids can start to learn about budgeting, saving and learning the consequences of spending what money they do have too fast!
There are ways that kids can make money these days that weren’t about not all that long ago, so if your kid has an idea, it’s well worth hearing them out.
Fast ways for kids to earn money
Sometimes kids need some money and they need some money now!
Luckily there are loads of ways the ingenious child can make some cash fast – be that from you, a trusted neighbour or from a more organised venture they’ve already set up.
Having a list of chores that need to be done (over and above their helping round the house duties!) means that if they’re suddenly invited to a new movie or the ice cream shop, they can offer to take on extra chores to give some almost instant cash.
Read through our post for some inspiration to help your kid start making their own money!
Making money as a kid
Here’s a list of our top ways your kid can start earning their own money. Some suit older kids, and others can be started younger, such as getting them helping you wash up or wash the car.
Household chores
Whether your kids already has some chores to do each week or not, there are always extra things they could help out with around the house.
There are a whole host of things that don’t need doing every day or even every week: smaller people find cleaning the back of kitchen units easier than adults for example. Put a fee on extra chores and then your kid can take it or leave it. Our experience? They tend to jump at the chance!
Dog walking
Older kids might like to take your family dog, or trusted neighbours dogs out for a walk, for a small fee!
Many pet owners struggle to find the time everyday to get their pooch exercised and would be grateful for the someone else offering to do it for them.
Ask close by neighbours and you never know, they might have friends who also need a dog walker. You could find yourself with a regular little dog walking round and some regular cash!
Washing cars
Kids have been washing cars for extra pocket money for donkeys years, and it’s a time honoured tradition many many kids have benefited from!
Does anyone love washing their car? I certainly don’t and if you’re like me, I’m very happy to pay a neighbours kid to wash my car for me 🙂
It’s enterprising, and there’s something heart warming about seeing kids washing cars. You just know they must be saving up for something special!
Tutoring
Younger kids often look up to older kids and so it makes perfect sense for older kids to offer their tutoring services to younger kids.
You don’t have to be a genius in your subject, you just have to be further along the subject than the person you’re tutoring and understand it…and then you can pass on your knowledge, helping the younger student and making some money in the process!
Who could you start tutoring? Kids might have parents whose friends have younger kids or you could ask your school if they know of anyone looking for a student tutor .
Get good at building up a rapport with younger kids and you could soon have a few people you tutor regularly.
Lawn mowing
Most people with a lawn have their own lawn mowers, so you could simply offer to mow people lawns using their own mowers, clean up after you’re finished mowing and put the mower away.
Older people move this service as mowing a lawn can be hard work, and they’re usually happy to pay a kid to do it for them.
Start with your neighbours and ask them to recommend your lawn mowing to their local friends.
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Selling online
There are a number of platforms online you can start selling things for a profit.
You may need to have a parent set up your account for you depending on your age, so check the terms of the platform you want to sell on before you start.
Look at what’s selling well and think about what you can offer.
There are the better known platforms like eBay and Amazon that you could start with, but find a popular product and you could be earning regular money from the comfort of your own bedroom!
Baby sitting
Older kids could babysit for cash, if they have younger siblings nearby neighbours.
Getting a first aid certificate under your belt can help reassure parents their kids are in safe hands and word of mouth recommendations can turn this popular side hustle into some regular extra money.
T-Shirt design
Print on demand T-Shirt designing is a huge business that there’s no reason kids can’t take part in.
Look at what’s selling and popular and then pout your own spin on the designs. Keeping up with current trends is often easier for kids than adults and they’ll know what’s popular among their peers, who make up a substantial portion of the print-on-demand market.
Gaming
Gaming is something lots of kids not only spend a huge amount of time doing but they enjoy too.
And there is money to be made if you know what you’re doing. Better suited to older kids, we’ve all read the stories about kids making more in a year than their parents make in 10, so if this is something your kids interested in, have a look at this post which explains how to make money by gaming in detail.
Crafting
Smaller hands can be great at crafting and if your kid enjoys crafting and makes things people might find useful, think about setting up an Etsy account for them to sell on, and you can oversee.
There really is no limit to the types of crafts people buy and sell on Etsy, and this post here from Debt free family is an ultimate guide to not only what sells on Etsy but how to go about setting yourself up so your kid can soon see some cash rolling in for their efforts!
See: Best things to sell on Etsy to make money
