25 Quick Jobs Kids Can Do to Open a College Savings Account

Thanks to ScholarShare for sponsoring this post.

Saving for college can be a bit of a daunting task. Why not make it a team effort?

I’ve always looked at saving for college as an education in itself. Before I send my kids off to school I want them to know one very important lesson: how to work.

I spoke to a college professor a few years ago and he said the biggest problem he was seeing with new college freshmen is they just don’t know how to work. I made a commitment right there and then that my kids were going to leave for college knowing how to work.

While I’m certainly going to help my kids with their college expenses, I also want to make sure they are invested in the process and involved every step of the way. The best way I know to get them invested is to have them earn and save their own money towards their education goals.

With a Scholarshare 529 plan, you can start saving for college with only $25. That’s a very reachable goal, even for kids who are working towards their own college savings goals.

The $25 College Savings Challenge

I sat down with my kids and challenged them to each find a way to save $25 to put towards their college savings.

My older kids already have ScholarShare accounts but we haven’t quite gotten around to opening them for my younger kids so it’s been on our to-do list.

I certainly could have just opened the accounts for them but I knew if I did that they would have taken it for granted. I also knew how proud they would feel if they saved that money themselves.

We’ll help build their savings, but having them invested with that first $25 really makes it “their” college savings.

How can kids save $25?

I’m always amazed at how creative kids can be when you give the a chance. I had my kids brainstorm ways they could earn $25.

The ideas ranged from selling old toys to providing tech support to the neighbors.

I loved hearing their personalities come out as they were coming up with ideas. They each had their own unique ways to earn money.

By the end of the week, each of my older kids had earned the $25 they needed to open their Scholarshare account and they were excited about planning for their future.

Quick ways to Earn $25

We brainstormed some ideas that kids can use to save the first $25 of their Scholarshare account.

I had my kids help me come up with these ideas and I love the variety of ways there are for kids to earn money. It really just takes a bit of creativity and a lot of hard work.