Everybody wishes to be financially prosperous, but it is not easy to make money. The best way to make money is to follow a career that you enjoy. But before you can do that, you need to go through high school and get a diploma before you go to properly train for your future career. This process is not cheap though, the student and his/her family will have to pay for their own schooling. The key to becoming financially prosperous is to become financially responsible at a young age. Financial responsibility is the process of managing money and other similar assets in a way that is considered productive and is also in the best interest of the individual and his/her family. The earlier you become financially responsible, the more likely you are to prosper in the years to come.

To become financially responsible, one must  begin by finding a paying job so you have finances to be responsible for. There is a small but wide market of teenage job opportunities from employers like summer camps, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, retail outlets, municipal park & recreation services, local government summer programs, assisted living facilities, hotels, resorts, clubs, movie theaters, lawn/yard maintenance services, tourist attractions, retail stores, and many small businesses, according to Forbes.com these may have a lower pay than expected, but everybody has to start somewhere in order to grow. 

After receiving that first paycheck, begin to imagine the infinite ways you can spend that paycheck. Instead of spending money to keep up with current trends or whatever came to mind, you should begin to save some of your income for hefty future purchases like a car. An intelligent investor would determine a saving-spending ratio to which your paycheck gets deposited. “Every teenager should evenly split up their paycheck and should try to restrain their spending habits at an early age,”  Mrs. Lutz, Personal Finance teacher at Milford High School, commented. After you begin saving your paycheck, you should begin to monitor your spending and determine a weekly budget to restrain from overspending. When determining a weekly budget, consider two terms: needs and wants. One should refrain from buying what they want because it could lead to buying more unnecessary items, resulting in less money for necessities.

There are not many money-making opportunities during high school, but after turning 18 years old one can begin to invest money into online stock trading. Stock trading doesn’t have a very strong appeal to teenagers, but it is something a teen should look into doing or at least gather an insight of. To those who don’t know, stocks are small pieces of a company, the stock price (also called a “share”) reflects the value of the company, and its outlook, as determined by the people trading the stock (traders and investors). Stocks don’t have a set price, they continually fluctuate, each second of each day. Be warned, however, that buying stocks in tiny increments for years on end can set off big tax headaches. If one is not prepared to keep a detailed record of your purchases, do not buy in the first place. Don’t invest in only one stock or even just a handful of different stocks. Unless you are not willing to spread your bets, you shouldn’t bet at all. According to Benjamin Graham, widely known as the father of value investing “To begin stock trading you start off small with stocks in a very few companies not in the same industry then you begin to slowly expand your portfolio in each industry.” If you are interested in stock trading, there are many simulators that use real indexes to help you practice stock trading. Once you begin to stock trade with real money, you should hold stocks only when they are cheap and sell them when they become overpriced.

Many people dream of being rich and successful; if you are one of those people, then this is how you start your journey to success. There are not very many financial opportunities for those under 18, but acquiring a job should be a priority for many teens, so they may begin earning money and saving as early as possible, leading to more possible financial opportunities after high school.