As the title said, I’m 15 years old and have AU$1400 saved up. I no longer have a job and am working on a small business of mine, which has just $300 in revenue in the last few months.
The reason I’m here is because I’m not sure if I should invest in some compounding assets or something else, and if I should educate myself on stocks/dividends before making a decision?
I have read finance books such as Rich Dad Poor Dad, the Warren Buffett Way, and others, so I do know a lot about finance/business considering my age.
I previously had a job as a dishwasher for AU$16 per hour, and so I got $1700 from that after working for 5 months.
If I should ask this on a different r/, please direct me there so I can figure out what I should do :)
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First of all, you’re the man. Thats awesome you’re already educating yourself and working hard. This would be my advice to you: -Keep working a job and saving/budgeting money. I say budget, not just save, because you should still budget for fun things in life at your age. Enjoy the fruits of your labor while still stacking some savings. -You asked about compounding assets - keep that mindset when it comes to investing. When you’re young it can be very tempting for you to take the bait of some higher risk or get-rich-quick opportunity. I made some dumb financial decisions hoping to win big - NFTs, individual stocks, even trends like dropshipping. Would have been much better off focusing on long term. Starting at your age compounding is huge. And a monthly contribution of some sort is a good habit to develop at your age.
Could you tell us more about your small business that had $300 in revenue?
I sell gaming keyrings based on a game I play called ‘rocket league’. I am also about to sell 3D printed one-hand book-holders. Once I come across more ideas I’ll have more reach marketing-wise to increase revenue. I have also made custom prints for some people which contributed to the $300 in revenue.
Honestly just keep it in savings. You’re young and the money can come in handy. Focus on growing that business.
Open a high yield savings account, im currently getting a 4.25 return
lol. he has $1400 and he’s 15.
OP learn a high value skill like coding and grow your business.
sell your coding skills if you’re not making $100k.
meaning get a job with it.
continue to grow your business on the side til that hits $100k/year.
then work on that full time.
parlay the money you make into building more businesses.
there’s always trends happening and you should treat the internet like a market and build/own real estate (apps, websites etc.).
there’s some good sources for finding trending businesses you can ride waves on id follow theinformation.com or explodingideas.co etc.
if you do this for 10-15 years you’ll 100% be a millionaire.
i got started late tbh but at my first job i met some founders doing this since i was doing deals.
i met some solo entrepreneurs that built app store apps and just own the position in the app store as real estate and they make >$1million a year and only work like 10 hours a week.
build up a risk tolerance and build assets for yourself.
that’s the real opportunity.
Not just saving keep investing.
Not just saving keep investing
Not just saving keep searching and investing.
Will do thanks for the advice.
Make sure it’s a quality HYSA
Wtf is a HYSA
high yield savings account
As an older person learning some of these skills later in life, I have some advice for you:
First off, you have the advantage of starting young. Most of us start in our early to mid 20s and many never start at all as they get locked into their careers with ever increasing living expenses and costs. You’ve already done one of the best things you can do which is “START NOW!”
Second, your instinct to build a business is good. You’ve mentioned $300 in revenue so far, just keep working at it and watch it grow. In fact, take the $300 you’ve made and whatever is left after taxes should be reinvested back into your business.
Also, Keep in mind that it’s not so much how much money you can make, but how good you are at converting your earned income into unearned/passive income. That’s the difference between Rich Dad from Kiyosaki’s book and the rest of us plebs here on reddit. ;)
Finally, don’t invest all of your $1400. Take the amount of one of your last paychecks from your last job and use that as your initial investment. My recommendation assuming your confident in it’s future performance, would be to invest in your business first. On top of the $300 in revenue you would be reinvesting like I suggested earlier.
Assuming you want to try to buy an asset like Stocks or Crypto, again, keep it to the amount of your last paycheck.
Also, buy those assets with the understanding you may potentially lose all of that money. And maybe more importantly than that, before you buy, what and how much information are you using to determine that you’ll make money on the asset you buy?
There’s always risk, but there’s a difference between calculated risk and gambling. The more information and planning you do, the more successful you’ll be.
If you fail spectacularly and/or have to “get a job,” try to get a job where you can learn valuable financial or business skills. Anything involving sales, taxes, law/legal will be very useful.
Good Luck! And remember, your greatest asset is time.
Honestly if you don’t need the 1400 now educating yourself in some stocks is a pretty good idea. NFA. Do your own DD see what you like and make a decision but in the end it’s your hard earned money so do what makes you feel good.
At 15 they should educate themselves on stock. Sure, but why not just use a tool that lets them fake invest to play around in the market - tons out there? Then, IF they are comfortable, use the funds they’ve saved and earned interest later on. No need to waste $1500 on learning the stock market. Just me two cents.
Thats a way to do it too. Hence doing own DD and doing it when comfortable. I tend do think it’s better to be aggressive when your younger with money cause at least they have opportunity to make more money by working if its a flop but that’s just my thoughts do whatever is comfortable. Imo
Get a job
I might end up getting one but I want to see how my business goes first as it will end up earning me more money than working for someone else if it does well.
Listen up youngster! :)
First off, the fact that you are here means you are light years ahead of your peers. This is the single most important fact that you have going for you because passive income is really a long term strategy. Compounding returns from an investment over time is the surest way to grow your passive income. If I were to give myself “investment” advice at 15 this is what I’d say…
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The single biggest return on investment you will get on your money today is anything that upgrades your skills so that you earn more money from your work or that gives you knowledge that helps you grow your business. $16/hour as a dishwasher (my first job was dishwasher at a seafood restaurant at 15) is great. It demonstrates a strong work ethic, humility, and probably good communications skills because you had to convince the manager to take a chance on a kid for a physically demanding job. Assuming you have limited living expenses, you ought to be able to save a decent amount of money over the next few years.
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I could do a whole sermon on the decision to attend college or not. The short version is that sometimes it’s the best decision in the world, other times it’s the worst (at least in the US). Make sure if you go you come out with a degree that pays well with as little debt as possible. If you decide college isn’t for you, get into a skilled trade that pays well. Don’t become a radiologist.
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For traditional investing…you can just save up your money until you are legally an adult without missing out on too much income. Let’s say you could have invested $1k per month in an index fund for the next 2.5 years. That $30k of invested income would have grown to something like $34k. The key is getting used to investing a fixed amount of money consistently every month that you never see (and thus never get used to spending) that is diligently working for you behind the scenes. $1k invested every month for 40 years at a 10% expected average return (before taxes) is: $6.3 million. In theory, as you get older and earn more income you would increase your monthly investment amount by some portion of you raise (I like 20% of the raise amount.)
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It’s good to have a long term mind set, which you are clearly cultivating through your research and reading, but don’t forget to enjoy your childhood and youth. In fact, if you can find a friend locally who shares this interest, so much the better. But either way…have fun. It would be a sad day for you in 70 years if you looked back on life and just saw work/savings for their own sake. Know what you are working for/towards, and be sure to enjoy yourself along the way.
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Never stop learning. Some people do that through trying a lot of new things…some people read voraciously…some people are creative minds and come up with their own ideas. Whatever your style, make time for learning and keeping your mind engaged and fresh in the present.
Lastly…I just want to wish you well on your path. If your first business doesn’t work out, remember that means you are just one step closer to the next one that is a success.
Cheers!
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Get a real job use the funds to go to post secondary and get a job that makes 100k+
Self educate yourself ideally from free available resources and try to have multiply income at reams in the forms of small business who have a huge potential to grow, learn about vintage fashion it’s a niche which has huge upside in the future, if need more info feel free to discuss
Make more
Working on it :)
You’re doing awesome. Keep going and learn to enjoy the ride rather than the destination (as tough as it will be). Sending positive vibes
You’re 15, don’t listen to anyone telling you to play it safe. You couldn’t be at a better stage to have financial drive at this age bc it afford you to take risks. Obviously don’t be dumb with it, but if you’re wanting to start a business or something, research it, identify a need, and go for it.
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Save half - put that away to pay your future self for the work you have already done
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Education - find some marketable skill you are interested in and study it. Programming is taking a turn these days with the advent of AI assisted development. Dev however is still needed and a very marketable skill that can be learned with time and practice XR is still a big area - developed with Unity and C# Blockchain is still big - solidity, rust Web is still going - python and JS AI is python, and JS for implementing
Sales is always in demand - selling someone else’s product is a viable way to learn This is soft skills or as we call it - power skills. Learning to get to a yes/no quickly, understanding folk’s drive and goals and build determination and regimen.
- 3D product expansion - testing, creating/customizing other 3D products for sale. I for one have happily paid for an AirTag badge holder that I use everyday. Ex: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1165957764/3d-printed-apple-airtag-1-3-badge-holder There are many enhancements and customizations that could be made If you are into gaming and that’s your community, there is a possibility to 3D print avatars and characters Rarity also enhances the experience - creating one of a kind keychains based on in game accomplishments allows for peoples collector instincts to kick in.
Is there a way to grind (pay someone else to?) for in game achievements and resell those?
As for stocks - you can learn without spending your money if you want to: https://www.investopedia.com/simulator/
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Whole Life Dividend-paying Insurance
Try to learn how to grab attention with marketing in the digital age it’s key to success, utilizing facebook, instagram, tiktok, reddit anything that’ll get eyeballs on whatever you want to sell once you master this skill it’s just a game of trying different products/services until you strike gold remember not to change too many variables at once and track the traction of each change.
Work for someone til u have more money. Dont think that u are the chosen entepreneur and will be rich before 18. A opportunity WILL 100% appear in one moment n if u have saved some money ull be part of