Why Are Part-Time Jobs Important for Teenagers?

Look around you, and you will see that everyone works. And if they are no longer working, they were at some point in their lives. Therefore, it makes sense to us to prepare our daughter for the fact that she will work one day. I want her work to be an enjoyable experience, as it is for us.

Finding a work-school balance is important

Since she was very young, I have encouraged our daughter to work and earn money for herself. Initially, this was by her ‘working’ for Jonny and me, and then, as time passed, she progressed to working for others. Now, at 16, I see her primary job as her schooling, and her doing well remains front and center for us as a family.

However, I am also aware that school cannot teach her every skill she needs in life, so I am actively supporting her acquisition of as many extra skills as possible. One of them is the ability to work for and with others and find out for herself just what type of work she likes to do. I am encouraging her to learn all the softer skills around working, such as managing the money she earns, interpersonal relationships, and time management.

Encouraging your teenager to find some paid work that fits around their schooling has many positive outcomes, and the primary standouts are:

• The opportunity to find out what they do and don’t enjoy doing as a job
• The chance to make some money of their own

Outside of those two positives, there are many more:

• Engagement with others outside of home and school
• The responsibilities that come with working (time management is a key one)
• Opening their eyes to what careers are out there
• The ability to budget and manage their own money
• An increased understanding of the value of money
• Negotiation skills around pay rates, working hours and the work itself

I advocate helping your child get their first job

Whether your child is self-motivated or needs a little prodding from you, get behind them and support them to approach people or businesses, fill out application forms, and get to work on time. Via my blog, The Happy Saver, I’ve met countless young people whose parents actively walked beside them to get their first job and then helped them progress to others, and it’s been hugely helpful in assisting them to navigate the working world.

My daughter’s first ‘proper’ job working in a cherry packhouse over the summer resulted from a chance conversation I had with the manager that, with her okay, I followed up on. Helping your child get a job has to be a collaboration that you both agree on. We were able to negotiate hours and pay rates that suited both employer and employee. Her new employer was grateful for the fact that they knew an adult was taking an interest because what that meant for them was they knew they would have a reliable worker who would turn up on time, ready to work. My daughter, who was only 14 then, knew she could come to me with any questions or concerns about this significant step in her life, and I would help her work through them.

Initially, when I dropped her off or collected her after the shifts, I would stop in and see the office manager to check that they were happy, asking, “Is there anything she needs to be doing differently?” Due to her young age, they were amazing at being really flexible in all aspects. But within a relatively short period, she settled in well. Far from being a ‘helicopter parent,’ I stayed around long enough to help her settle in and then stepped back.

PocketSmith has been instrumental in letting her see her entire financial life in one place and has given her much greater awareness of where her money comes from and where it is going.

Working increases confidence

That first summer job gave her the confidence to think about working during the school term. Connections I had within our community facilitated a conversation between her and her future employer, the local library, and saw her apply for a position. She missed out on that job but learned another lesson: Coping with a ‘no’. Again, I came alongside her and encouraged her to reply to the ‘sorry you didn’t get the job’ email with a reply, “Please keep me in mind for future roles”. And sure enough, six months later, a job opened up, which she got. She now works a few hours a week there.

For the last few years, she has had steady summer packhouse work and steady work during term time. Each teaches her about the workforce, but neither gets in the way of schooling. Both give her some money in her pocket to manage. Many of her friends also have part-time jobs, and each compares notes about work conditions, work issues, pay rates and types of work. These open conversations are brilliant between teens because they enable them to counsel each other to find better pay, better jobs, or deal with workplace personal issues.

How does my daughter manage her earnings?

Having two jobs has been great because each pays differently and shows her the variety of pay and conditions available. Her summer job has a higher hourly rate but unpredictable hours, while her library job has a lower hourly rate but set hours. Both workplaces have vastly different colleagues, too, from roving international seasonal workers to full-time, long-term team members.

I did not need to remind her to check her bank account for her wages; she quickly learned when to expect a bump in her balance! But I did have conversations about what to do when that money arrived. The most important thing for me was to continue encouraging her 50% investment rate. I didn’t want her to spend all her money as it came in and learn the poor lesson of working paycheck to paycheck. Once a month, we would sit down, add up all her income, and transfer half to her Sharesies S&P US500 ETF investment. Having invested in her future, I have always told her that the remaining money is hers to spend, share and enjoy.

I also took the time to go through her payslips and explain what they show her, including the tax she pays (and why she pays it), the KiwiSaver deductions, and how she accrues holidays. Occasionally, questions arose like, “Why did I get paid when I didn’t go to work because it was a public holiday?” She was delighted to learn about paid public holidays! Bumps in pay lead to conversations about minimum wage increases over time. So many conversations crop up, each teaching her something about paid work.

She’s not a big spender; most of her outgoings are small, but others are large, such as replacing her phone. Therefore, just like I do, she has ‘sinking funds’ with her bank, where each week, she automatically moves money into a different bank account to save for a particular purpose. Paid work means the amount of money she deals with continues to grow, and the systems she already has in place enable her to adjust to her ever-increasing income.

Introducing PocketSmith

More recently, with her approval, I took the next step in teaching her to manage her money and signed her up with PocketSmith. She has her account linked to her bank accounts, KiwiSaver, and Sharesies. We set everything up together, and then I left her to tinker and explore, taking a very light-touch approach. She is a teenager who pushes back if I tell her what to do, which I respect.

Now, at the end of each month, I ask if I can have a sit-down and go over her money, just checking in with her spending and income, helping her categorize any tricky transactions and answering any questions. PocketSmith has been instrumental in letting her see her entire financial life in one place and has given her much greater awareness of where her money comes from and where it is going. It’s early days, but I’m pleased to have helped her start while she is still living at home because having an overview of her money will set her up so well for when she goes it alone.

Early work, lasting life skills

Taking on some paid employment has been fundamental to teaching her some life lessons safely and constructively. The lessons and insights, both good and bad, that come from working feed back into her more formal school education, and I remain, as she needs us to be, incredibly supportive of her working. Is she overjoyed to go to work? No, not really! But, I’m afraid you don’t get a pass on working, and our staying involved each step of the way is helping her plot her future career path.

Ruth blogs at thehappysaver.com all about how she and her family handle money. What’s the secret? Spend less than you earn, invest the difference, avoid debt and budget each dollar that flows through your hands. She firmly believes that if you can just get the basics right, life becomes easier from there on in.