 What's happening? It's Shane here and in today's video, I'm gonna be talking about the top five personal finance tips for teenagers. And I think this is gonna be a very valuable video for you to watch. I'm gonna talk about what I think is the most important things when it comes to personal finance and career and all that sort of thing that I wish I knew when I was that age. But before we get into it, make sure to gently tap the like button, hit that subscribe button and ring the notification bell. We will set a goal for, I don't know, 1500 likes on this video. All right, so number one on the list, this is going to be kind of an obvious one, I guess, but get a job, right? And I don't mean to sound like a boomer when I say this. I sincerely mean this. I think getting a job, even if it's a crappy, entry-level job and you only work like one day a week or anything like that, it is going to be so valuable to you in so many different ways. First of all, getting a job, even if you just work one day a week, is going to be a lot of extra money, especially for a teenager. And that's really nice because you are gonna have the freedom to pay for things on your own. You're not gonna have to rely on your parents and successful people in life have the ability to not have to rely on others. So getting a taste of that independence as early as you can is going to be extremely valuable on its own. But I would say the money itself is the least valuable thing when it comes to getting a job. First of all, you are going to get work experience, which is going to be incredibly valuable for the future. I know people who have gone all the way through high school, all the way through college, and they still have never had a job. And they go into the real world in an entry-level job and they do not have any idea what they're doing. There's a lot of things that you're gonna learn all the way from really basic stuff like how to use a fax machine, how to use a phone, all the way to more subtle things that are kind of like soft skills that are hard to describe, but it's basically just being a professional. Being somebody who is effective, but also fun to be around at work. And even if you get a job that you absolutely hate, it's going to set a low bar for jobs. And when you get a good job, or maybe even just a normal job, you're going to feel grateful for it. And even if you're somebody who never plans on getting a job, you wanna be an entrepreneur and employ other people, being able to put yourself in the shoes of somebody that you would employ because you were once an employee yourself is going to give you a completely different perspective when it comes to being a manager and a leader. You're gonna make a much better leader, a much better manager, because of the fact that you have that perspective, you have that empathy, because you have been in their shoes before. And that's gonna lead to your employees liking you a lot more, wanting to work a lot harder for you. And of course, that will end up making you more money. But more than that, it's also just going to be a more enjoyable work environment. And if that all wasn't enough, having that work experience on your resume before you graduate college or going to the real world is gonna make you look just so much more appealing to a hiring manager or a business owner who might potentially hire you for your first entry level position, right? So getting a job, doing side hustles as well. Awesome, I think. I guess that's kind of along the same lines. I'm gonna go ahead and just put them in the same category. Side hustles are great as well, because again, you're earning money. Side hustles are a little bit more entrepreneurial. I would say side hustles are almost like entrepreneurship with training wheels. But all of these things are great because they are showing that you can take initiative. They're showing that you can earn your own money and be more independent. So even if you're just doing a part-time shift every two weeks, something like that, something super basic, it doesn't take up very much of your time, do it. Absolutely do it. Number two on the list is gonna be for those of you who want to go to college, which my channel, a lot of it is about college degrees. So a significant amount of you probably do. And that is to get good grades in high school and also do well on these standardized tests like the ACT and the SAT if you want to go to college. Now the reason that I stress this, getting good grades is it's not so much that you learn so much in high school and it's like so important for you to get good grades. It's just simply the fact that the best scholarships are going to be available to those who get good grades and sometimes also do well on those standardized tests. Some of the scholarships are even going to be full ride, which means you don't have to pay anything. But a lot of them are going to be very, very high, like $10,000 a year, right? Over four years. So that's $40,000 overall. And these are honestly just the low hanging fruit of scholarships. These are the ones that are the easiest to get. And to be honest with you guys, I know it might seem like your high school classes are hard, but they aren't. You just really need to learn study skills. It's gonna get much more difficult in college and it gets even more difficult after that in grad school. And as it gets more difficult, you're gonna learn these new study skills and then that's gonna make it manageable and then eventually it'll become kind of easy for you. You're gonna look back on high school and you're gonna be like, that was a piece of cake. One author who really helped me to kind of like get my study style and my study skills down in high school was Cal Newport. He has a book called How to Become a Straight A Student. Highly recommend that book. He also has a book. It's called How to Win at College. I also got that one as well early on in college. You can get that one too because it kind of talks about study skills as well, but those two books are very easy reads. You can read both of them within a day and they have just some amazing tips. Not every tip is gonna apply to you, but many of them will and they definitely helped me out quite a bit. So those are two great books when it comes to getting good grades. And then as far as the ACT and the SAT go, the biggest thing is to just start studying early. There's good books in terms of like what to study for the SAT and the ACT. I would recommend looking at online forums of other people who are trying to score really well on the SAT and the ACT and kind of seeing what they're studying, what their experiences are. I don't remember the exact score that I had when I took the ACT, but I remember the first time I took it, I didn't really try and I scored in the low 20s. And then after studying and stuff like that, I ended up scoring in the 30s. Okay, it was like low 30s. But yeah, having those good grades and then sometimes colleges want you to also have good scores on the standardized tests is just gonna open up a lot of doors for you. Many colleges are gonna offer you $10,000 a year, $20,000 a year scholarship. Some of them even full ride scholarships. And so that is just the low hanging fruit. On top of that, you should be applying for scholarships, especially in your junior and senior year, even if they're just 500, 1,000, $1,500 ones. Those little ones really do add up. And so this is a great way to pay for most of your college and set yourself up for success because the average person is taking out nearly $40,000 in student loans and it takes them 20 years to pay them off. So if you can just avoid that whole situation in the first place, that is going to be great for you. Number three on the list is to start investing. And you might think, well, you can't start investing until you're 18, right? Actually, there are ways for you to start investing even as a minor. And basically what you do is you open up a custodial account. And a custodial account is where you get your parents to sign off on it and you are trading on behalf of them. And it might be your money that you are investing, but it's technically a custodial account under your parent or maybe some other person that is technically your guardian. But yeah, investing as early as possible, even if it's just a tiny amount of money, $50, $100, $20 even with some of these apps, absolutely a great thing to do. It's gonna get you started. It's like almost a snowball effect because when you start investing and you experience the power of compound interest, it's gonna get you excited about opening the app, saying, oh my gosh, my investment went up 10%, 20%. Then you look at the projections and you see if I invest this much over this period of time, I'm gonna end up being able to retire at this age. And it just gets you really excited and that excitement gets you to want to make more money. And it also gets you to want to save that money that you make so you get into things like saving and budgeting. And then on top of that, you end up investing even more. And so it's this cycle that's actually a really good thing where you kind of just get addicted to investing and making money. And that ends up being a very good thing because then you can retire early. Now, number four on this list is an extremely practical tip that I don't think enough people talk about. And that is just try out a bunch of different things to see what you like. And this is not only in terms of jobs, but it's also just in terms of life in general. Just like try out a bunch of different stuff and see what you genuinely enjoy. So for instance, a lot of things in my life that I really enjoy, I almost did them on accident, right? It was like a friend was just like, hey, do you wanna come with me? I'm doing this or that and I had nothing to do. So I went with them and I did whatever they were doing and then I just really enjoyed it. And so you should really say yes to a lot of these things, try out different stuff, try skiing, try playing basketball, try all these different things, try different arts and crafts and see what you truly enjoy. And really what you wanna do is try to notice a difference between things that temporarily make you happy for a split second. And this example of this would be like eating ice cream, drinking soda versus things that make you happy on a deeper level. And a lot of the time it brings you lasting joy, right? So one of the things I absolutely love doing is I love reading about history, right? I love reading history books and I love listening to podcasts. It's definitely one of my passions in life. I really enjoy doing it. It's probably something that 90% of the people watching this are like, that sounds incredibly boring. I would never wanna do that. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy but it's something I absolutely love. But that's actually kind of what you want to find, especially in your career. There's the concept of Ikegai, which I've talked about quite a bit, which is basically just balancing practicality with passion. Another way to look at it, and I got this from Naval Ravikant who gives really good advice on money, especially if you're somebody in the tech startup world. He basically says, do what seems like work to others but feels like play to you. So that's what you really wanna find and that is actually a super deep sentence because when you're able to do something that other people think is very difficult, very tedious, very hard, but it's actually, it seems like play to you, that gives you such a ridiculous competitive advantage over everyone else. And that's kind of like what this YouTube channel is. I really enjoy making videos. I enjoy the entire process of making videos. I've always been somebody who's watched TV and I kinda noticed like, they cut from this scene to this scene and this scene they zoom in really fast and this scene they kinda zoom in slow. And I've always noticed these different things and I've always wanted to make videos. Now, of course, this isn't exactly like making a movie or a TV show. It's a little bit different, but it's the same general concept. And I would have never known that this was one of my passions if I didn't actually start trying to do it, right? Get your cell phone camera out and start recording videos. So it's super important for you to try out a bunch of different things because you're never gonna know whether you enjoy doing it until you actually try it yourself. A huge mistake that so many people make is they see, you know, like a TV show, for instance. They see a TV show about doctors and it glamorizes the life of a doctor and they think, you know what, I wanna be a doctor. Or maybe they even feel a lot of pressure from their family, like, oh, I wanna be a doctor because my family wants me to be a doctor. But have you ever actually shadowed a doctor and seen what they do in real life? Have you ever seen what the real life of a doctor is on a day-to-day basis? Because that can be a great choice for some people, but for many people, it's going to be a nightmarish job. And that's why you see ridiculously high depression rates and suicide rates with doctors, in my opinion, is because the expectation is so different than the actual reality. So yeah, super, super important, just especially at this time in your life when you're young, just to try a bunch of different things out to figure out what you like. It's kinda like your favorite food. Think about your favorite food. You wouldn't even be able to know that that is your favorite food unless you actually tried it in the first place. But anyways, number five on this list is going to be shoot for the stars, but have a good plan. Once you find something that you really wanna do after trying out a bunch of different things, shoot for the stars, go for it. Again, you wanna try to find something that seems like work to other people, but feels like play to you. And once you've found that thing, shoot for the stars on it, go for it. But be smart about it. It's usually not a good idea for you to just like, if you're working a job and you don't have any savings, it's usually not a good idea for you to just quit your job and go for whatever your goal is. The average successful YouTuber, for instance, in my opinion, is probably gonna take one to two years before they're able to make a full time income from YouTube. And the same thing works for all different types of business models. It is going to take time for you to start making money. Same thing if you're going for a dream job. It's probably gonna take you some time to build up your resume before you can get into that dream job position. In many cases, you're gonna have to go through years and years of education as well. So my advice to you is, definitely go for your passions, just be smart about it. Especially as a young person, you can definitely accomplish just about anything, but it's gonna take a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication, and it usually also takes a long time. So hope those tips helped you out. Check out my other videos right here. I made them just for you. Go ahead, gently tap the like button, hit that subscribe button, ring the notification bell and comment down below any thoughts, comments, criticisms, et cetera, that you have on the video, and I will see you next time.