It’s never too early to start making money. Many successful people today started making money as children.

At 6 years old, Warren Buffett started selling gum, peppermint, and other sweets. By the time he was 16 years old, he had saved over $53,000 (in today’s dollars). But this story is not unique to him.

There are multiple examples of children making tons of money doing all kinds of things.

If you are a teenager, you should be reading this post because we’ve listed 36 legitimate ways to start making money — even more money than your parents.

36. Deliver Groceries And Make $20/hr

If you have a valid driver’s license, a car that’s less than 15 years old, and the desire to make some extra cash, you can start delivering groceries for the companies listed below.

You will have the option to set your own schedule and earn up to $20 an hour.

35. Get Paid To Watch Videos

Swagbucks will pay you to watch videos. While you will not get rich, you will definitely make enough money to buy lunch, pay your Netflix bill, or buy a few gallons of gas for your car.

All you have to do is sign up with Swagbucks and start making money.

Swagbucks pays in points. Whenever you complete a task, like watching a video, you earn a point. Those points can be cashed out for gift cards or money to your Paypal account.

34. Start Investing

The best time to start investing is now. It’s never too early to put your financial ducks in a row.

There are many investment apps on the market today. Some of the most popular ones are:

Robinhood

Investing with the Robinhood app is free, which is very unusual because most investment apps charge either a fee or a commission on trades!

If you are new to investing and wants to start investing for free, Robinhood is the place for you.

Stash

Stash allows you to start your investment portfolio with as little as $5. This is good because if you can’t afford a stock priced at $500, you can still purchase a fraction of that stock for just $5.

Selling fraction of shares is a significant selling point for Stash. This feature appeals mainly to young people who do not have a lot of money to invest.

You can also open a retirement account, a custodial account, and purchase exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Stash.

Acorns

Acorns is an investment app, but more importantly, it has a micro-investing feature that lets you invest spare change automatically.

On Acorn you can open a checking account, a trading account, and a retirement account. It has everything you’ll need to manage and grow your finances.

Unlike Robinhood, Acorns charges between $1 and $3 per month depending on the tier of service you have.

Related:

33. Start Babysitting

Do you have time to become a baby sitter, a nanny, or a senior caregiver? There’s a lot of money to be from providing care to people who need it.

Care is a platform that brings nannies and caregivers in contact with those who need their service.

All you have to do is sign up with Care and start accepting jobs.

32. Get Paid To Walk Dogs

Rover is a website that lets you charge a fee to take care of other people dogs. You can be a dog sitter, use your home as doggy daycare or dog hotel, become a dog walker, or a doggy playmate.

You can set your rates and working hours. Some people charge up to $100 per night per dog. The fee you charge is all up to you.

Sign up for Rover right here and start your journey to financial security.

31. Start A YouTube Channel

Starting a YouTube Channel is another one of many ways for teens to make money. You can use your smartphone to make videos and post them on YouTube.

The best way to succeed on YouTube is to post original content regularly. Once you build your subscribers to 1000, and your views to 40,000, you can start monetizing your videos.

There are teenagers who have become millionaires from monetizing YouTube videos. You can do the same. The key is to start early because as time goes on, it will be more difficult to monetize your videos.

30. Start A Twitch Channel

Twitch is a video game platform that allows you to stream your games, build a following, and monetize your streaming videos.

If you are a video game buff, Twitch will be a great way to make money as a teen.

29. Become A Tutor

Chegg is a great app for people who want to become online tutors. If you are smart and like to teach, why not make some money from your passion?

Other tutoring apps are:

28. Start Selling Stuff Online

Did you know that you can make money selling stuff on eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Postmark and other e-commerce platforms? All you need to do is start a seller’s account and start selling.

Of course, you will need inventory to start selling. You can find inventories on Alibaba.com, AliExpress, at thrift stores, and at garage sales.

27. Get Paid To Design And Build Websites

You can make up to $57,000 a year designing websites. The great thing about this career is that learning website design can cost less than $50 on Udemy.

If $50 is too much for you, you can learn web design for free on Coursera. Coursera has a great web design course taught by the University of Michigan. You can sign up for the paid version of the course, or you can do the entire course for free. However, the free version does not offer a certificate of completion

Once you learn web design, you can make money as a freelancer on Fiverr, Upwork, People Per Hour, or Toptal.

26. Build Mobile Apps

The national average salary for people who build mobile apps is $79,000. If you are very skilled, with a lot of experience, you can make up to $150,500 a year. This is a great salary for something you can learn for free.

There are mobile app development courses on Coursera, Udacity, and Udemy. While most of these courses will cost you some money, some of them are free.

Once you learn mobile app development, you can use your skills on earn money as a freelancer on Fiverr, Upwork, Toptal, Freelancer, or People Per Hour.

25. Get Paid To Take Online Surveys

Thousands of companies depend on data and feedback from customers and potential customers. They want to know the demographic, taste, habit and thought process of the people using their products. To get this information, they have to create surveys.

Well, there are companies that specialize in creating these survey for those big companies. Those survey companies will pay you to answer their surveys.

While the money from answering surveys isn’t enough to pay your mortgage, it is definitely enough to buy you lunch or pay for your gas. Not bad for something you can do at your leisure time.

Some of the best survey companies are:

24. Get Paid To Shop Online

Do you shop online regularly? How about getting paid to do so? There is a company that’s willing to pay you to buy things online.

They will pay you to shop at Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Target.com, and thousands of other online stores.

You might be asking yourself, why will a company pay me to shop online? Well, the reason is simple.

Companies like Amazon, Walmart and others are looking for customers and they are will to pay a commission to anyone who brings those customers. This is called affiliate marketing.

That where companies like Swagbucks and Rakuten comes in. These companies will split their commission with you if you use their referral links to purchase stuff online.

Depending on how much purchases you make online, you could make a lot of money.

23. Teach English Online

Are you interested in teaching English online to people from different countries? You can make a lot of money doing it.

There are companies online that are willing to hire you to teach English. Some of those companies are:

22. Sell Arts And Craft On Etsy

Are you good at making artsy and crafty things with your hands? Etsy is a great website to sell those things on.

I know of people who make quilts, teddy bears, and blankets by hand. If you know how to do any of that and more, then you should register on Etsy and start earning money.

21. Become A Lifeguard

Maybe you don’t have a beach around where you live, but how about pools — public pools?

If you are a great swimmer, you can go to these public pools and get a job as a lifeguard. Some of these jobs pay $9.50 an hour. It may not be a lot of money, but it is a great way to make some cash as a teen during the summer.

20. Deliver News Papers

Get a newspaper delivery route and start making money. Newspapers may be going out of style but there’s still money to be made from delivering them to those who are still reading.

Depending on your route size, you can make between $150 to $500 a week. That’s not bad for a teenager.

To get a newspaper route, all you have to do is contact the newspaper circulation department by phone and ask them how you can get a delivery route. They will be happy to give you the information you need.

19. Become A Virtual Assistant

Are you good with doing research online, MS Word, Excel, data entry, typing, making travel arrangements and more? Why not become a freelance virtual assistant? There are people making as much as $35 an hour.

Sign up with Upwork

You can sign up with Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer.com and start earning money.

18. Sell Stock Photos

Do you have a smartphone? I can bet your smartphone has a camera — and that’s all you need to start making money selling stock photos.

You can take photos and sell them on platforms like the ones below:

  • Getty Images
  • Alamy
  • Adobe Stock
  • Shutterstock
  • iStock Photo

17. Become A Photographer

You can make money photographing weddings, parties, graduations, and many other events. You can do this in addition to selling stock photos.

There are many places online to learn photography; this includes Udemy and Lynda. It will cost you less than $50 to learn on these sites.

16. Clean Homes And Make Money

Set up a house clean business on TaskRabbit, Craigslist, Angie’s List and similar online services.

You can charge up to $15 per hour doing this job.

15. House Sit And Make Money

House sitting is one of many ways for teens to make money. Of course, you will have to be trustworthy and skilled at getting along with people.

Most house sitters make as much as $10 an hour and there are many housesitting apps out there to get on. Below are a few apps:

14. Sell Lemonade

Selling lemonade in your neighborhood during the summer is not a bad idea. You can set up your lemonade stand at a busy area in your neighborhood, at a farmer’s market, or a sporting event.

Of course, you might need to get permits, licenses and other papers from your local authorities.

13. Mow Lawns

Getting into a lawn mowing business will require some initial capital outlay. That’s because lawn mowing equipment can be very expensive.

However, once you have all of your pieces of equipment lined up, there’s good potential to make a lot of money.

I pay $50 every two weeks to the guy who does my lawn, and he does the lawn for all of my neighbors too. So the potential to make good money is very huge.

12. Get A Summer Job

Have you considered getting a summer job? There are companies out there that hire teenagers.

Arby’s hires people who are 15 years old and above. Others hire people from 14 years old. Here’s a list of companies that hire people from 14 – 19 years old.

11. Run Errands For Your Relatives And Get Paid

Do you have a generous relative? Rather than just asking a favor of them, how about offering to run errands on their behalf?

Just because someone is your relative doesn’t mean they’re supposed to give you stuff for free.

One great way to ingratiate yourself with your relative is by offering to do something for them. That way, when they give you money, it wouldn’t be like you’re leeching off them.

10. Wash Cars

Have you thought about washing cars? It is a great job for a teenager. The barrier to entry is very low. You should consider it.

9. Become Customer Services Representative

Have you thought about becoming a customer service representative? There are many companies out there that will hire teenagers.

Many of these companies hire teens and young people because that’s the demographics of their customer base.

Try applying to video game stores, stores that specialize in selling to young people. Your age could be an advantage.

8. Become A Mystery Shopper

A Mystery shopper is like a detective. They will go into a store and pretend to be a customer. For example, liquor stores are supposed to ask for IDs. A mystery shopper will go undercover and test their compliance.

Mystery shopping is not limited to buying alcohol. There are so many things you can do as a mystery shopper. For example, in some companies, staff are supposed to upsell. If you’re buying a burger, they’re supposed to ask if you need a soda with it or mention an ongoing promotion.

Companies need undercover shoppers to test the systems they have in place, and that’s where you come in.

Here are some mystery shopping companies:

7. Flip Sneakers Online

Did you know that sneaker flipping is a billion-dollar industry? There are people who make up to $10,000 a month reselling sneakers. It is one of the best ways for teens to make money.

Here’s some good information on how to get and flip sneakers.

6. Work At A Pet Shelter or Rescue Center

Do you like pets? You can make some money working at a pet shelter. This is will be a win-win situation. You get to do something you’re passionate about while at the same time getting paid.

5. Sell Recycled Items

You may not make a lot of money selling plastic bottles but you sure can make a lot of money selling scrap metals at the local junkyard.

Cooper is the most valuable of the metals. It sells for more almost $4 a pound.

4. Flip Produce At The Farmer’s Market

Do you have crops you have grown locally? Flipping it at the farmer’s market will be a great way to make money as a teen.

You may need certification to sell, but that’s information you can easily get by speaking with administrators of the farmer’s market.

Most farmer’s market requires you to sell only things you’ve personally grown. But going and talking with the administrators will give you all the information you need.

3. Work At A Movie Theater

Have you seen the staff at most movie theaters? They are usually very young. Consider placing applications with your local movie theaters. You can never go wrong working at the theater.

2. Work At A Recreational Center

Recreational centers like golf courses, community centers, water parks, and amusement centers are known to employ young people.

Do a simple Google search and you will come up with tons of recreational centers that will gladly hire you.

1. Become A Server

Working as a server at a restaurant is one of the most popular “1st jobs” for most people. Whether it is Mcdonalds, Wendys, or a local restaurant, you can never go wrong working at a restaurant.

In addition to making money through your paycheck and tips, you also learn important “people skills” by interacting with customers from different works of life.

Working as a server also teaches you humility and patience. You should consider it.

Author

Harold is a California-based personal finance writer and the creator of Wholesome Wallet. He loves to write about investing, and ways to make and save money. You can find his work on Benzinga, Seeking Alpha, Medium, and other places on the internet. Harold also has degrees in Accounting and Economics.