Our new, in-app Money Missions are designed to build your child’s money skills and help us achieve our mission to make every kid smart with money. Developed with teachers and education experts, GoHenry Money Missions are linked to financial education guidelines and feature fun games, quizzes, and videos. You can use your GoHenry parent app to track your child’s progress; when each lesson comes to a close, another one begins, and your child will win badges and rewards, and unlock new levels as they progress.
Jobs & Earning is the second Money Missions topic. Here we take a look at everything kids need to know about making money, including how to earn money, types of jobs, how taxes work, and how to start a business as a kid or a teen. Don’t forget, GoHenry makes it easy for kids to earn money by completing tasks that parents can set in their GoHenry app. If you’re already planning for the future, Money Missions will also teach kids about the different ways to get money, whether earning a salary or getting paid an hourly wage.
How do we get money?
You might have heard the saying ‘money doesn’t grow on trees’. People say this because money doesn’t just appear in our bank accounts – it has to be earned.
Children get most of their money as gifts or weekly allowance from their parents or caregiver. As adults, we know that to get money, we need to work for it. If your child is asking, “how do we get money?”, you could consider setting paid tasks in your GoHenry parent app, such as mowing the lawn or walking the dog. The responsibility of taking on extra tasks and coming up with new ways to earn is a great way to encourage and teach kids early on, how to become an entrepreneur.
To find out more, check out our Money Mission on earning.
Types of jobs and earning a salary
There are lots of different jobs and ways to get paid. Perhaps your child wants to be a teacher, a doctor, a chef, or an astronaut!
A pizza chef might earn a wage, which means they get paid a set amount for every hour that they work.
A doctor might earn a salary, which means they get paid the same amount of money each year, no matter how many extra hours they work.
However they earn money, and regardless of whether they work in the lowest or highest salary jobs in the US, most people get paid either once a week or once a month. The amount you earn usually depends on how long you have to study before you’re able to do a job, how difficult the job is, how good you are at it – and whether you know how to negotiate your salary in a new job.
To find out more about jobs and how to get money, take a look at our Money Mission on jobs and salaries.
How do taxes work?
Everyone who has a job and gets paid contributes to a pot of money that the government can spend to help the country run smoothly. The money that we pay into this pot is called tax.
There are two types of tax that we pay into the government pot:
- Federal Income tax: This tax is used to pay for developing and maintaining road systems, water systems, cables and more. It’s the government’s biggest source of income.
- Social Security Tax: This pays for major healthcare programs as well as retirement and disability support.
Both of these types of taxes are taken straight from our earnings. The amount we pay depends on how much you earn: the more money you make, the more you add to the pot!
To find out about how taxes work, deductibles, estimating your taxes, and more, check out our Money Mission on tax.
How to become an entrepreneur, as a kid or teen
Most people work for a business that is owned by somebody else, but you can also set up your own business and work for yourself. If you do this, you are known as an entrepreneur.
There’s no need to wait until you’re an adult to become an entrepreneur. Sometimes kids set up successful businesses that involve mowing lawns, baking cakes, or making jewelry. Some kids have even become millionaires by creating websites, inventing games, or reviewing toys on YouTube.
When you work for yourself you have the freedom to decide when you want to work and what you want to work on – and if it goes well, you could make a lot of money.
But, at first, you might have to work long hours without being paid, and you might have to spend some money to get started.
Can a child start a business in the US? If you’d like to know more, take a look at our Money Mission on entrepreneurs.
Want to know all about earning, saving and spending money?
Create a GoHenry account today and gain unlimited access to our new, in-app Money Missions. These feature fun videos and quizzes, designed to teach kids about finances and build crucial money skills from an early age.
