How your kids can earn and save for their own futures
Wouldn’t it be amazing if your child could earn and pay for their futures rather than aimlessly playing on their phone all day?
And then parents wouldn’t have to stress about working overtime and two jobs to make ends meet for their little person.
There are ways your kids can earn money, which you can then save on their behalf, that can accumulate and end up paying for their futures one day.
Or, at the least, take a dent out of the total cost. Because, let’s be real, children are expensive.
The first thing you need to do is to open a savings account for them. This is where all their money (yes, their money, not yours) can be deposited into and accumulate interest until they’re old enough to need it for a laptop, car or college, for example. The next thing you need to do is help them to find a job.
Most of the work your children will do to earn money will be part-time and dependent, obviously, on your schedule. But, as we go through the options, you can decide where your child will thrive the most. It’s important, however, to make sure your child remains true to themselves as most industries can give them a complex or ego (especially where performing is concerned). If your child reaches an age where they are affected by what they’re doing for money, you should put an end to it or find something else for them to do.
Modelling and acting
Your child might have missed being the face of kids fashion for 2017, but there are many years of kids fashion for boys and girls to come. And those clothing items need to be modelled on runways, in magazines and for marketing campaigns. That model could be your little boy or girl.
All you have to do is register with a kids modelling agency and if your child fits the brief a clothing company is looking for, they could be walking down the runway of the next kids’ fashion show and earning some money (and possibly some new clothes) at the same time.
If you want your child to be an “all-rounder” you could register them with a performance agency where they could land jobs modelling for photo shoots and runways, acting and work as an extra, or musical gigs. Something like TV commercials can bring in the big bucks when you consider your child is being paid a day rate for every day they are on set, as well as a usage fee for every time the advertisement is run and your child is featured.
Doing a handful of acting or modelling jobs in a year has the potential to earn your child thousands of rands per gig. That’s a decent amount of money for just being adorable and walking around in the latest fashion.
Social media
We all know that there are YouTube sensations out in the world making millions of dollars every year as a result of all the views on their videos. We also know that parents love taking videos of their children doing funny or cute or gross things and the internet loves that.
You can start a YouTube channel for your child and upload videos that will, hopefully, go viral. You only really need one or two videos to really capture the world’s attention before viewers subscribe to your channel.
Take Mila who started making (or, rather, her mom did) videos when she was two-years-old. Now four-years-old, this little girl has been shared on all social media platforms for her attitude, “real-life” talk and charisma that makes you laugh and audibly say “aw cute” even when you’re alone. Her “Mila Experiences the Gym” video received over 2,3 million views. And when you could be earning almost $10 per 1000 views, that’s a fair amount of cash for the savings account.
And there are other areas of social media where your child can earn some money, especially when they become popular and sponsors start to get involved.
Playing and reviewing games
Most parents are trying their hardest to peel their child’s faces off the TV or computer screen so that they can play outside like the good old days. But maybe it won’t be a bad thing to include a screen-playtime session for them every day. After all, there is money to be made.
Children who are really good gamers have an opportunity to make money from online gaming. Take Fortnite for example, they recently held an online tournament where gamers were playing to win $250 000. And there’s the online streaming for gaming on platforms like Twitch where the money you earn is similar to that of YouTube but instead of “views”, it’s “streams” and “donations”. But other ways your kids can make money playing games is through reviews (which can be uploaded to YouTube) and being game testers.
If your child is good at something, there’s a way they can earn and save from it. They can have fun while doing so and you can secure their tertiary education fund.