5 tips to help your teen start their first job

Is your teenager starting to think about their first job?! They’re not alone. Around 40 percent of teenagers aged 15-19 in Australia are employed. But while it might feel like mere months since you waved them off to their first day of school, getting a job is a great learning experience for young people, teaching them vital life skills and independence through earning their own money.
Here are our top tips for supporting your teenage children to manage money in their first job.

1. Get their account structure set up

Do you remember having your first bank account? It’s an exciting but often confusing time for young people. Getting them set up with their first accounts, including a transaction account and a savings account, can stand them in good stead for savvy money management. Showing them the features of e-banking and how they can manage their money across different accounts may prompt them to begin setting some money aside from each pay cheque.

2. Teach them to balance spending and saving

Teens often crave independence, and money can be a vessel for that. You might find they’re keen to go off and spend their own money on their own terms for the first time. Or, you might find you’ve created a saver who wants to keep every cent they earn locked away.

Despite what we often think about spenders versus savers, both have skills that the other can benefit from. While your savvy teen saver will have a great foundation for building financial security, teaching them the value of spending some of their money on enjoying life is important too. Likewise, if your teen is more inclined to spend, having the conversation about the importance of saving is vital.

Showing them features like automatic savings transfers on payday can help set them up to manage their own money and teach them to live below their means from day one.

Check out our Digital Hub to explore the range of functions and controls our Bendigo Bank app offers to help you organise and protect your money.

3. Encourage them to consider goals and future opportunities

Their relationship with money is just as important as the practical money management itself, but this is often overlooked. Engaging your teen in conversations about the future can help them build a long term view of their financial decisions.

Would they like to go to university? Do they have goals to travel? Have they already got an idea of the lifestyle they want to have, or a hobby they want to nurture? Getting teens thinking about the real-world application of their money can help build strong core money values that can help inform savvy financial behaviour down the line.

4. Get them thinking about superannuation

Depending on their age and how much they earn, your teen may be entitled to employer superannuation contributions. Retirement conversations can go in one ear and out the other with many teens but starting the conversation early can pay off down the track, even if it doesn’t feel like they’re listening right now.
Speak to them about their superannuation fund, show them how to login, and what their contributions look like on their payslip. This can lay vital foundations for future engagement with their retirement plans.

5. Talk about tax

Teaching your teen to read their payslip is an important life skill. It can show them the principles of income tax and Medicare contributions and prepare them for life on a salary. Consider showing them their income on a take home pay calculator, to demonstrate marginal taxation and what you can expect to pay on different incomes.

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