Your parents can list dozens of reasons to save money in high school, but I know it isn’t always easy to listen to your parents— for whatever reason. When your parents tell you to cut back on spending though, they aren’t simply trying to stop you from going out with friends. Your parents and other mentors know about all the important reasons to save money in high school; here are a few convincing ones!
If you plan on attending college, that should be plenty of motivation to save money in high school! You may be one of the lucky ones whose parents will pay their tuition in full, but for many young adults, college loans are a very real threat. The more you can save during high school, the less loans you have to take out in college. Every penny really does count, when you consider the constantly rising college prices.
A more immediate reality you should consider saving for is an upcoming school dance. Whether it’s Sadie Hawkins, Winter Formal, or Prom, you’ll need a decent amount of money to cover all of your expenses. If you want to be the belle of the ball, you’ll need to dish out quite a bit of cash. That will be hard to do if you don’t begin saving several months in advance.
Your senior trip will likely be the highlight of your high school experience. It will be your way of celebrating the accomplishment you will have just achieved—graduating high school. Plus, it might be one of your last chances to get together with all of your best friends and enjoy your youth together. As with most things in this life, if you want it to be better, you’ll need more money. So if you want to have the most spectacular senior trip imaginable, you need to start saving now.
Unfortunately, you can’t predict the future. You never know what difficulties life is going to throw your way, and, as a young adult, you’ll have to step up to the plate to handle them. It always helps to be financially prepared for any situation, so make sure you have a considerable chunk of money to keep you afloat in any emergency.
A much less worrisome topic than emergencies is shopping! I don’t know about you, but I have no quarrels with saving up for clothes! Shopping for a new wardrobe for what lies ahead—whether it’s college, work, or travel— is an important step into adulthood! Sometimes you have to change your look to change who you are and become a renewed person. So begin saving up now for your post-high school wardrobe!
I think everyone could stand to learn the lesson of delayed gratification a little bit better. We live in an age of instant gratification; if you want to know something, you google it; if you want to buy something, you order it overnight from Amazon and it’s on your front porch the next day. But life doesn’t always work that way, and patience shouldn’t become a forgotten virtue. When you save money for something big, instead of buying several little things, you learn the all-important lesson of delayed gratification!
Saving money is simply a good habit. There’s a reason your parents tell you to save money; it’s because they save money and they know that it works. They’re probably happier when they have a full savings account than when they’re living paycheck to paycheck. You’ll need to save money in the future, so you may as well get used to it now!
Saving money isn’t fun by any means. Seeing money disappear from your wallet or checking account into an untouchable savings account is pretty painful! But I guarantee you won’t regret saving money in the end. Why do you think it’s important that you save up money?