I would like to talk about one thing teenagers are notoriously bad at: saving their money. I know this from experience and many of my friends and family may find it ironic that I am writing about this considering I am one of the worst savers I know. But in the spirit of the national holiday, I decided that this was an important issue many of us need to confront.

Gary Vee, an inspirational speaker, often talks about the easiest ways to make and save money and as embarrassing as they seem they can help you out a bunch without even having to go to a job. One of them was going to a garage sale and buying items and selling them back online. In the video he made he shows himself buying a box of toys for $20 and then resold it on Ebay for $288.85. He believes that anyone can make $1,000 a week or more doing this and it takes no time at all. This is one of the many ways you can make money, it’s just all about putting in the work.

Recently one of my friends was talking about doing something similar, but instead of garage sales he wanted to go dumpster diving. So at around 10 AM on a Saturday we took the plunge. We went to a large complex of housing and started to look. We ended up finding a lot of cool stuff, including a lamp, recliner, among other small trinkets that ended up netting us $147 in profit and all he had to do was put in the time and the money came to us.

Once you have your money now you need to save it. Think of yourself right now and your spending habits. Now imagine yourself in 35 years and what that will look like. Many people envision themselves in a successful career, many a businessman or engineer with lots of money. The thing is this success and money doesn’t start when you get out of college and into the real world it starts right now. Instead of eating out, getting an omelet, buying an extra chicken sandwich, or just buying candy, set aside $20 a week by eating at home or preparing your own meals for school. By taking this $20 a week and investing it in yourself it will add up. By putting it in the stock market (average return of 7%) for 35 years you will end up with over $157,000 extra in your account. Even if you were just to put it in a savings account with a return of 2% for 35 years you will end up with a bank account of over $52,000. Although 35 years seems like a lot the return is obviously high and just a small amount of $20 goes a long way. Many people think in order to be “rich” you have to start the next Google or Amazon, but in reality starting now and saving throughout your life can lead to massive amounts of money without really doing much.