I have never wanted to earn money. I have only been forced to do so by the need and desire to spend it.
I started my first summer job at 14. Bought myself a discman.
I still don’t and I’m not young. At this point due to cost-to-benefit it’s becoming increasingly rare for me to buy things.
Health issues probably don’t help, though.
I was around 15. Not many jobs were legally possible at that early age. My aunt was in HR and she found a nice and well paid spot for a few weeks during summer.
The moment i bit into a succulent roast beef sandwich from arby’s. I also became a smoker and began puberty in that very moment
I was about 12 when the first people started offering money for fixing their computers. Like neighbors etc.
The amounts were wildly differing and the work was often the same every couple of months. But it helped me have a little slush fund for computer parts and beer later.
Delivered newspapers at 13, because I wanted to buy myself a computer.
5
Started raking blueberries at 14. Started in the kitchen at 16.
When I discovered video games at the arcade. So, I guess around 14.
That’s when I also discovered that nickles could be hammered into quarter-size slugs. There were three of us doing it. We’d use the nickles to buy tokens from the machine during happy hour at six for a dollar (20 cents worth of slugs), then sell them back to kids during regular hours at a quarter a piece. The kids would buy them because there was usually a line at the machine after school, so they didn’t need to wait in line if they bought them from us. That’s how we funded our addiction. I don’t remember how long we did this, probably only a summer.
My first wage-slave job was cleaning cages at a pet store around that same time. I took over for my best friend’s sister for a few weeks when she went to some sort of summer camp. I hated it very much. I worked a little harder in school after that.
Paper route summer after 5th grade (maybe 10-11yo). By freshman yr highschool, I had 4-5 routes totaling 270+ papers and would inline skate the routes to save time. Sundays were a bitch to say the least. But when I went “collecting” it was awesome getting paid and keeping a lot of that money! I went through so many wheels, bearings, and laces, and kept upgrading skates too. Been working 1-2 jobs ever since pretty much. I’m hitting 40 soon.
Paper route when I was 14.
Yes, I’m aware that paper routes aren’t really a thing any longer… I’m old.
I’ll let you know if it ever happens.
Middle aged now, and I’d much rather just have someone hand me the monies instead of having to earn them, so…
Around 13 years old when I started dating. Was a rink rat and got extra ice time and money refereeing games. Always brought all my gear to rink just in case.
