🐴 The $150k teenage side-hustle (#119)

Meet the 17-year-old who turned a gardening project into a six-figure business. Plus: why being bored in high school doesn't mean college is the answer.

Author

Charlie Deist
January 23, 2025

Today’s daily content comes from the latest Q&A podcast episode with Matt Bowman and Isaac Morehouse.

Do you have questions about homeschooling/open education? Reply to this email or drop a comment on YouTube, and we’ll add it to the docket for next month’s discussion.

In this edition:

  • 😴 Why jumping to college won't cure your boredom

  • 🪴 The homeschooled teen who made 6-figures on a gardening business.

  • 🏦 Three surprisingly fun ways to teach real-world finance

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💡 THOUGHT

Don't Rush to College Just Because You're Bored

I used to hear young people coming to me all the time saying, "I'm bored in high school. I'm itching. I want to do more; I want to move faster." They were ready to jump straight into college.

And I would tell them: "You're probably going to be bored in college too."

Instead, think about where you're trying to go. What do you want to learn? What kind of experiences do you want to have? What do you want to discover about yourself and the world?

Then, list every possible path to get there in the next few years: college, working, apprenticeships, starting a business, and traveling the world. Look at the costs, what you'd enjoy, what you'd have to tolerate.

Then map it out semester by semester: which path moves you closer to your goal?

It may be college, but don't assume it's the magic ticket.

– Isaac

📊 TREND

They Said He Was Too Young to Start a Business...

Listen to the full episode to hear how other students have used the flexibility of open education to make more as teens than many make in their 20s and 30s.

🛠️ TOOL

3 Real-World Ways to Teach Kids Financial Literacy

Want to teach your kids about money? Skip the lectures and worksheets. Here are three hands-on approaches that will get them excited and make the lessons stick:

  1. Entrepreneurship: Isaac’s kids' first business was selling water bottles at a parade. They bought a case wholesale and sold them for $1 each. Nothing teaches margins, value, and honest profit quite like watching people happily pay for something they need exactly when they need it.

  2. Zillow: Kids love browsing houses online. It sparks natural conversations about costs, interest rates, and how time changes value. "Three years ago, this house was half the price!” “Know why? Interest rates were different..."

  3. “Bank of Dad”: When kids get money, give them a choice: spend it or put it in the "Bank of Mom/Dad" – a savings account with interest. Watching $100 grow to $105 transforms their thinking about money. Isaac first heard this concept on a podcast back in 2012, but now there are apps like GoHenry that achieve the same outcome with less setup.

(WORD) OF THE DAY

arbitrage (ahr-bih-trahzh), noun:

The practice of profiting from price differences between markets. (Like when a savvy kid buys water bottles at Costco and sells them at a parade – the equivalent of an MBA in middle school.

That’s all for today!

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

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