5 Money Moves for Gay Teens

Money moves Gay Teens Can Make Starting Today

Homeless gay teens make up 40% of the homeless youth in America. That means our LGBT teens need some serious financial help to be prepared for adulthood. Here are our four best money moves to make when you’re gay and 18.

Whether we jump out or are pushed out of the nest, many queer kids and young adults find themselves in similar financial situations with similar fears. This made me think of how The Debt Free Guys could help queer people in their teens and twenties who face similar situations.

Listen to us discuss this on the Queer Money podcast:

5 Money Moves for those Gay Teens (or Stright allies) 

1. Overcome limiting money beliefs. Many minorities, queer or otherwise, grow up with limiting money beliefs from a lifetime of feeling less than or inadequate. These limiting money beliefs are hard to avoid, but the best money moves to make is to not accept limiting beliefs about yourself, money or what you’re worth. What you believe becomes your reality. Therefore, don’t create a negative reality. You deserve as much success and happiness as anyone.
2. Open a Roth IRA. I spent one summer painting my grandmother’s house when I was a kid. I was paid $1,000. Being naïve, I spent all this money. I wish I would’ve invested it, so I had some security when I was kicked out of the house. Today, I’d open a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA lets you invest earned money in an account that grows tax-free. That means you keep all your investment growth, rather than having to pay taxes. The best way to ensure investment growth is to invest for the long-term. You’re 18 and have time on your side. This means you won’t have to save so much money so soon. Invest just $100 a year. We promise that you won’t miss it.
3. Avoid credit cards. Having a credit card sounds exciting. It’s not! Credit cards and debt are risky. A credit card mistake will screw you out of the houses, cars, and vacations you’ll want. What do we suggest? Cash! If you want to build a credit history, try this trick. One of our nieces FaceTimed with us last weekend to discuss getting a credit card and we gave her this advice, too. She wants to build a credit history, so she can rent an apartment in NYC next year. Our advice, which she’s taken, was to get a gas station credit card to build credit. She has to buy gas anyway and, unless she buys a smorgasbord of qwiki-mart food, she’ll never put more on her gas station credit card than a week’s worth of gas.
4. Track your spending. Start using a money-tracking tool like Honeyfi, which is designed for couples to do better with money, but can be used as an individual as well.
5. Live below your means. Take it from me, if you spend more than you earn, you’ll always be broke. Sports Illustrated reported that 78 percent of NFL players go broke because it’s not how much money you earn, but about how much you save and invest what you earn.

Your future seems like a long way off and money feels unimportant, but you’ll save yourself a world of butthurt, especially if you’re at risk of losing your family if you take even half my suggestions. If you accomplish these four steps in the next year, you’ll be light years ahead of me at your age, regardless of whether you’re pushed out of or jump out of the nest.