I ' m not sure that would work perfectly . I don ' t like taking money from my parents , so I ' d feel bad even back even I was a teen about investing money that made my parents pay me more . Now , I have several similar accounts , some from my parents , some from my grandparents . They are all growing steadily one just topped $ 36 k , another $ 52 k , and , even though I ' m in a bit financially rough times , I have a rather large rainy day fund and absolutely no desire to touch any of those accounts . My parents let me know about them when I was around 12 , but never really talked about them as available money . When I received checks for a present , my parents helped me put it in a savings account . When I got large amounts of cash , I ' d normally just request they deposit it as well . When the account reached a large amount , my parents took me to the bank and my financial advisor went over CD options with me . I was 14 at the time and decided on a 4 year CD , so that it would be available when I was heading to college . Unfortunately , I can ' t exactly pinpoint what actions my parents took that made me so careful to save . Actually , I had to learn postcollege how to treat myself , because I was willing to always avoid eating out and buying nice clothes just to horde over half of my paycheck each month . Eventually , I guess I went off the deep end and used that savings to start a game studio , so it didn ' t all work out . The only time I felt financially betrayed by my parents was when they encouraged me to get a job at 16 , saying it was to get experience and build my resume . However , when I got one , they then told me I had to buy all of my own clothes from that point forward , which meant the overall financial benefit of working was far less than minimum wage . I guess that was the point I stopped feeling the urge to get new clothes , since I was bitter about being tricked into having to buy them for myself .