One of the best parts about traveling across the continent speaking to tens of thousands of students is getting to meet the other awesome speakers.

A good speaker friend of mine, Grant Baldwin, is the Master Jedi of showing young people how to make, save and invest their money. He’s even showing teens how to go to college for FREE! I reached out to Grant to help you figure out to do with all the cash you are making at your new part-time job!

Here’s what he had to say:

So you landed that part-time dream job huh?  The gig fits within your schedule, you get to work with friends, they pay you in a real currency (not Monopoly money), and you’re not having to scrub toilets with your toothbrush.  Pretty cool…congrats!  But we all know the fun part isn’t the work.  Sure, it’s not a bad job, but you’re not working for free.  You’re working to get paid…can I get an AMEN?!

One of the most glorious feelings in the world is getting that first paycheck.  It ranks right up there with meeting Oprah (for Ryan that is) or finding a pot o’ gold at the end of a rainbow…and maybe a bowl of Lucky Charms too.  The natural desire is to go out and spend every dime of that hard-earned money, but is that really the best thing to do?  I’m sure you know it’s not.  There are basically three things you can do with your money, and you should have balance with all three: spend, save, and share.

Of course, your favorite is probably the spending part.  Nothing wrong with that, but you have two more pieces of the pie as well.  You should be saving some of your money.  Saving for college, a new car, your retirement, or even just for a rainy day when an emergency might happen.  And finally, you should share or give some of that money away.  Money isn’t just for piling up and feeling loaded.  Part of the responsibility of having money is to help others who are less fortunate than you.

As you get older and your life circumstances start to change, how each piece of this pie breaks down may look different, but you should always have all three pieces in place.  For students, here’s what I would recommend you do with the money you get…

10% – Share
30% – Spending
60% – Saving

The biggest chunk of your money should be put towards savings since you’re probably saving for college, a car, your emergency fund, or all three.

Learning to handle your money may be one of the most important things you can do as a teenager.  Whether you’re rich or poor, you’ll always be dealing with money, so why not learn to handle it now.

For more information about how to handle your money, visit Grant Baldwin‘s student financial website, www.BrokePiggy.com.  You can also download his free, new e-book called “How To Go To College For FREE!“

This is it. You asked for it so I deliver it, just like a pizza but with less garlic so you can still kiss someone after consuming it.

The Make Your Own Lunch™ blog.

This is the place for you to come and learn how you can Make Your Own Lunch™. (Psst, hey new guy, Make Your Own Lunch™ isn’t really about food… Click here to learn about it)

This blog is a place where you can learn about what other people have done to Make Their Own Lunch and how you can do the same. You’ll learn about travel, education, money, hygiene (if you have to pause to smell you shirt -and it smells like a Junior Whopper – I’m talking to you) and a lot of other cool stuff.

You wanna learn how you can volunteer in Thailand, working with sick elephants? That will be here here. You wanna know how I got the chance to move to Japan to teach English in the heart of Tokyo or how I backpacked across Europe and Central America? I will let you know how I did it. You wanna know how to make more money or land the part-time job you dream of? Cool, I will make sure we write about that. You wanna start your own business? Good news, that’s also going to be taken care of here.

You want something else? Email us and tell us what you want to know and we will get our team on it!

Aside from having all this awesome info, we’ll also post interviews with people who are Making Their Own Lunch and doing some really cool stuff (think surfing photographers, professional croquet players and scuba diving instructors) We will also post videos and pictures to show you that we aren’t lying about all this stuff!

Our goal is to write about the things that we are passionate about. For some of us it’s music and travel, for others it’s making money and staying healthy. Bottom line, we want to help you create an awesome life that you are excited about living! We want to help you Make Your Own Lunch™ and love every minute of it!!!

Check back often and make sure you join me on Facebook and Twitter.

Bon appétit!

–Ryan–