Many teens visit this site looking for ways to make money or to start a small business that will make money for them. Often I suggest to teens that one way that they can make money is to start a business for themselves or buy a product that they can resell and make money off of. A lot of times this falls on deaf ears other times teens whine and complain about how ridiculous it is that I would make such a suggestion – that their parents would simply never give them the money they need to do what I’m suggesting.

So are teens really powerless? Are they as poor as they claim to be?

Not so, according to MarketReasearchWorld which reports on a new study by Mintel on teen consumers. It says that in 2003, teen spending was valued at $175 billion. “The estimated spending power of teens, those age 12 to 17, is expected to top $190 billion by 2006, a figure that surpasses the gross domestic product of many countries in the world. In addition, families with teens spent $100 billion on them with projected spending for 12 to 17 year olds as $128.5 billion in 2006″.

Oh, and by the way, that $175 billion is just in the United States alone. In countries like Brazil, its $43 billion. There’s no telling what the combined spending power of teens worldwide would be.

And what about the economic downturn? Is it hurting teen spending habits at all?

Well apparently even in these tough times, teens are still a force to contend with. In an article about the spending habits of teens, VirtualGoodsNews reports that a volunteer survey of over 4,000 teens,“found that despite the economic downturn, 31% of teens claim to be getting more money than ever while 26% claim their allowance is unchanged. While 24% of teens claim they are too old for an allowance only 11% of teens would say that they now receive less money from their parents than they had in the past”.

So this argument that many teens have that you are so powerless and you have now spending power, is simply not true. The fact of the matter is, when you really want to buy something, you find a way to do it.

About Amber: My name is Amber and I'm the Editor of TeenMoneyMakingIdeas.Com. As a teenager, I started making money when I was 13 years old. I had all the typical jobs that teenagers have such as working in fast food joints and retail stores. At 19, I formed my own cosmetics company. And shortly after that I started my own import business. Now I'm earning money online. Join me as I discuss all the ways I've discovered for teens to make money. Read more about me here.

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