A lot of students at Potosi High School have jobs, whether it is summer jobs or regular work. The real question is, what do these teens do with the money that they earn at these jobs? A 14 year old freshman, Rilee Drennen, for example, spent hours a day working with her father at Drennen Excavating and traveling to many local places that she had never seen before over the summer. 

Rilee said, “This job really opened my eyes to see that there are more things to Potosi than just what meets the eye.” She explained to me that she would go with her dad, Ricky Drennen, and bid jobs and travel around a haul rock to different places such as the quarry. She helped him fill out paperwork as well. Rilee said, “If I was looking to make extra cash, at the end of the day I would clean out the truck and make an extra $50.” 

Rilee said that she chose to spend her money because she has nothing to save up for. She said that she worked three days a week, every week of the summer and made $75 dollars a day plus if she would clean out the truck. This is typically just a summer job for her and she highly recommends looking into a job like this one. She told me that this is not something she personally would want to do as a lifetime career but if it came down to it she would gladly do this job. Unlike other girls her age, Rilee wanted this job so that she could feel like she has a responsibility to hold onto to prepare her for future jobs and opportunities. 

“The reason I wanted to take this job was mostly to spend time with my dad because he was always working. I also wanted to take control and have responsibility over something because I was feeling like I had nothing to look forward to,”  Rilee said.

Rilee acquired this job by one day talking to her father about this problem she was having, not feeling like she had anything to do or look forward to. 

“I was talking to my dad about making more money and finding things to do to feel like I had a purpose. He told me that I could come work for him and help him whenever he needs. I saw this as a win-win situation because I got to spend more time with my dad and make money while doing it.” Rilee said.

After taking a survey in my Trojan Time class, I found that most students would rather save their money than spend it. A large amount of the students want to save in order to invest it. Other students want to save so that they do not have to worry about having no money in case of an emergency.

Freshman Haley Dickinson said, “I would rather save my money because I don’t want to worry about not having enough money.”

“I would rather save my money because having money saved will give me peace of mind and will help me later on  in life. It will also give you freedom with how much you would want to spend,” freshman Lily Volner said.

Freshman Karmen East said “I guess I would save more of it. This is because you need large amounts of money for college, retirement, and any fun things you would like to do throughout your life such as vacations or traveling.”

“I would mostly save my money in case there was an emergency or something. I don’t really like to just blow my money on stuff,” freshman Ruby Gibson said.

Freshman Carley Coleman said, “I would save a portion each time I received money, so I can save for something bigger in case of an emergency or invest in something big.”

“[I would] save money because over time it will be a lot then when I get a lot of money I will invest it,” freshman Dakota Gilbert said.

“[I would] save my money so that I could invest it,”  freshman Jacob Griffin said.

I took a poll on my snapchat story to see who would and who wouldn’t save their money. After 24 hours of the poll being up, 59 people chose that they would save their money and 38 people voted that they would spend their money, 361 people did not vote–they were neutral.

After taking this poll and asking my peers why they would like to save their money rather than spend it, I found that many people my age would rather save their money so that they will have a lot more in the future and so that they can have better credit after high school.

Teachers at Trojan Intermediate School (TIS) answered the “Spend or save?” question and I got multiple different answers most had to do with saving their money. 

Fourth Grade teacher Kelly Littrell said, “I save my money. I don’t need much. I save my money for vacations, road trips, and camping trips. I like to save for big things. 

Contrasting to Mrs. Littrell’s opinion on saving money, a Title 1 teacher Amy Kitchell said, “I spend mine. Life is too short to not do what you want when you work hard.”

After talking to people about their jobs, taking surveys, and asking the overall question “spend or save?” I found that many people have the same thought process on this. People of the Potosi school district would much rather save their money rather than spend it.