All through our high school careers, we try to save money for things we think are important at the time. We try to save for things such as a car, a new iPod or even college.

We work our butts off all summer long, thinking that we are racking up big bucks. But, when we look in our piggy banks at the end of the summer, they’re nearly empty. Our parents say that the reason for our inability to save money is because we spend it as fast as we make it. I’m not so convinced.

I believe that part of the reason we don’t save as much money as we hoped is because we, as teenagers, get ‘jipped’ from good paying jobs. Most of the summer jobs we hold pay minimum wage or lower. If we are expected to save money, we have to be making at least a decent amount. Am I wrong?

Adults may say that the reason for our low wage salaries is because we, in most cases, don’t have to pay bills and other expenses. That statement is true. Teenagers do not have as many expenses as adults do, but does that make us any less important?

If we have the ability to save now, we may be able to build funds for future references, such as for the bills we will have to pay when we move out. That is only if we can actually save money in the first place.

In writing this article, I realized that not many teenagers have the motivation or drive to save part, or nearly all of their paychecks. Most of us want to go out and spend our money on the fun stuff we can only experience when we’re teens, which isn’t always a bad thing. Shouldn’t we be able to have a youth that isn’t stolen by modern society and all of its harsh rules?

Many adults say that we teens need to get ready for the grown-up world, but I say that we need to remember what it’s like to be a kid, before we enter adulthood. We can’t be forced to grow up too fast before we even know who we are or what we want from life.

Having a job and saving money for college is a big part of our teenage years, but we can’t do it alone. We are, after all, only teenagers. I don’t think that it is our job to have as much responsibility as adults when it comes to saving money.

Sure, we do need some cash for after high school, but we also need money now. It shouldn’t be a crime to want to have fun, and sometimes having fun can be expensive. Saving money can wait. That is why it is so hard – because we don’t have time to be 30 when we are only 17.