How should I pay for college? I am in 8th grade and am wondering if I can start anything.

Answered

I would start by opening a joint bank account with a parent, since you can't have your own yet, and depositing the money you currently have if any into it.

Since you're not 16 yet, you can get an unofficial small job like tutoring or odd jobs around your neighborhood. When I was in 9th grade I tutored a kid a few years younger than me for $15/45 min, both virtually and in-person. If you can tutor in something like music, you might make even more. You definitely seem like you have the credentials to tutor since your grades are perfect.

Once you are 16, you can get an entry-level job to get more hours and actual employment experience. I don't know what that will look like in 2-3 years, but at the time I got my first and second jobs in 2021, the market was pretty desperate to hire anyone. Many businesses had signs saying "hiring" last summer especially. I had more choice as the one searching for a job: I originally was hired for a minimum wage job at a national fast food chain but switched to a local chain with a more pleasant environment and dollar above minimum wage pay. You can get on Indeed or Glassdoor and look at job listings.

Finally, something I've been meaning to do for a while that is ABSOLUTELY optional is open a joint investment account with my parents - you can't have your own until you're 18. If you or they know anything about investing, you can make some profit from the stock market. My parents told me when I get my own account, it should be with TD Ameritrade because unlike most brokers, it charges no fees for assigning or executing options. Of course, there's plenty of resources and basic guides to investing online if you're interested. None of this is urgent and you won't be the only one to pay for college, you will receive some financial aid and parents should help. Good luck!

It might be hard to get scholarships till you get a little older, but make sure to keep your 4.0 and do well on the ACT/SAT!

Keep getting good grades, take classes that challenge you but don't overwhelm you, and study for standardized test so you can get good scores on them and stick out to colleges. The earlier the better!