The Before-18 Financial Checklist

Eleven boxes. Check them all before your 18th birthday and you launch years ahead of almost every adult you know. This is a page built to be finished, not just read.

The Checklist

• Learn the 5-second scam test — gift cards, secrets, and urgency are the tells. (Test here)
• Open a teen checking account with a debit card and no fees — and set up direct deposit at your job. (How)
• Read one full pay stub and find gross, FICA, and net. (Decoder here)
• Fill out your own W-4 — and check whether “exempt” applies to you. (Guide)
• File your first tax return — even a refund-only tax return counts. (Same guide)
• Track every dollar of cash earnings — babysitting and mowing count for the Roth. (Free tracker)
• Open and fund a custodial Roth IRA — even $50. The account existing is the win. (Playbook)
• Buy your first index fund — and learn what you own. (Investing Basics)
• Become an authorized user on a responsible parent’s credit card. (Why)
• Run your college math before borrowing — loans are the last row, not the first. (Student Loans Under 18 · Calculator)
• Have the money talk with your parents — who pays for what at 18, 20, 22. Awkward for ten minutes, clarifying for years.

Why These Eleven?

Each box is a system that compounds: the account receives money, the stub and W-4 protect it, the return recovers it, the records unlock the Roth, the Roth compounds for five decades, the credit file ages quietly, and the scam test guards all of it. Do them in roughly this order — each one makes the next easier. Most can be finished in a single motivated weekend, except the earning itself.