I've always wondered why Americans didn't save more money, or why I didn't learn the most valuable lesson in finance until I was in my late twenties. Why don't they teach this stuff in school?

Think it's impossible for a teenager to become a millionaire? Improbable?

Here's how it can happen. I started working when I was fifteen, as did most of my friends. I know a lot of people who started when they were sixteen, with a part time job at the mall. Either way, I was brining in around $100 bucks per week at the age of 15 and I blew it all. I can't even tell you what I spent it on, although it had to be movies and my girlfriend. I did save up for 15 weeks and bought a crappy used car, and I had to pay a monthly note on it all through high school, plus insurance.

Now this is what I wish someone would have taught me, and what every single parent out there needs to teach their children. Pay yourself first. No matter what. Take 10-15% of each paycheck and put it in a savings account, or CD before you do anything else. If your paycheck is $100 bucks a week, put $15 into savings automatically. Don't touch it, don't play with it, don't even look at it. That money is for investing.

A savings account or CD will only earn about 5% or less (sometimes a lot less). But here's the interesting part. If you save $15 per week for 52 weeks (when you're sixteen) you'll have $780 (plus interest). If a teenager works summers, they can increase that amount.

Repeat at the age of 17, you double your money (plus interest) and by the time 18 rolls around, you'll start college with $2500. That's no where near a million! I can hear you screaming. Ah, but you've taught your child the value of saving, and compounding interest and the most important rule of finance that should be drummed into every head of every person who enters the workforce. Pay yourself first.

Don't pay the movie theater or fast food joint, or clothing store or cell phone bill. Drop that currency into an interest bearing account.

Okay, so now your child is 18, with $2500 in savings. How can they turn that into a million bucks? Easy. Real Estate. Go with them to their college town, and while they're talking to the dean, you find a nice little tri-plex near campus for sale. Co-sign the loan with them and you've turned your child into a landlord. (well, technically, they're an adult by the age of 18) There may be laws about land ownership, and title in your state, so check with a realtor for the nitty gritty details.

Your proud little soon to be college graduate has a piece of income producing property in their portfolio at the age of 18, they have a place to move into off campus (after freshman year) and someone else is paying the mortgage and generating cash flow. Oh yeah, and they have net worth in equity, and if you were smart with the purchase, and depending on the economic conditions of the area, that could be substantial.

Guess what you do with the cash flow? Save and buy a second income producing property. And then a third, then a forth. Don't want to be a landlord? Hire a property management company. It will eat into your cash flow though.

As your teen grows older, they should earn more money per year through raises and job increases. So long as you teach them to pay themselves first, they will be able to save and invest more money.

You don't just have to invest in real estate though. I know several successful business owners who started their service companies in their teen years. I never would have believed my neighbor the yard boy would become one of the largest landscape companies in the state by the time he was 25, but it happened. Of course, he studied horticulture in school, and business management, so he grew smartly (not just in the head, but in business as well)

So how can a teenager become a millionaire? Invest in 4 income producing properties valued at $250,000 each. Sure, they're going to owe a mortgage on the properties, but the tenants are paying that down for them. Meanwhile, the most valuable lesson you could teach your teen is learned through a reward process. When you pay yourself first, you can get paid forever.