All Bets Are Off - 2/11/2002

How to Earn Some Free Money
By Jon, Conval High School

It's funny that Americans spend so much of their time earning and dealing with money, and yet many of them don't think about how much of it they just toss aside. I'm talking about change. Americans receive thousands of dollars a year in change, but I am not interested in the change you get from a cashier. I would like to tell you about the kind that we as a culture walk right past every day. Most Americans would not stop to pick up a penny, nickel or dime. Many would even pass by a quarter or even a dollar bill. Most Americans think that a penny is not worth keeping. 

I did a survey in my school last month to see just how many kids would stop to pick up a penny. Ninety-three out of the one hundred students I asked said that they would not stop to pick up a penny. That just goes to show that people don't understand that money is money, and that if you save just a little every day, it will add up to a good amount in time. I then asked the same people whether they would pick up one thousand dollars if they saw it on the ground. Every person said they would pick that up. I then told them that if they picked up those pennies they see on the ground every day, in five to ten years they could have made a free thousand dollars. Many of them did not believe my statement; even after I explained it to them only one person changed their mind and said they would pick up the penny.

I did a little bit of research last month to help me show you how much money you could save just by picking up change on the ground. I kept a record of all the change I found each day. In the month of January I was able to find $5.96. Many of you may be saying, "Well that doesn't seem to be worth the effort," but the fact is, if you stop and pick up every coin you see on the ground, it can add up. On average, I found a little more than 19 cents a day. That means that I would find about seventy-two dollars a year. After five years I would have found three hundred and sixty dollars, and after 10 years it would add up to seven hundred and twenty dollars. I found just about twenty cents every day, so just think of how much you could have if you saved a quarter a day for ten years. That would add up to nine hundred dollars in the end. If you were to put the change you found in the bank, say after each month, you would earn interest on it, so you would make even more free money. For as much work as bending over and picking up a penny of the ground, ninety dollars a year isn't bad. 

The fact is, some people just don't see the value of change. Many Americans would pass by a coin on the street without stopping to pick it up, but there are also people who throw away the change they already have. A few months ago my school had a bomb threat, so we were all evacuated and were standing in the field by our school. While out there, I came across a group of boys who were trying to see how far they could throw rocks across the empty part of the field. Obviously throwing rocks is not a good idea, but that has no relevance to my article. The thing that caught my attention about that group of boys was the fact that one of them was not throwing rocks. He was standing there, emptying out his pockets of all the change he had, and hurling it as far as he could. I could not believe that he would just throw away money like that. He was not just throwing pennies either, but I saw him throw a few nickels, dimes and many quarters. I went up to him and asked him why he was throwing his money, and he simply said, "Because it flies better than rocks." I could not go and retrieve the coins he had thrown for fear of being hit by the others stones, so I just walked away, baffled at his actions.

I hope that from reading this article you have learned that stopping to pick up change on the ground is not a waste of time, but it is actually quite worth while. I have seen many adults lately who were just a few hundred dollars short of their credit card bill or car payment, and in that situation an extra hundred or two dollars in change can go a long way. I know that when you are an adult bills keep coming, so paying one won't prevent more from piling up, but being behind on one payment puts you a little more behind on the next payment, and after a while you are in major debt. Having a little extra money to fall back on in case of an emergency is always a good thing, especially when the money is free. I hope that now you will have an eye open for change on the ground. 

I have been collecting change for a while, and I just went to the bank and got a nice crisp hundred-dollar bill for just a bunch of "useless pennies." It turns out that my story of that boy who was throwing coins turned out to have a very funny ending. Later that day when we were back in school I bumped into him at the soda machines. He turned to me and asked "Jon, do you have a quarter I could barrow?" I told him that I didn't, so he said, "Why not, you always have some change on you. Why don't you have any today?" I stood there and thought for a second and thought about how stupid a question that was, and then I looked him in the eye and said, "Because change flies better than rocks." He stood their, not understanding that what I had said was sarcastic. When he was about to leave I told him, "Hey, I hear there are some coins outside on the field, but you probably wouldn't want to waste your time with a few dollars." When he understood what I had said, he turned and said to me, "Well I wasn't thirsty then." 

I told you that story to show you that some people can be really stupid when it comes to money, and don't think about the times when they might want that extra fifty cents they saw on the floor earlier, or that quarter they threw at Billy during lunch. Many people have no idea that they are throwing away something that could be worth something to them some day. I hope that in the future you will not act like that, but will spend that extra five seconds a day picking up change. Trust me, in ten years, you will be glad you saved it. 

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