<p>I am the mom of a beach lifeguard as well. He works on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He started out by lifeguarding at the local pool. He loves his job, works long hours (40 plus) and does make good money. He has had to make more than a few saves this summer and I am proud of him. I do worry about him and do a lot of praying 
It is nice though, he knows that he has a job every summer and is paid well.
His sister was a pool lifeguard and was able to lifeguard at her college during the school year.
Lifeguarding is not for everyone, but it is great job for those who can do it,</p>
<p>@BLUEPH Lol. It doesnât look like they do much on a good day and the beach and lake guards generally see a lot more action than the pool guards.They also do a lot of training before the beach opens so that if or when something happens they can spring into action. Visitors donât see that part of the work. Today a girl guard broke her nose during training. Never a dull moment. But the ones that love it, really love it.</p>
<p>The end of summer is drawing near. Some students will head back to college next week, while others have at least two more weeks before they go back to school. </p>
<p>Using the formula below, I ask the question again, how close did you get to earning that EXTRA $3000?</p>
<p>Formula: Student Earnings â (Student Expected Contribution + Taxes + Expenses) = at least $3000.</p>
<p>My daughter had an internship this summer, so I used the above formula to see how close she came to netting at least $3000.</p>
<pre><code> $5940 â ($1950 + $1306 + $655) = $2029.
</code></pre>
<p>She did not get there, but she has a good sum of money to head back to school with.</p>
<p>I was just talking to D2. One of her friends took a campus research job (same as she did this summer). Stipend for freshman is $4,800, but they have to pay for dorm room (was $23/day this summer) and their own food. But you could net $3,000 out of that pretty easily, small amount of taxes taken out. The friend also took a second job in their college town because she needed extra money for school (parents blew some of their college savings on something else last year :o ). So I think she ended up earning more than $3K for the summer doing that.</p>
<p>My son will be going back with exactly zero of his own money. He worked for a month while he was home but since then has been in Taiwan studying Mandarin. The program is fully funded except for incidentals, which in his case means regular trips to the night markets for delicious food. He has spent all the money he took and will just make it with what we have provided him on top of that. But his experience is so fantastic that in the greater scheme of things, itâs worth it to take another hit for him this fall.</p>
<p>@intparent You did not mention the âstudent expected contributionâ to the college. Students can net at least $3000 if their parents pay for their student contributions. Not so easy if the student has to pay this contribution from summer earnings. But you did mention that the student took on a second job, which would have made it easier.</p>
<p>My D will work as a residential camp counselor next year (summer between 11th and 12th grade) and any other summer she is available. This job does not pay well but it does cover room and board and itâs something she loves and she should come close to the 3K mark for the 10 weeks. This was her 10th year at this camp and she has now completed all the training she needs to be staff next year:-) </p>
<p>@BLUEPH, the point of my post was really to say that a second job is feasible along with a summer research position on campus. At least at my kidâs school it is.</p>
<p>I think my kid is making around $5700 this summer. ($12/hour, mid May through mid August) Dorm room is provided as is one meal a day. Donât know what his taxes will be.</p>
<p>I donât understand the formula. I thought this discussion was that schools expect students to provide about $3000 toward college each year, and how do they get that $3000? Why are we then subtracting âstudent expected contributionâ from the earnings?</p>
<p>I didnât think we were discussing earning $3000 in addition to the expected contribution, but earning the contribution.</p>
<p>One of my kids has about $3k, the other about $2k to go off to college, but that wasnât all earned this summer. If they spend through that, theyâll have to start from zero for next year.</p>
<p>" Many, if not all schools, expect students to already pay a portion of their summer earnings as âself help.â Taxes are being withheld. Summer expenses will need to be factored in. And yes, even the thriftiest will have some type of expenses during the summer. So, where does a student get that extra $3000?"</p>
<p>@twoinanddone After my original post, I realized that from some of the responses posted, there was some misunderstanding. I later posted (#33)</p>
<p>âThe extra $3000 I referenced in this post was the amount of money a student would have saved by the end of summer prior to returning to school in the Fall. For example:
Student Summer Wages â Mandatory Taxes â Summer Expenses â âSelf Helpâ Contributions = at least $3000.â</p>
<p>There have been instances where students are gapped and need an extra amount of money to be able to pay tuition. They come on CC to ask for suggestions and, too often, have been told that they could have easily made that extra money during the summer. Well, this is not an easy task if studentsâ earnings were already budgeted for summer expenses and âSelf Helpâ Contributions to their college.</p>
<p>My son earned $3600 after taxes with a nine week summer internship. (4500 pretax). We are full pay so his expected contribution from the school is 0. We expect him to pay for entertainment, meals outside the meal plan, and any other âwantsâ.</p>
<p>Sally, I would not consider that so much a âhitâ as much as a really good investment for your sonâs long term success.</p>