Older Americans who haven't saved enough for retirement could learn a lesson or two from these young retirement savers -- they've already socked thousands of dollars away for their golden years.

Fabian Fernandez-Han
Age: 14
Age started saving: 10
Amount saved: $10,000
Hometown: Houston, TX

One day I saw my dad trading on eTrade. It looked interesting so I wanted to do it. I had always saved my allowance money and birthday money, and the first thing I bought was Apple stock -- when shares were only $100.

I now have an eTrade account and a Scottrade account. In addition to Apple, I've also invested in other stocks like Google, Microsoft and Rim. I have some money in a savings account, too. But most of the money I plan to use for retirement is invested in stocks.

This January, the New York Stock Exchange was sponsoring a competition where the challenge was to create something to teach other kids how to save and invest. I decided to make an iPhone app called Oink-a-Saurus targeted at kids and teens who want to learn ways to save money, and I ended up winning first place.

I want to help other kids learn to save and invest more responsibly. The current generation cannot rely on Social Security, so we have to save for our own retirement and can't depend on that.

When I was 7 years old, all the kids would get trophies whether they won or lost and I thought they were worthless. I asked my mom, who would actually pay for the trophies and how much they cost. When she said they were $10 apiece and parents paid for their child's trophy, I asked if I could keep the $10 to save in a bank account instead of receiving the trophy.

I'm not planning on spending most of the money I have invested for a very, very long time. I'm not that scared about investing most of it in stocks, because when you're a kid it's not that big of a deal if you lose a little money -- you still have time to get it back.

Chana Goldstein
Age: 16
Age started saving: 13
Amount saved: $1,000
Hometown: Jerusalem, Israel

I started saving for retirement when I was 13 years old, as soon as I started working. I started my own website, 2learnhebrew.com, where I tutor people one-on-one who want to learn Hebrew and charge $12 an hour.

I've saved a lot of the money I've made, and I've also spent some on some nice little expensive gifts for myself, like a nice camera and a fancy pen.

Overall, I've put away about $1,000 for retirement into a bank account where I only get a little interest -- but I'm nervous about the stock market. I've probably spent about $800 to $900. And my family gives 20% of everything they earn to charity, so I do that with my money, too.

I'm only in 10th grade, so I haven't yet thought about what I will do when I retire. I don't watch TV now, so I won't then either. But I think having money saved up when I'm older will help me continue doing good things and helping other people.

Tommy Orme
Age: 17
Age started saving: 16
Amount saved: $3,000
Hometown: Great Falls, VA

I'm only $3,000 in so far, but 20 more years of doing this and it will be pretty substantial. When I'm sitting on something like that, I can maybe step out of the workforce at a younger age or I can do something that I love that wouldn't otherwise give me sufficient income.

I'm a senior in high school and I got a job a year and a half ago at a restaurant. During the summer, I work four days a week. And during the school year, I work two to three nights a week.

My parents and I opened a bank account, and I started putting all my paychecks and half my tips away. The other half of my tips I'll spend on things like gas and food. The tips are harder to put away because they're cash, right there in front of me. But the rest of it goes in the bank account and I think of it as untouchable.

It all started from my mom. Even before I started working, she would give me a cut below my birthday money and put the rest away in my account. It would come out in bits and pieces throughout the year when I needed it, but a lot of that birthday money was saved away. So when work started it was a no-brainer to do the same. It's pretty nice to think I could have it 60 years from now.

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/super-young-retirement-savers.html?page=1