College is often sold to young people as an experience. In the eyes of creditors, it is one that should be indulged in with little foresight.
When parents send their children off to college, many do so with the hope that their boys and girls will go off, experience life as they never have before, and return as men and women ready to conquer the world.
One unfortunate reality of college is that most students leave the nest with little education on financial matters despite the fact that they will have millions pass through their hands in a lifetime of earning.
The result is that most students end up in debt while in school. Some, while being encouraged to have a credit card, do not earn any money while doing so, leading to a lifetime of servitude to masters such as Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.
While credit cards are not going to leave campuses anytime soon, there are two simple ways for students to relieve themselves of paying 20% or more over several years for things that they shouldn’t have to.
Rent, Do Not Buy, Text Books
Publishers come out with new editions of textbooks every year or two. While some new editions are needed, most are not. For example, how much is going to change when it comes to algebra and art appreciation in the next five years? How about French or German? Not much, and probably not anything.
Buying an earlier edition of a textbook can save students much money, but at the pain of lost time trying to find out how the author(s) rearranged the chapters. For math, even if the same problems are used, they’ll be out of order, and homework assignments will be done incorrectly.
For this reason, a better alternative is rental sites, such as Chegg.com. Students can pay as much as $900 a year for books. Textbook rental sites can save students nearly half that even when compared to discounted prices on Amazon.com. That’s $1,800 over four years, which is 2/3 of the $2,700 credit card balance the average college student is holding.
There is no reason a student should pay full price on a textbook if he does not have to. Most textbooks are not needed for references in one’s profession, such as a future psychologist taking algebra, or a future nutritionist studying music. Renting textbooks can easily save students over $1,000, and maybe $2,000.
An even better alternative to renting is downloading books when available. Some professors have made their texts available for free as Word documents. The industry is out of control, and since professors do not bear the cost of the product, they do not mind sending their students to buy it.
The other unnecessary expenses that students take on involve their lifestyle.
Staying in a College Dorm Versus Renting an Apartment
As students finish their freshman year, it is not uncommon for them to desire more private accommodations. Dormitory neighbors can be loud, immature, and disrespectful.
To make it even more enticing, students are often offered apartments that make their share of the rent equal to that of their dormitory, but with amenities such as a semi-private (share with roommates) bathroom, living room, and kitchen.
The additional expenses thrown upon the student (or the student’s parents) are that of groceries and utilities. If the grocery bill is a meager $200 per month split three ways, then each student would be on the hook for almost $67. Over 10 months, the food cost per renter would be almost $670. When students buy their own groceries for one year plus buy books from the school store for four years, they will spend about $4,200.
When students do not work at all, or only work part-time, it is nearly impossible to pay off the entire balance every month, especially since living off-campus requires a means to get on campus.
Renting an apartment may be done for reasons other than money, such as unsafe dorms, but staying in the dorms while enjoying the food in the cafeteria (most people in the world live on less) can allow one to graduate with no credit card debt.
