Top 5 Money Mistakes Made By College Students

Students will begin to descend on college campuses this Fall eager to begin (orcontinue) their 4 year break from reality that is college. For some, a complete lack offinancial preparation may have them paying for their mistakes for the next 20-25 years.

Here are the top 5 mistakes that many of these students will make:

1) Living their parents lifestyle at college.When young people are used to eating at fine restaurants (or ANY restaurants, for that matter) on a regular basis, they begin tothink it's the norm, no matter who is footing the bill. Too often, expensive habits and tastes lead to ballooning student loan and credit card balances.

2) Overlooking FREE money.Before students graduate from high school, most areexposed to the scholarship opportunities that exist. However, many are influenced by their peers to think either a) it's not cool to apply OR b) you have to be a brainiac sowhat's the use. While scholarships are NOT just for freshmen, if a freshman student has not successfully applied for some of the free money resources, chances arethey'll overlook those opportunities as they advance through college. FACT: it's as much a science as an art -- if they know HOW to find and apply, they will win awards.

3) Having no budget.While this is probably the most un-sexy topic to collegefreshmen, the reality is the only brakes they had on their own spending weregenerally imposed by their parents. Now that M&D are out of the picture (and out ofthe know), let the spending commence. If there is no set spending plan in place, the likelihood of blowing through graduation money, college savings, and Grandpa's inheritance are fairly high.

4) No forced savings plan. There are two things that students have on their side --one is time and the other is what that time will do to the money they put away now. Sure it may not seem like a big deal to save $30 a month out of the $3-400 thatstudents make part-time, but the habit that is formed makes saving 10% of $3-4,000 a month significantly easier down the road.

5) Keeping up with peers. When a roommate says, “we're all going out for pizzatonight, wanna go?” it's difficult (if not downright impossible) to say “no thanks”, right?

As difficult as it may be, the drive to keep up with the spending power of a neighbormay put students in the poor house for the long haul. Whether it's dinners out, newclothes, ringtones for everyone in the address book, or “socializing”, the amount ofmoney that a peer spends should have no impact on a student's spending... but it does.

Adam Carroll is the author of Winning The Money Game, a financial rule book to achieving success for young people as well as the author of the Scholarship MasteryProgram. You can check out more of Adam's advice at www.adamspeaks.com.