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Top Two Bad Financial Behaviors of College Students

By Joshua 10 Comments

College students may not realize the consequences of their decisions. Here are top two bad financial behaviors of college students. Did you make them?

College is a great time in a person’s life. The relationships you form, the lessons you learn, and the life that you live helps to shape you into the person that you’ll be for the rest of your life – and a major part of that person-you’ll-be involves finances. Are you savvy with money? Maybe not so much? Well, a lot of a person’s financial behaviors are cemented during their college years. While college students have opportunities to engage in good or bad financial behaviors every day, they may not realize the consequences of their decisions. So, let’s expose the to two bad financial behaviors of college students.

Bad Behavior 1: Eat Out Every Meal

But I don’t wanna cook! I wanna hang out and watch TV! We’ve all been there – but stop it! Seriously, eating all of your meals at local restaurants has a lot of negative drawbacks.

For one, in addition to costing a lot, eating junk ends up weakening your immune system, and… seeing as you’re surrounded by thousands of germ-factories… you’ll get sick. That turns into medical bills and time away from classes for which you are paying way too much to miss.

For two, if you skip the meals out on the town and cook for yourself, you learn self-discipline. You can cook with good, fresh ingredients, and you can turn it into a fun experience.

Fun experience?!

Totally! Here’s how: don’t just cook alone – invite your buddies along and turn it into a team activity. Spending time together working on a task brings you closer and gives you time to catch up with each other’s hectic lives.

Bad Behavior 2: Max Out Credit Cards, Then Pay Them Back Over the Summer

I’m way to busy… uh… studying… to have a job during the school year. Nuh ugh. And not only does not having a job during the school year allow you to get into some bad habits (such as feeling that if you have a job, you don’t have time to do anything for yourself), it can end up costing you a lot.

If you forego a job, live off credit, and promise yourself that you’ll get a summer job and pay your credit card tab off, unless you already have the summer job set up, that’s a nebulous plan.

And even if you do have plans for a job worked out, there’s no way that you can know for certain the amount of money that you will earn over thee summer.

For instance, if it’s a job as a waiter, what if the summer is slow and you don’t earn as much? What if the restaurant closes altogether?

So, following that logic, if you did live throughout the year on credit, planning to pay back your debt with a summer job that ended up not paying what you thought it would, then you can end up accruing large amounts of interest that you need to pay back.

And if you look at the amount that pizza really ended up costing you, with the interest included, it might not taste as delicious.

Now, the worst part about this bad behavior is that it ends up forming the bad habit of having a credit card, maxing it out, and doing so thinking that there will be a nebulous way to pay it all of, quickly.

So, yes, college is a great time in a person’s life, but be careful that the habits you form during your college years help to set you up to be a successful student, and an even more successful alumnus. Watch your spending habits, credit card use, and the sorts of excuses that you might make to justify those two to make sure that you aren’t making bad financial decisions.

 

Filed Under: Education, Lifestyle Tagged With: Top Two Bad Financial Behaviors

About Joshua

Joshua is a high school instructor and touring musician who writes about humor and Catholic living at The Josh Greesonbach Show

Comments

  1. Jen @ Save to Splurge says

    November 6, 2014 at 07:36

    I ate out ALL the time! But I usually went to McDonald’s which makes it even worse!

    Reply
  2. Athena says

    November 5, 2014 at 20:35

    Until I drank the personal finance kool aid, I was really bad about eating out. And I’m not gonna lie, I still could eat out all the time if I let myself. But since being diagnosed with a gluten allergy, I’ve become much better about eating at home and making meals from scratch! My gluten allergy was probably a blessing.
    Athena recently posted…Welcome!My Profile

    Reply
  3. Michelle says

    November 5, 2014 at 12:01

    I definitely ate out for nearly every single meal when I was in college. I used lack of time as my excuse since I was working full-time as well, but it was such bad reasoning for my bad spending habit. Instead, I should have worked towards prepping my meals ahead of time.
    Michelle recently posted…Republic Wireless Moto E and 3 Months of Free Service GiveawayMy Profile

    Reply
    • Anne says

      November 6, 2014 at 08:31

      That frequently? I am surprised!

      Reply
      • Michelle says

        November 6, 2014 at 10:05

        Yup it was bad! To give me a little credit though. I worked and went to school from 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. each day and wasn’t able to go home in between at all. Prepping meals when I was that tired was very hard for me.
        Michelle recently posted…Republic Wireless Moto E and 3 Months of Free Service GiveawayMy Profile

        Reply
        • Anne says

          November 6, 2014 at 11:03

          Don’t worry, I know you were working 24-7… it just seems like a lot to go out nearly all of the time!

          Reply
          • Michelle says

            November 6, 2014 at 11:24

            Yeah it wasn’t healthy. I ate McDonalds in my car pretty much every day.
            Michelle recently posted…Republic Wireless Moto E and 3 Months of Free Service GiveawayMy Profile

  4. Amanda @ My Life, I Guess says

    November 5, 2014 at 09:27

    I am very guilty of Bad Behavior 1 – but barely touched my credit card, so that balances things out, right?
    I hate(d) cooking and there were no grocery stores easily accessible to campus, so cooking at home was hard. I also worked on campus, so I’d usually sign-up for a campus meal plan since I’d spend my whole day there anyways. It wasn’t too bad and I could usually eat decently for $5-$8 meal. But… yah, there was a lot of meals at restaurants with friends that cost more. Maybe I wouldn’t be so far in debt now if I had only learned to cook?
    Amanda @ My Life, I Guess recently posted…A Day in the (Unemployed) LifeMy Profile

    Reply
  5. How To Save Money says

    November 5, 2014 at 06:10

    Yup! Agree. Though I think we can do better with our kids, by going a few years back and start developing habits while their still young and teens.
    How To Save Money recently posted…Saving Money while MovingMy Profile

    Reply
  6. Jayson @ Monster Piggy Bank says

    November 5, 2014 at 04:59

    That’s really crazy. Eating out every meal shouldn’t be a practice of a college student. Imagine the costs of every meal. When I was in college, I went home to eat my lunch when my break was more than two hours.
    Jayson @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted…Online Business Update 2My Profile

    Reply

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