Ok, so I don’t mean that we never go out or wear trendy fashions. But where are the savings? Where is any money for a rainy day? Or a root canal, new transmission, or trip to Europe? Where’s the Roth IRA?
$51 gets sucked monthly from my account by MetroPCS so that I can pretend to enjoy unlimited calling, texting, GPS and internet access on my dainty smartphone. Customer service stinks and my phone doesn’t get the best reception in a couple of areas.
So I looked into an iphone with a 2 year agreement with AT&T. A penny for the phone. But for the same features I get on Metro — $105 more a month! Good gracious, that’s over $5000 in 4 years.
Good thing I laid off on extra games of Websudoku and beers with friends three nights a week. They cost me $3 in caffeine the following day just to stay awake in class. Over the course of four years that would have amounted to $1000.
Maybe downloading 10 tunes a week seems like a minimal indulgence. But when you realize you could do without two of the songs and three more get such ubiquitous airplay, what’s the point in owing them? That’s five bucks a week, or another grand in 4 years you could easily save.
Hey, got a light? Not for $6 a pack. If that’s a week, you’re spending $1200 in 4 years. If that’s a day it’s more than $8000 unless you’re bumming from your friends (mooch!) or buying by the carton (addict!).
How about snack machines, fast food, and the cafeteria, instead of packing your own lunch? That’s at least an additional $2 per day ($5 or more if it’s every meal). You could easily save $1500-6000 while you’re here if you made it a priority to go grocery shopping and actually prepare your items or cook them.
Should anyone in college pay for cable TV at all? Please tell me you have more of a life or at least a good internet connection.
Are you trying to drive the car of your dream but you can’t afford the gas or an oil change? If you’re a young undergraduate shelling out more than $600 a month for a car payment, insurance and gasoline, you need to sell that bad boy and get real.
How much do you overspend on clothes, haircuts, fancy dinners for the girl, lame clubs, CDs, DVDs, weed, bling, subscriptions, 3D movies, speeding tickets, credit card interest, and NSFs when you’re overdrawn? $25 a month? $50? $200? $500?
Stop trying to be cool and stop trying to impress. You don’t need every new song and every damn gadget that comes out. Having fun doesn’t require an expensive night out.
Avoid the commercial and pop media brainwashing and get over your addictions. Take control of your life and stop dropping $20,000 during your college career on crap you would never miss, or the biggest financial lesson you’ll learn from GSU is how to get in debt and be a slave to your creditors.
Maybe MetroPCS isn’t so bad after all.
