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| The Basics | 6 lessons in simple living
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These days the college experience increasingly involves maxing out one or more credit cards. But some students are shunning the go-for-broke lifestyle. Heres what one group has learned.
By Rick VanderKnyff
Adam Haun, a college student in Seattle, doesn't have a credit card and doesn't plan to get one. "I view it as spending money I don't have," he says. Diana Nguyen, also an undergrad, says she has a card, but will only use up to half her $1,000 limit -- and only if she can pay it off at the end of the month.
Diana and Adam are part of a small group of Seattle University undergraduates who are meeting weekly to discuss the simple life -- and we're not talking about the Paris Hilton reality TV series.
These young men and women are trying to buck a national trend toward higher and higher debt. And while their peers don't always understand what they're doing and why, they are trying to make a permanent change in how they view money, credit -- and their future plans.
We sat in on a recent meeting at the university's student union and pulled out six lessons in simple living that other college students (and anyone, for that matter) can benefit from.
An avalanche of student debt
If there's one thing university students today learn, it's just how easy it is to get into debt in America. Want proof? Sit down and take notes. Newly released figures from college lender Nellie Mae show the following figures for undergraduates in 2004.- They carried an average outstanding credit card balance of $2,169 in 2004. Seven percent carried a balance exceeding $7,000.
- Only 21% paid off all credit card balances at the end of the month, while 23% made just the minimum payment -- or less.
- Nationally, 43% of them carried four or more credit cards. (For a more in-depth view, read "Why young Americans are drowning in debt.")
The growth of student debt is something that worries Cecile Andrews, a leading figure in the "simplicity" movement and author of "The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life." She has heard her share of credit-related horror stories when visiting college campuses to speak and lead workshops, so when she was invited to teach a for-credit course in "voluntary simplicity" at Seattle University, she jumped at the chance.
"To me, the troubling thing is how in debt they're going to be by the time they get out" of college, she says. "I hope that they can see that living simply is not just this negative thing."
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Lesson: Act consciously
The first step to making better choices -- when it comes to how we spend our money or time -- is living and acting consciously and examining daily habits, Andrews says.
Andrews encourages students to come up with concrete strategies for everything from credit cards to impulse spending. But a larger point she tries to make is that simple living is largely a matter of making better choices in life: about how we spend, consume, create community and spend free time.
"It's not just to consume less. It's to consume differently," she says. "We sort of go blindly along, especially when it comes to consumption."
Andrews has taught the simple living class twice now, and while it lacks some of the traditional rigors of university education -- it's light on things like reading and homework -- students who have taken the class report that it is demanding in its own way.
"It really asked a lot of me, to look at my life," said Anne Morano, one of the students in the weekly meeting. "It was the only class I felt excited to go to."
Lesson: Don't carry a balance on your cards
Credit cards are OK, but use them sparingly, and only if you can pay off the balance at the end of the month.
Of five students meeting around the table, all but one said they have a credit card. Going without has "never been a problem," reported the lone holdout, Adam Haun.
Others said they use their cards for books and other school supplies, and only if they can pay off their balances at the end of the month. "I have a $1,000 credit limit. I will use up to half of that, but only if I can pay it off right away," said Diane Nguyen. Anne Pryor said she prefers to use her debit card when possible.
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