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Recent articles by Rick VanderKnyff: • Scammed -- even after you die, 8/1/2005 • Uncle Sam makes a mint off your spare change, 7/11/2005 • One Social Security reform plan that still has legs, 5/11/2005 More... |
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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.
"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." Related news and commentary on MSN Money 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. While their own credit card spending remains in check, all had heard horror stories about fellow Seattle University students. Morano had a friend who came to the university straight from Guam. "In the course of three months, she had gotten six cards" -- and not long after that, she had maxed them all out, despite limits as high as $7,000. When her father found out, he pulled her out of school and she went back home to Guam to attend university, "so he can keep an eye on her spending." For the record, Andrews said in a separate interview that credit cards are not verboten among simple-living advocates: "Yes, we have a credit card, but we pay it off each month." What they object to is the way they are commonly used and marketed. (For more on managing credit cards wisely, see the Decision Center, "Take charge of your credit cards.") "The credit card represents for me a value system of, 'if I just had enough stuff, I'd be happy,'" she said. "They're not just selling you a product. They're selling you a belief system." Lesson: Never buy on impulse If you see something you want, put it aside and think about it for at least a couple of days. Chances are, the impulse will pass. "I know I have my shopping issues," said Anne Pryor, but she is learning to keep them in check -- largely because she is paying for her own education. Morano said her own shopping habits have "definitely changed a lot" since taking the class. She still goes to malls, but when she is tempted to buy, "I made this my own rule. If, in two days, I still want it, I'll get it. Before, I would just buy it." More often than not, she never buys the items that she wanted so badly just days before; the impulse just passes. "Usually, I just forget about it." (For more ideas on controlling spending, read "Reprogram your mind to become a saver" and "7 ways to control your emotional spending.") Lesson: Find new venues for entertainment Find ways to socialize and create your own entertainment that don't involve expensive restaurant tabs or event tickets. Viet Tran reported during the meeting that he has "pretty good control" of his spending and always has. Haun, likewise, said that he has always been "slow to spend money." Which led Andrews to ask: Did the students think women tended to have bigger spending issues than men? Pryor quickly shot that notion out of the water. "Most of my guy friends spend a heck of a lot more than I do. Most of it's on food. And video games. And toys." She recalled a shopping trip with some male friends: "They got swords. What are you going to do with swords? Cook food with them?" Her male friends, Pryor said, tend to head out to restaurants on a whim, and some have a tendency to pick up the tab for the group -- a noble but expensive gesture. Haun said that one thing he learned in Andrews' class is strategies for "fun activities that you can do without money." It's a lesson that extends beyond college, Andrews said. "All the research is showing that the best thing you can do for your health and happiness is social cohesion, is to go out and do things with other people," she said. "The credit card mentality to go out and buy your entertainment is really getting in the way of that." Lesson: Leave space in your schedule for quiet time Quiet time helps you recharge your spiritual batteries and give you time to reflect on life and make better choices. Seattle is seen by much of the country as pretty laid back for a big city. But for Diane Nguyen, who came to Seattle University straight from her home in Hawaii, the move involved a measure of culture shock. "Hawaii is a very slow-paced place," she said. At first, she had trouble adjusting, but before long she found herself as harried as everyone else around her. "We're walking zombies, pretty much," she said. "We don't eat right. We don't sleep right. We're not happy." The simplicity class has helped her find some of that former calm again, she said. "I think simplicity is something everyone needs to take into awareness." Before meeting Andrews, Tran said, he was "always busy, always on the move." Now, he takes regular walks around campus, and sometimes Andrews joins him. "Little things really matter," he said. "I didn't have time for myself. Now, I've made time for myself." "This time issue is going to loom even larger than money," Andrews said later by phone. "And we as a society have concluded that time is money. The two are closely tied." Andrews' next book, due to be published in 2006, will be titled "Slow is Beautiful," and will expand on her vision of the growing "slow living" movement. "It's not just having more time. It's approaching time differently," she said. Lesson: Think ahead about what really matters Even if you can't plan exactly what you'll be doing after school, at least develop a clearer idea of what you want and what you value -- and how you might achieve it. Andrews asked everyone around the table if the class had changed their view of what they wanted to do after college. "Before, I wanted a luxury car and nice house overlooking the beach," Morano said. Now she values her time more: "Working hard just to get those things is not necessarily what I want." She'll be moving back home after graduation to save some money, and wants to focus on a career before starting a family. "I just want to establish myself first." Pryor, likewise, said she wants to "have a firm financial base before I have kids." Raised by a working single mother, Pryor wants to focus on family when that part of her life begins. "If I can, I would like to stay home," she said. "The depression rate among youth has gone up so much. I think its because people feel alone." Andrews related a story of her own. At a recent community meeting, someone asked what everyone would do if they had a year with no obligations and unlimited funds. "Everybody else wanted to travel. They all wanted to leave," she said. Andrews, meanwhile, couldn't think of anything she would change: "I'm doing exactly what I want. Either I have no imagination, or I have the perfect life." (For more on the traits of people who live simply, read "Simple living yields simply millions in savings.") In a class by itself Andrews teaches the class mainly through discussion. Rather than giving her students hard-and-fast rules, she helps them develop their own conclusions about spending, debt and living styles. "We talk very specifically about how you can develop a technique for yourself," she said. "I don't want to tell them how to do it, but I do want them to come up with something concrete." "When do students get a chance to just talk?," asked Nguyen during the meeting. Even though the class didn't have the kind of homework and study loads that most university courses carry, she said, "It's the class that taught me the most." | |
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