The 4 Biggest Money Mistakes You Can Make Before Heading Off to College

As you head off to college this fall, you’ll join roughly 16 million others in the U.S. pursuing higher education. And as you move into this new chapter of life, you’ll have hundreds of small decisions to make. Some of those decisions will undoubtedly concern finances. The last thing you want to do is make financial mistakes that could haunt you for years. Here are four you definitely want to avoid.

1. Overspending

Whether you’ve been saving money for school, plan on financing your education, or are fortunate enough to have someone footing the bill, it’s surprisingly easy to overspend before the first semester even begins. This summer, as you plan for that next big step, you may be thinking about all the stuff you’re going to need. A simple online search for “things I’ll need for college” produces a comically long and inaccurate list. For example, here are some of the items you’ll be told you “must” have if you’re living away from home:

• Mattress topper
• Coffee maker
• Instant pot
• Full-length mirror
• Noise-canceling headphones
• Area rug
• Closet organizer

And the list goes on. Before you buy anything, check with anyone you’ll be sharing a space with. If a roommate is bringing an area rug, why spend the money yourself? Everything is negotiable, from who’s supplying a floor lamp to who’s responsible for picking up room-darkening curtains. In your enthusiasm to create the “perfect” college experience, it’s easy to waste money you’ll need later.

2. Accepting too many credit card offers

Credit card companies absolutely adore college students. Back when I was in college, we used to believe that it was because companies thought we would eventually be successful enough to pay them back. We now know that it’s a numbers game.

The more students credit card companies can sign up, the more students will come to depend on cards to pay for the things they want and need. And once someone is using credit cards to cover basic expenses, they are one step closer to falling into a high-interest trap.

There’s nothing wrong with taking out one credit card, using it sparingly, and paying it off in full at the end of each billing cycle. In fact, it’s a pretty easy way to build a strong credit score. The problem occurs when too many cards to manage are taken out, or payments are missed.

Now might be the right time to ” just say no” to more than one manageable credit card.

3. Failing to work while studying

The millions of us who were foolish enough to borrow, borrow, and borrow some more to get through school will attest to this fact: It’s okay to work and pay your way through school, even if it takes you longer to finish that degree.

Will your experience be like all those fun-loving coeds featured in movies? Nope. Probably not. What the movies don’t show are those coeds 15 years later, still digging their way out of debt. You may not have as much fun in college if you work, but you just might end up with more money in the bank.

4. Believing you absolutely must live on campus all four years

You know what’s expensive? Paying for housing you don’t need. There’s no denying that living on campus provides experiences you may not otherwise have. But you have to decide how much you’re willing to spend on those experiences. Let’s consider another scenario.

The amount varies a bit by state, but let’s look at the average student living in Illinois. Because community colleges in Illinois are approximately 71% cheaper than four-year state colleges, earning the first 60 credits toward a degree at a community college in the Land of Lincoln would save nearly $21,000. And this does not even take into account the money saved by not paying for a dorm or any interest paid on loans.

If you’re in a dorm for the first two years of college, you may find that taking on roommates and renting a place off campus saves money in your final years of school.

The point is, there’s no single way to do it right. You have options. The less money you spend today, the more you can save for the future.