(Read Part I of this series)

Money is friggin scary. At least, that’s what my friends keep trying to tell me. They shove their fingers in their ears and yell “LA LA LA LA LA LA” whenever the topic comes up. Strangely enough, they tend to carry a bunch of this “scary money” right in their pockets!

So come on, my fellow college kids, and welcome to Part II: Calm Down, We Can Fix This.

As soon as I start throwing around words like “student loans” or “high yield savings accounts” or god-forbid, “CREDIT CARD,” my peers start to go bananas. It’s alright to have reservations, especially if you’re keen enough to notice that our country is in an unreasonable amount of debt. But seriously, take a chill pill. Knowledge is truly power, and power is money in this case – so instead of sticking your head in the sand, how about we focus on getting you an education?

“I have no reason/time/interest to learn about finances right now.” Argh. What? Stop. You use money every day. You carry it in your pocket. You’re wracking up thousands of dollars in student loans… and you think finances aren’t worth your time? Please, put the Guitar Hero controller down or log off of WoW for 15 minutes a week. And why should you care about this? Because no one else is going to take control of your money. My advice is not complicated. I’ve run up against a wall with someone who took an entire month to stop by the campus library (a building he passes every day) to pick up a book. Another friend told me he couldn’t even think about high yield savings accounts until after finals.

Look, I didn’t ask you to build an ark. I know you have projects and quizzes and finals and classes to worry on. But you can’t possibly be spending all of your time on that, because you keep sending me pictures of cats with funny captions. What I need you to really understand is that time is truly on your side here. And there’s not a whole lot of damage that you can do that can’t be undone. Sure, you could run out and throw all the money you have into stocks you know nothing about and lose all your money. But that’s not what I’m asking you do to.

I’m asking you to take a little bit of time and realize that money is, has always been, and will always be a part of your life. Even if you run off and become a hermit in the woods, that means that you’ve chosen a life based on the lack of money (also, I find this highly unlikely, due to your internet addiction). Once you’ve made this realization, I want you to take charge of your financial situation. I don’t want anyone I know to get their credit card bills and leave them unopened in fear. I don’t want anyone I know to shrug and say “I don’t know how much I owe on my student loans.” And I certainly don’t want anyone I know to live in constant fear and doubt because they’re living paycheck to paycheck, no matter how high their salary may climb.

So calm down! Whatever’s worrying you can be fixed. Got credit card debt already? So do I. We can fix it. Student loans higher than you expected? It happens. There are things we can do. Afraid of credit? Shut up. You’re not afraid of credit. You’re afraid of debt. Good – be afraid of debt! But don’t be afraid of credit. Learn the difference.

Seriously, people.

Next, Part III: Getting Your Head Start.

My friends get a bit jittery when I try to talk about money. Actually, almost everyone I know gets jittery when I talk about money. It makes it hard for me, because I spend most of my time reading personal finance blogs, or personal finance books, or just thinking about money in general. It creeps into my conversation all the time, mostly because I want to be helpful. I know that it makes people uncomfortable, and that it’s overwhelming to a lot of people, because it conjures up an image of fast-moving stock tickers and nonsensical TLAs (three letter acronyms). But no one can get rid of me just by being scared (as some of my friends have quickly learned), so I’ve developed a plan of simple, small steps for dealing with the money jitters.

Part I: Know Where You’re At, So That You Know Where You’re Going

I start off with two questions, which easily begin to paint the picture of how much this college kid knows: “How much do you currently owe in student loans, and do you have a credit card?”

If I get an answer of “Uh… well, I know I have loans, but I don’t really know…” then I know that this is the type of person who would rather ignore money, at least for now. This is usually followed by “No! I don’t have a credit card! Those are for bad people who have debt and are bad and debt and bad bad bad!” and misuse of the word “credit” when one actually means “debt” (i.e. “I don’t want any credit!”). Misconceptions about credit like this are a bit saddening, but also fairly common.

The key here is to explain the difference between credit and debt, and explain why starting to establish credit now will be beneficial down the road. I usually go with “Well, I assume you’re going to want to buy a house someday. Or a car. Or get a job.” and explain that a credit card (with no annual fee!) can be a simple way of establishing credit, if you do it right. (Emphasis on that last part!)

“But before you run off and get a credit card, you have to know where you’re at. And calculating those student loans is a big step, as well as calculating how much you’ll owe on them once you graduate. Know where you’re at, and know where you’re going!” It scares me a little, seeing people wracking up what’s going to be a major debt in their life, and having no idea of its progress.

This is not to say this is the only response I’ve gotten. Several people have known about what they owe, or even exactly what they know, or at least remembered that they looked it up recently. I’ve also had a few people who are living the sweet college life and will escape free and clear of any loans (lucky bastards). This is all music to my ears, because it’s an indication of people who aren’t necessarily afraid of their money.

My advice across the board for Part 1 comes down to:

• Know how much (if any) you currently owe in student loans, and how much you’ll ultimately owe once you’ve graduated.
• Understand how credit can help up, apply for a good rewards card with no annual fee, and pay the balance off every month!
• Start keeping a log of your spending for the next month.
• Get your credit score and credit report for free, so you know what (if anything) is already on your credit record.

Next, Part II: Calm Down, We Can Fix This!

Last month, when I was packing up my on-campus apartment and trying to unload my extraneous stuff, I avoided people for the most part, as much as I could. Everyone kept asking me the same questions, over and over again. Chief among them: “why are you leaving?”

I often cited the financial aspect, which was not small potatoes amongst my reasons. Of course, people – especially fellow film students – seem to underestimate the degree to which I am “poor.” When I explained that I could no longer pay for school, their first suggestion was to get more loans.

I was always leery of this option. More loans? I was already looking at over $40,000 in loans to pay back upon my graduation, did I really want to raise that to $50,000 or higher? Of course, I’ve since found that I was absolutely right in my thinking… or, at least, I’m backed up by the financial advice over at MSN Money.

The article How much college debt is too much? has solidified my opinion that I was in over my head. According to the article, your payments “shouldn’t exceed 10% of your expected monthly gross income once you graduate.” According to their calculations, the $25,000 I’ve already borrowed will cost me around $300 a month. Keep in mind that I am only two years into my degree so far, so a safe estimate is that my total monthly payments, on the road I was on, would have been $550 or more. The volatile and periodic work that befalls recent film school grads will never guarantee $5,500 a month in pay… no way. My boyfriend, who’s been out of film school and working in LA for over a year, made $28,000 that first year. But come to think of it, I can’t think of any programs that would get you $66,000/year the first year after graduation.

Also, the article alerted me to another fun tidbit that would have sent me into a tailspin, probably around the beginning of my senior year. I didn’t know this, but apparently, there’s a cap on the amount you can borrow in federal subsidized Stafford loan. After hitting the $23,000 mark (I’m at $17,367 at this very moment), my loan would have suddenly run out, and I’d have to scramble to start pulling in loans from private sources. No one ever alerted to me this, and I’m lucky at this point to have found and read this article, or I else I might have someday found a nice brick wall to run into.

I skipped even reading the part about parents and borrowing – my mother’s credit would never earn her a loan for me, and even if it did, she doesn’t have the means to make payments on it. This, honestly, is where I started to get rather pissed off at the other film students. After I would shoot down their “more loans!” suggestions, they would shrug and say “Well, that’s what parents are for.” I sometimes forget that film kids are generally suburban, upper-middle-class types who can actually ask their parents for money on a whim, and don’t even feel bad about doing it.

The end of the article offers some suggestions if you can’t borrow the amount you need. The first one, “Look for a college that wants you,” would have been useful advice three years ago. Back then, I was a cocky high school senior who was going to film school no matter what, and would find a way to make the money work. True, it was bold and courageous, but it also was a factor in landing me where I am now. The next suggestion, “Consider low-cost alternatives,” doesn’t apply to film students. Film schools make you go through their full four years – spending two years at a cheaper school will just make your degree more expensive, and take up two more years of your life. Thankfully, I knew this when I was applying, so I didn’t waste my time or money on some other school, and then transfer.

The final suggestion, “Get a job,” is pretty much a no-brainer. I didn’t get a job my freshman year, because I was sure I couldn’t handle the time constraints of my course load and a job. I was right – my inability to continue juggling my school work and my 20-hour-a-week job this year was a major factor in why I took my leave of absence.

So, where do I go from here? I’ll, uh, let you know.