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Upon entering college, most teenagers find themselves making their first financial decisions of their lives. By becoming more and  more responsible for paying for necessary things, the money choices are in their hands now (whether they earned it or get a set allowance from their parents) and with that newfound freedom, some teenagers tend to go a little overboard with spending and don't make the best decisions and that seems to be a very potentially harmful problem.     

I had never thought that I would ever take out a loan before I entered college. The idea of having to borrow money for something I want later seemed like such a bad idea. However, I found the choice to come to Southern Methodist University despite the extremely high tuition fees, dorm costs, and meal plans to be a wise investment. And even with all of the scholarship money and grants I got from the school of music there was still going to be a relatively small loan that I would have to take out. 

So I made my choice to come here because I wanted to and took out a very demanding job over the summer. I became a baker with some friends and was working about a 30 hour week (while attending a music conservatory at the same time because I wanted to keep improving as a musician in order to be competitive in college). And even though my friends went out all the time to shop with their big pay checks, I made my first financial decision (beside the one to actually take out the loan) to have my checks directly deposited to remain untouched by me all summer. This was a great benefit to me and a great life lesson.

And now I see others in college that are always buying new things and making financial decisions that are not always in their best interest and then I found out that their parents are paying for the college education entirely. I think that is not a very wise decision and potentially very harmful to the student later on. They will not know that feeling of devotion necessary for working hard now and not getting all the little things they want now, but getting the big things that they ultimately need later. This is a very essential life skill in my opinion and not obtaining that since of frugality in college at the least can lead to a not so prosperous future.