Have you been following the stock market lately? Personally, I didn’t even care about Wall Street until a few years ago, certainly not as a college student. So I’m not an expert, and if you happen to be a business major then please let me know if I screw this up. But from what I understand, we’re in a serious mess.

Big financial institutions are in deep trouble, so much so that the federal government has proposed a $700 billion bailout plan, to keep our economy from irreversible distress. So to break it down in terms that this biology major can comfortably understand, companies that deal in money have been abusing the system for years, treating credit like it grows on trees. And it’s caught up with them! But these companies hold such a stake in our economy that if they all go under, it could mean economic collapse. So the Fed wants to step in and lend (!) $700 billion to bail these people out.

As my husband just said, the problem with all of this is that people borrowed more money than they could pay. So lest I get up on my soapbox about the national economy, let’s get right to my point. When that shiny credit card application comes your way, think about what you are doing!

College students have a bad reputation for accumulating credit card debt, so then when they graduate, they’re paying on both student loans and credit cards — not really the fresh start to adult life that many graduates prefer. And while it may be fun to buy that stereo system, or the latest palm technology, or the cutest clothes — it’s not worth it unless you can reasonably pay for these things without using credit.

Why? Because nobody will be there to bail you out years from now, when the real world catches up to you.

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7