Your Handbook to (Financially) Surviving College

College can be devastating — to your wallet, that is. Between rising tuition and textbook prices and the cost of housing (student or otherwise), more and more students are finding it impossible to get through college without amassing some serious debt.

And financial institutions know it, too. They create all kinds of products to target needy college students — student loans and credit cards being the most common. There’s a reason why banks and credit card companies practically throw money at college students, and it’s not out of a sense of altruism. They know that if they lend you money now, they will be earning interest on it for the next decade — at the very least.

So how to avoid getting screwed by moneygrubbing financial institutions? Bob Sullivan has some answers for you in his fantastic little book, Gotcha Capitalism. Although the point of the book is to expose the sneaky fees businesses hit us with every day, there are several pertinent chapters for college students: one on student loans, one on credit cards, and one on cell phones.

Since pretty much every college student these days has at least one of each of those things, Gotcha is practically a handbook for surviving college without burying yourself in debt. Read More »