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When a student realizes that they have no authority over their own financial future it can come as quite a shock. I think that many students may make it all the way through college and never realize that they have had it great so far and that soon they may want to do things on their own. Every college student has that vision off in the distance from high school where they are successful and happy right away after they have graduated from school. This imagine is nothing to think twice about when you are young but as the time draws nearer to graduation many students should be thinking a little bit farther ahead in reality. The fact that most of us has no authority over our own finances with regard to credit and independent financial status is well and good until we realize that we can't buy anything without those things.

When students graduate without having taken control of their own finances, they have two different disadvantages. The first being that they may not even know how to properly handle money. The second goes along with that and is basically a general lack of knowledge about how to buy those substantial things that people desire with their independence. I am not advocating that every college student go out and get credit cards when they are young and try to build up a history before they graduate, but it wouldn't hurt. Some of us may not be able to handle that much freedom when we can always call our parents to bail us out. Others may realize the value pretty quickly as that credit score rises. One big way that we can all probably afford to do while we are still in school is to drop that family health insurance. As long as your are covered by your parents' insurance, you are viewed as a dependent person by the government and money lending organizations. This step alone could possibly lead to that house or that new car after graduation, but it may also lead to a simple feeling of freedom that is good for everyone when they are taking the big steps in to the world.