Ever spend a Sunday night out with your friends until four in the morning, only to end up pulling an all-nighter because you have a five-page term paper due at nine in the morning? I have, and it sucked. But, that’s college life. There’s no other way to explain it but as a change of pace; as a stressful, but vivacious environment full of changes. Stress is probably the number one factor in a college student’s life. For those of us that go to FAU, most of us commute and require a job to pay for gas and food. So, on top of at least nine credit hours, some of us are forced to work at least twenty hours a week. As a college freshman, I find my environment to be constantly changing, and tend to have ongoing money problems. That seems to be the general consensus for most of us: being poor. Aside from our tuition, which is ridiculous, we require books, supplies, shelter, food, and entertainment especially. That’s a load for anybody. My own experiences have absolutely deteriorated my savings account. Spontaneous events and random strokes of bad luck will lead to hundreds of dollars in spending. After spending $140 on a cell phone bill, for minute overages, two weeks later I found myself in need of new tires, which came to another $500. Now at a whopping six hundred forty dollars, I needed to go grocery shopping and had to penny pinch in order to not have to use my credit card, because that’s what’ll hurt you most in the long run. Credit cards, while handy, could be a college student’s worst nightmare. With limits as high as $10,000, and low monthly minimums you could get carried away. Nonetheless, the clever student understands to only use credit cards when you have the money, because if you don’t, the situation could become ugly. While I haven’t had the opportunity to rack up a credit card yet, I know many people who have. It would also be a lot easier to save money if we didn’t have to be entertained. I mean sure, a 24-pack, movie rentals, and Saturday nights out at the bar playing billiards isn’t too much money, but if you do that more then twice a month, it starts to add up. Especially if you go out with your friends outside of weekends. Me personally, I get home on weekdays around 10 or 11 o’clock at night, at least. College life is a money pit that never ends. While college life is stressful, we find a way past it. These are the times that we are forced to discipline ourselves fiscally to survive in the future. If we don’t discipline ourselves now, success in our future could be questionable.