Please type in your four-digit personal pin number.
****
Withdrawal? Yes.
Amount? $30.
Would you like a receipt of this transaction? No.
Please take your card and wait for your money…

And with this brief exchange any college student in the world is fully equipped for a fun night out. No hassle, no paperwork, and no strict calculations necessary. It's even easier than a fast-food value meal. Too good to be true? Yep.

However easy it may be to step up to an ATM and drain some dollars out of our bank accounts, sooner or later the source dries up. And when the dryness sets in, students start to scramble for another source of income. This is well illustrated by the scene on the main street of one small college town.

In this town, a well-situated block of ATMs draws lines of students every Friday night from a cluster of classroom buildings across the street. Just a few steps away from the magic cash dispensers stands an innocent-looking building with a dollar sign next to a "Clinical Trials" banner framing the entrance. Coincidence? More like convenience. Students explained to us that the building offered anyone between the ages of 18 and 25 a quick way to cash in on medical research. If basic qualifications are met, so the story goes, students can collect up to a few hundred dollars by offering their bodies up for short-term cold, flu, or numerous other "harmless" medical studies. No real work is necessary, just a shot or two in the arm, a checkup the next day, and two days later, voila, you can inject a check for 50 dollars or more right into your bank account. Those who blissfully frequent the ATMs on weekend nights often become Monday-morning regulars with the Clinical Trials technicians. An easy little two-step, but no way to live.

At any given time most college students are one ATM withdrawal or one late credit card payment away from financial chaos. A standard feature of college life for almost all students is dancing along that line, beyond which lies the dreaded statement, "Mom, I need more cash."

Even if your parents are kind enough to cover the expenses like tuition and housing, there are plenty of other costs waiting to crush your savings. Take textbooks for example. Countless students fail to realize the cost-inflated nightmare that awaits them at the student bookstore. Classes require materials, and materials cost a lot. Even a used Spanish grammar book can come with a $50 price tag. Then there are numerous other ways to spend money without hardly even noticing—clothes, movies, eating out.

So how can you keep dollar signs from ruining your collegiate life? Apart from the fear of financial chaos, being broke, or being forced to turn to Mom or Dad for yet more help, keeping track of your limited resources is an important discipline. And college is actually a natural place to develop this discipline.

Financial responsibility must begin with the issue of stewardship. We should acknowledge that everything we have is from God and should be treated as such. When we do this, financial decisions become spiritual decisions and take on much more significance than we would usually give them. If Christ is lord of our lives, he needs to be lord of our checkbooks too.

In this sense, we really can't afford to be careless or selfish with our money. Credit cards, cash, and bank accounts are in our hands, but they belong to the Lord. First and foremost, this is a wonderful way in which the Lord can protect us. Included in the Bible's more than 2,300 verses referring to money are many verses that warn of the evil that surrounds money. In our world today one doesn't have to look far to see how easily money and sin can go hand in hand. Obviously we can't just rule out having or using money at all. But we can turn to the Lord and seek his ownership and protection.

Remembering lordship requires us to pay close attention to our motives in what we do with our money. This is where we acknowledge the unique standards of Christ and guard ourselves against sinful stewardship. Saying, "Hey, this really belongs to the Lord," reminds us to ask, "How am I protecting myself against my own selfishness?"

Materialism can sneak in and empty our pockets before we're even aware of it. Americans are especially captive to the strange habit of buying things we really don't need. We crave stuff. And it usually has to be the latest most up-to-date stuff. Other folks on campus have it, so why can't we? It is my money, after all; I can do what I want with it. Before you know it you have a brand new $900 mountain bike, a $50 dollar haircut, and 10 stacks of cds. Because of a careless and selfish attitude, you've let stuff define you. And you're probably broke. Part of paying close attention to what we do with our money means taking a hard look at our motivations behind spending it. In this sense stewardship looks inward as well as up.

Financial responsibility is also an area that greatly affects our relationships with our parents. More often than not the money we spend at college has come from Mom and Dad. Even if we have a job and are making our own spending money, they are usually paying the tuition bill. Sometimes this isn't the case and students bear the whole brunt of the cost of college. But in situations where parents are directly involved in our financial stability, it is important that we honor them in how we manage our money. This will mean consulting them when putting together a budget and being accountable to them for how we spend money. This is a great way of building bridges with our parents.

Money can be an endless source of conflict between students and parents. Why not head this off by being open, honest and accountable from the very beginning?

Any discussion of finances would be incomplete without touching on the question for the ages: Do I get a job? Some students have the luxury not to; this is a gift to be cherished. For many students, however, it's not even a question; it's a must. Scores of students must have jobs because they are paying for their own education or because they need to supplement what their parents are paying. It's a tough reality, and it requires fast action. Other students are lucky to have their tuition paid for, but they have to make their own spending money. Whatever the scenario, life will not be ruined by getting a job. When we say "job," it's important to specify that we mean part-time job—something that would entail no more than 20 hours of work a week. Your first job at college is to be a committed full-time student, so anything else will have to be part-time. Now, how do you go about finding the right job?

Here are a few things to consider. First, try to estimate how much money you would like to make through the job. How many dollars per week do you really need to bring in? Second, examine your class and activity schedule to see when you will be free to work. Remember that you may have to rearrange things to accommodate the job. Third, get moving. The good news is that lots of great part-time jobs seem to emerge in the campus and college-town environment. Ask other students, check around, see what catches your eye.

On campus jobs have also proved successful for many students. If you want to have time for studying while you work, try working at a campus library desk. If you want a job that will also enable you to exercise and work out, try working at your campus student recreation center. Or if you like computers and want what experts call the "slackest" job of all, try getting hired as a computer lab aide. Most campuses have computer labs, and these labs are typically staffed by one student aide whose primary responsibility is to make sure students sign in on the clipboard before using the computers. Think you can handle it?

Whatever job you may find, remember that you are ultimately working not for yourself but for the Lord. As those paychecks trickle in, make a point of recognizing God's lordship over each dollar and of praying that he will enable you to save, spend or give it wisely.

When it's all said and done, the students who take finances seriously are the ones who rarely find themselves in the humbling "Mom, I need some more cash…again" scenario. By integrating a mindset and practice of stewardship into all of our dollar decisions, we can avoid the pitfalls of an ATM lifestyle, not to mention being a guinea pig for clinical research.

This story was excerpted from The Incredible Four-Year Adventure (Baker), a book that John and Chris wrote about what to expect at college. You can find it at your local bookstore or online at www.amazon.com.

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today International/Campus Life magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Campus Life.

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