Perspective: How to Avoid Your Own Economic Crisis

We see the words recession, bailout and debt in the papers every day, describing our country's financial state. But these same terms can also be applied to our personal finances. The fact is that 84 percent of us have credit cards, and most of us have four of them. On average, we carry balances of more than $3,100.

What's more? We charge about $2,200 on our credit cards for direct education expenses every year. Add this to the $23,327 of average debt college students in D.C. face upon graduation and we are looking at years of monthly payments.

Consequently, many of us have fallen victim to our own economic crises. Whether scholarships have been cut or our own monetary supply has dwindled, we all have been affected fiscally.

The good news is that for most of us, this is an issue of money management and financial literacy, which means that we can educate ourselves and actually manage our finances. As there are no district or federal requirements that students take personal finance classes in high school or college, which is when most of us develop our spending habits, we may need to turn to each other and have meaningful discussions about money.

The good news is that we have some help. MasterCard's Are You Credit Wise? program is a peer-to-peer teaching tool to help us better understand this concept called money. Check out a presentation, consider the financial tips below and join the growing community of credit-wise students.

· Create and stick to a budget: Ask yourself, "Am I leaving within my means?" Set short and long-term goals for your money and really challenge your daily spending habits. That $3 cup of coffee you get every day before class adds up to about $780 in a year.

· Manage your plastic: Think about the number of credit cards that you have and make sure that you are opening credit card accounts wisely. Applying for too many credit cards in a short time period will suggest to future employers that you are trying to patch up a bad credit history.

· Think about your loans: Schedule an exit interview with a financial aid adviser and figure out are payment plan. You are entitled to this interview by law and you'll learn about the several available loan repayment options.

Crystall Gabriel is a sophomore public relations major from Charlotte, N.C.