I'm officially done with college! On to the fabled "real world".

In that last few days I've realized that I managed to graduate college and:
- Still regularly visit a website devoted to an ancient Star Wars game
- Not be able to grow a real beard
- Not own a credit card

Does that make me a loser? Discuss.

Congrats and good luck with the "real world." (after all it's all like the Matrix)

Do you have any careers in mind?

The real world sucks. Go back to college.

Yes, but don't worry, I'm right there with ya.

I couldn't disagree more. The real world is far, far better than college.

It depends on your lifestyle and where you live for the most part.

If that were the case then I would suggest moving. And no better time to do that then freshly graduated.

Unlike Wolfy, I couldn't agree more...

Man, I have no idea what I'm going to do when I leave Uni.

Well done, I suppose.

If you dont have a credic card, you beter get one now, you need some way (unless you are doing it another way) to build upi your credit, just get like a $500 creditcard, and use it only for gas and pay it off right away to start off with amazing credit.....

Otherwise, no your not a loser, you did crak and then dropped out, then you would be...

Don't get a credit card just to build credit.

Congrat.s

Or just don't get a credit card!

Yay NAILFACE Sr.!

if you were to get a credit card just don't buy stuff you couldn't already afford. Spend about 1/3rd of the total amount available. It is a good way to build credit especially if you have none at all.

At least you have the ability to apply yourself to actually go to and finish college. I slacked off in high school so bad that I don't think college would be my sort of thing.

I do not own a credit card either and I'm not all that excited to get one. Everybody and their mother is telling me to establish some form of credit. I don't think credit is all that. Way to many ways to ruin your financial life in a very short time frame and also takes a good financial sense (cents ) to not get anal raped by banks and what not.

Both my parents and my best friend are all in large amts. of debt. I hate being in debt of any form and to me, credit is a constant debt. Swipe your card and you are now in debt. Where as I prefer to hand crash/use debit card and all debts are paid right then and there.

I'm with Wolfy. Having $$ is FAR better than being broke and I do NOT miss late night cram sessions and trying to get your program/paper/thesis done by 3 PM on a Tuesday.

I find all this fear of credit cards amusing, just have a little self control. Plus they are clutch in an emergency.

You can tell who was getting laid in college and who wasn't.

I like college. The real world blows.

Actually credit is all that, you know say if you want to make a big purchase like a home. Or buy yourself a nice car.

Yeah, you're going to have a hell of a time buying a house without any credit.

Credit cards are not that big of a deal. My credit card company lets me pay off whatever is on the card whenever I want, not just when a bill is due. So after any significant purchase I just immediately pay it off. It's worked quite well for me.

Yeah everybody tells me (including family) that I ain't gonna get **** w/o credit. I still stand by my convictions damnit!

Well it's not impossible to live without it, just hard. Getting a nice car, a good house, all these things are hard, hell even some jobs/apartments. I suggest establishing credit so you don't have to pay 400 bucks activation everytime you want a cell phone, little things like that.

However if you make enough money, credit doesn't mean much, and if you don't mind living a bit more meagerly it's definitely not a horrible thing to go without. Mainly it's your cars/houses you have to worry about credit wise.

I think its insane that most people buy a nice car, and a big house and then spend the rest of their lives in debt, paying it off. Makes more sense to me to only buy what you can afford to pay in cash.

Except having debt doesn't mean it will be a hellish nightmare. You can have nice things as long as you can manage debt.

Because you need a car to drive to work, and you need a place to live in.

Buy this car to drive to work! Drive to work to pay for this car!

/metric

That is my point, i mean you NEED credit to do anything really, or at least to get a good rate, just dont spend alot on it and get good credit to get better intrest on stuff, thats all im saying, i mean to each his own, i just think that its best to do it that way, dose anyone else know of a better way to boost up credit?

There is nothing wrong with credit in and of itself. It just depends on how you use it. I use mine for stuff I need (like car repairs and the like) but can't afford at the time.

There's nothing wrong with carrying a little debt for a few months, just don't let it get out of hand.

It's actually a very complex system, house and land ownership.

Say you buy a house appraised for 230,000 dollars. You add a few niceties, and get it pumped up to 300,000 dollars. You still have 230,000 dollars to pay off of your house but you now have 70,000 dollars you can pull out ANYTIME you want for anything you need, called equity. Owning a house is like having a security deposit on your life, basically, and can keep you afloat through tough times. You can also easily get a loan redone so you get that 1000 dollar a month 30 year payment reduced to a 1500 dollar 15 year payment if you get in at the right time, saving you assloads of money. You have to make sure you have a good loan officer or they won't know when to lock your rate though, meaning you can easily get your loan redone for more than what you wanted.

It's really complex.

A car is really just to say "hey look I got rimz ***** lolol". Getting a decent vehicle in cash seems much more sensible, but we're america: Land of the indebted, home of the politically correct white christian society. Most people don't give a damn about sensibility and live at least part of their life like they like.

Also, credit is very nice regardless. For instance: my uncle has a good 500 grand plus in the bank. He could pay his house, cars, and all debt off in cash. Instead he lets it float around. It keeps his credit up mostly and gives him a lot of extra spending cash each month.

Yeah your uncle has loads of $$ but he is still in debt to banks. Right now he can buy good stuff, yes. But that nagging "back-of-head" thought of "gotta pay the CC" will still be omnipresent.

I'm probably being just a paranoid ****. But I absolutely, do not want to end up like BOTH my parents and my best friend who racked up many thousands in debt and had debt collecters call every ten minutes screaming "WHERE'S MY MONEY???" I hate owing people $$ (well anything). It means they got something on me.

GET THE BUS.

So what are you going to do, buy a house in cash? :/

If he saves, it's not really that impossible or unheard of. Walk up to a realtor, point, pay, bam you have a house. They don't care how you pay, just that you got the money somehow.

Debt sucks. I have a few thousand myself (not including the mortgage). While I doubt you can pay for your house in cash, I do recommend getting a 15yr mortgage instead of a 30yr (like I did). It has a higher monthly payment, but will save you many tens-of-thousands in interest.

Oh, and btw, Murc, I do owe you a CONGRATULATIONS for graduating. I'm a december grad myself.

CONGRATULATIONS!

BALLER

I may hate credit but I'm not a fool. I realize that it is a necessary evil in [American] economics. A car is feasible to purchase outright and my mom has seen it many times. It just takes time and dedicated saving. However, a house is a lot more difficult especially here in San Diego where homes are median $400K. It would take me a significant amount of time to save that up. If I devote my ENTIRE take home pay [~$40K] it will take me 10 years to save up a house. I basically do have to be a baller to purchase a home outright.

However, I will probably drop significant down payments on my really large purchases just so that 1) low payments and 2) length of time is reduced. However, I think it is folly to purchase something like a HDTV on credit. This is where people get in large financial trouble. People buy these things on credit and their bills start piling on. Then people realize "oh ****! I can't pay my bills!" and then repo men start invading. Yes, that HDTV probably is available for a near steal but those savings won't matter much when your rates are astronomical because your credit score is 542.

Buy what you can afford people. *gets off of soap box*