Almost every time I read an article about funding your child’s education, it turns into a discussion about saving for college. Coverdell plans, 529 plans, how to handle the FAFSA - all of this stuff is standard personal finance fare. But all of it overlooks the first eighteen years of your child’s life - the period in which most of their education and learning will actually occur.

I watch my two year old right now and I see him learning all the time and building skills for the future. I have nieces and nephews ranging from age six to age fifteen and they’re all learning all kinds of things. Every single one of these children would benefit from some extra emphasis on their education right now.

Overlooked Opportunities
There are countless opportunities to improve your child’s education and growth right now instead of further down the road. Here are some ways you can invest immediately in your child - figure out ones that work for you and try them.

High-Quality Day Care and Preschool
Put $20 less a week into college savings and instead get your child into a better child care opportunity. Paying for a preschool that can give your child educational growth opportunities is well worth the extra cash you put in.

The question of daycare or no daycare is one I’ve covered before. Some parents may find it better for one of them to stay at home with the children, at least until they’re in school - it depends on your situation. Either way, a top-notch preschool or great day care or a parent staying at home are all expensive.

Private School
When your child enters school, most likely you’ll send them to the local public school without skipping a beat, but you might want to consider rerouting some of that educational savings into the cost of private school. Private school is an issue I’ve discussed before as well - my take on it is that it depends wholly on the quality of the district you live in.

I’m lucky to live in one of the best school districts in one of the best educational states in the country - I live in Iowa and found out about the quality of my local district at IowaSchoolProfiles.com. Thus, the benefit my child would get from private school versus public school is much less than the benefit that would be found by a student in a poor public school district.

If your choice is between putting your child in a poor public school district and saving $8,000 a year for college, or paying $8,000 a year for private school tuition, you might want to strongly consider the latter. It will set your child up to succeed later on with better test scores and a stronger education before they even get to their standardized tests.

Educational Opportunities
Several times during my school years, I had opportunities for educational growth that I was unable to take advantage of because of the cost. There would be $200 or $500 or $1,000 fees involved and my parents were simply unable to help with those costs, and so I missed out on things like taking advanced coursework, traveling around my state to speak, helping with at least two large national conventions, and other opportunities. Perhaps most painfully, I missed out on an opportunity to participate in a summer program at a technical institute in Germany for advanced math students - I really wanted to go to this and even applied without my parents’ permission, but there simply wasn’t enough money. I still remember throwing away that acceptance letter without telling anyone about it.

Having the money available to give your children great educational opportunities, especially in junior high and high school, can transform a good student into a great one, fueling their passions and letting them explore the world.

Travel
I’ve found that the opportunity to travel has taught me so much about the world - and so much about myself. Even just traveling within America, I’ve witnessed an incredible amount of diversity: different lifestyles, different foods, different cultures, different people, and so on. When you go international, your mind spreads even further and you begin to realize how much diversity and how many opportunities there really are out there.

My childhood never exposed me to such diversity, unfortunately, and that caused a pretty steep learning curve when it came to interacting with and understanding people from different cultures later on in life. Luckily, I had a number of friends from different cultures who were very understanding, particularly a group of Chinese students who “got” that I was just clueless, not hurtful, and if I said something completely wrong, it was borne of misunderstanding.

I’d rather my children be exposed to the diversity of the world much earlier than that, and to do that we’re going to travel significantly in the future. I plan on lengthy trips to international locations, particularly with the goal of spending most of the time off of the beaten path.

Exploration of Interests
When I was in school, there was one child that was oozing with natural musical talent. He’d do stuff like drum out complex rhythms with his finger on the table, he could sing quite well, and during music class, he intuitively began to pick up the piano in just a few minutes. When he was asked to join the band, however, he declined. Why? I later found out it was because he knew his parents couldn’t afford the instrument.

That’s not a situation that I’m ever going to allow my child to have to live through. There will be money for them to explore their interests, whether it’s music or physics or chemistry or engineering. If they start showing passion for something and growing in that direction, we will support that growth.

Benefits of an Earlier Emphasis on Educational Spending
All of the above are educational costs that sometimes get overlooked in the rush to save for college, but they can all set the table for your child to do very well academically and personally. Here are a few benefits of pointing at least some of your educational savings in the direction of helping them grow earlier on.

Improved test scores are the direct result of many positive childhood factors: travel, music, a better school, and a better preschool all contribute directly to improved test scores later on. Those test scores can help your child win scholarships, get into a better school, and line things up so that they can chase their dreams.

Improved problem-solving skills and self-reliance are also the result of good activities, particularly those that are self-directed. Educational opportunities where your child can take the lead and really get excited are worth their weight in gold - not only do they learn material, but they learn life skills, too.

Discovery of passions and interests early can also help the child figure out what they want to do with their life so they don’t make bad (read: expensive) educational choices in college. Going into college without a clue about what you’re doing has a huge cost - it can tack years onto the college experience and can often result in people being unhappy with their careers and going back to school. Helping your child discover their passions earlier on can really help, and you can only do that by fueling their interests and personal growth.

Think Different: Start a Separate Education Fund
My wife and I have a solution to this problem. We’re starting a separate “education fund” for each of our children and putting a bit each month into this fund, almost as much as we’re putting into their college 529s. Later on, when opportunities for them come up, we’ll use this money to pay for it - they’ll never lack in terms of being able to take an educational trip or explore a new area of intellectual interest.

We view this as an investment in them, just as a college savings plan is, but it’s one that will bear fruit sooner and it’s one that we’ll use throughout their childhood, not just when they’re leaving the nest. In the end, we believe this strategy will help them become better adults than just funding their college education will be.

What kind of investment? For now, the fund is merely a savings account for each of them. Eventually, we may consider other investments, but they’re likely to be rather conservative - the riskiest move we would make would be to buy a broad-based index fund.

Here’s what you shouldn’t do. When I was in college, I used my student loans to finance my lifestyle. I worked at a decent paying job ($9 an hour at a job related to my major was great), but that wasn’t enough - I needed more. So I took out student loans, even though scholarships covered most of my tuition and housing expenses for college. Even worse, I didn’t really understand the value of the college education I was getting - I basically completed a major, decided it wasn’t for me, completed a completely different major, and took enough classes for some minors along the way. After I finally graduated after six years, I had accumulated about $35,000 in student loan debt. Including interest, I’ve paid about $32,000 in loan payments so far and I’ve still got about $16,000 left to go.

What did I learn from this disaster that college students can use today? There are a lot of students out there entering college and taking out student loans to pay for it. The money they’re spending, in the form of loans, far exceeds the money they’re taking in. I know all about it - I was doing this very thing just a handful of years ago. I made some incredibly stupid mistakes along the way, and it takes a lot of hindsight to see the things I could-have-should-have done.

If I had it to do all over again - if I were a college student today with a big pile of student loans building up and not much income - here’s exactly what I would do.

Take the studies seriously.
The cost of college is tremendous. During your years there, not only are you investing the cost of tuition, but you’re also investing the loss of income that you might have made doing something else, like becoming an electrician’s apprentice or starting your own business. If you’re paying $10,000 for your tuition and other expenses and you’re giving up $20,000 in income, that’s $30,000 that each year in college is costing you. That’s more than $500 every week.

What’s the best way to undermine that strong investment? To flunk out. To fail a class, causing you to stay in school longer. Even a poor GPA undermines that investment - you reduce the value of the degree by reducing your opportunities right after college if you’re showing off a low GPA.

Hit the books. If it’s a choice between a side job and the books, choose the books every time. If you need to borrow more money because of it, borrow that money. Don’t undermine the value of your big investment just to save a little bit of money.

Take advantage of the other opportunities, too.
College isn’t just about hitting the books and partying. There are tons of opportunities on a college campus to start building your career and resume, which will improve your opportunities and salary when you leave school (further improving the value of your student loan investment). That’s not to say that the experience should preclude fun, but that you should put effort into joining groups - and spending social time with those groups - that either build leadership skills or coincide well with the topics that you’re studying.

You’re also better off getting strongly involved in a small number of activities than getting weakly involved in a lot of activities. Try out a lot of things at first, find the ones that click for you, then get strongly involved with those. Take on responsibilities with those groups and work towards leadership positions later on. You’ll build valuable relationships with people, learn new things about your areas of interest and about yourself, and build up your future resume, too. Here are some more tips for maximizing the secondary value of the college experience.

You’re a college student - live as poor as you can.
Don’t spend your time dressing exceptionally well - there’ll be plenty of time for that later on. Instead, do most of your clothes shopping at Goodwill and at thrift stores. Don’t think you’re above it - look at your checkbook and realize you’re a person with a negative income - the exact person who should be utilizing such resources.

It’s fine to have a few clothes for special situations, but don’t spend money on a great wardrobe. The typical college campus is teeming with free entertainment - check the campus newspaper for ideas instead of spending money to have fun. Take advantage of the cheap food opportunities, too - for a while, I had a “one meal a day” meal plan in dining services and I’d eat a big meal then, then just snack the rest of the day on whatever was available.

In a nutshell, realize that each time you spend money in college, you’re costing your future, especially when you’re surrounded by opportunities for the most inexpensive living you’ll have in your adult life. Need more specifics than that? Here’s a collection of money management tips for college students.

Use a credit card only to buy books. Pay the bill immediately.
Don’t listen to people who insist that you have a credit card. Research a good one, then use it only once a semester to buy your textbooks. Put that credit card somewhere safe, then pay off the entire bill as soon as it comes in. Never use the card for anything else.

This simple plan gives you the benefits that you can get from credit card use in college (mostly building credit) without the dangerous drawbacks of building high-interest debt that you’ll have trouble paying off.

Seek a job (or other experiences) related to your major, even for lower pay.
If you’re going to get a job in college (most people do), look for a part-time job that’s related to your major, even if it means sacrificing pay. A job that really matches well with your studies is golden on your resume when you graduate - if you already have some years of experience working with this material, then you look a lot better than most people coming out of school.

If you don’t know where to begin, the first place to stop is at your departmental office. Ask around for job opportunities within the major - research work, paperwork, whatever’s available. If you can’t find anything there, look for industries near the college that might relate to what you’re doing and look there. Make the effort to make a personal appearance, as it shows that you’re serious about this - anyone can pick up the phone and dial.

Minimize your debt.
If none of the above apply to a decision, make the choice that results in the lowest debt when you graduate. You’re in college to build your future. Don’t sacrifice that future by piling on debt without improving your post-graduation opportunities.

In a nutshell, maximize the value of what you’re paying for, and minimize the level of debt. You’re surrounded by valuable opportunities in college - only by grabbing them by the horns can you really maximize the value of your college education.

A few days ago, I had lunch with a person in the local community whose opinion I respect quite a bit. He has two adult children, only one of which attended college straight out of high school, and both of which run their own business.

What I wanted to know from him was how exactly he raised his children to be such independent, self-motivated, entrepreneurial people. What he told me really surprised me, and it made me think a bit about whether I should be contributing to my children’s 529 plans or doing something different for their future.

When the children were young (under 12), he paid an allowance for household chores. There was a minimum that had to be done to even qualify for the system each week - so they had to do a certain number of tasks just as a baseline. Beyond that, though, they could earn money by doing more chores: dishes, lawn care, and so on.

Meanwhile, he was investing in a mutual fund for each of the children. Each week, he put a small amount into their fund, intending to use it later to help them out.

On each child’s twelfth birthday, he sat down with them and helped them develop a business of their own that they could manage. One of them chose lawn care and snow removal, while the other one chose math tutoring because he was exceptional at math (and had already completed all of the math courses offered in the school district). He provided them both an equal amount of “seed money” out of their fund to get things started - one of them used it to buy a used lawnmower and a snow shovel, while the other bought a printer cartridge and paper to make flyers. He then guided them on their business, acting basically as a free business consultant to them. The only requirement that he placed on the business is that half of the money either had to be reinvested in the business or invested in something else - they could spend the other half.

In both cases, the businesses thrived. The math tutoring child wound up with significantly more in his fund than his brother, but the lawn care/snow removal brother wound up with a lot of equipment. Both learned quite a lot about how to operate a business.

On their eighteenth birthday, they were gifted their funds. After that, the parents provided no more financial support. The person with the lawn care business took that money, bought a lot of ads and some new equipment, and expanded the business. The son with the tutoring business finished his senior year, then went to school to get degrees in both business and civil engineering on a nearly full scholarship, then worked at an engineering firm for six years while that fund still grew, then used it to put out his own shingle. He now runs an engineering firm.

To me, there is a lot of appeal in this plan. It relies heavily in constant fostering of self-reliance and entrepreneurship in your children, but it also gives them the opportunity to choose education if they so wish.

This doesn’t change my desire to save money for my child’s future, it just makes me reconsider putting the money into a 529. That money has tax benefits if used for education, but an extra tax penalty on earnings (10% more than long term capital gains) if used for non-educational purposes. If you assume they’re going to go to college, a 529 is the right way to go, but if they wind up starting their own business right out of high school - which an entrepreneur might - a 529 is a hindrance as compared to a normal fund.

For now, I’ll stick with the 529, but the lessons learned from this man’s story will stick with me for a long time.

This week, The Simple Dollar attempts to address challenging questions in personal finance by looking at both sides of the story and figuring out some of the factors you need to look at to make a decision.

For many parents, it’s a given that they’ll save for their child’s college education, and they consider it almost negligent that you wouldn’t help your child with college and perhaps with their life afterward. On the other hand, other parents believe strongly in the philosophy of complete independence after high school, allowing their children to forge their own path with minimal or no support.

Which is right? Let’s look at both sides in a bit more detail.

The Argument For Support

College is a major financial burden for anyone. With incredibly high tuition costs, most students that get a post-secondary education will incur some level of debt - I know that my wife and I have, even after our scholarship support.

A parent’s responsibility is to help their child develop into a functional adult, and part of that responsibility is ensuring that they get a strong education. Sixty years ago, that might have been just getting them into high school, but today’s world is much different and for most students, college is a part of their education cycle.

Furthermore, it’s much more difficult to simply walk out of school and right into a job that you’re going to have your whole life. The average person today has eight jobs before they turn thirty two. That’s not stable, no matter how you cut it, and without a solid and consistent income, it’s incredibly hard to get a foothold.

The idea of cutting off your child at eighteen is completely outdated in the modern world. That philosophy does not reflect today’s challenges and leaves your child hung out to dry in a highly competitive world where no one is going to provide that great job right out of school that the parents of these young people might have had.

The Argument Against Support

In today’s world, independent and intelligent young people are the lifeblood of society. Resourcefulness and leadership skills are what makes a person a success in life, and holding your child’s hand all the way along does not build those skills - in fact, it stunts them.

If you have raised your child with the ability to solve problems and think for him/herself, then the challenge of figuring out how to pay for college (if that’s the choice he or she makes) and how to make a success for him or herself in life is one that your child can tackle on his or her own. The greatest tools you can give a child are the ability to reason and solve problems - and financial support just gives an easy solution to life’s challenges.

Furthermore, planning for that support requires that you take away resources that can help them develop today. Instead of socking money into that 529, you could send your child to an enriching summer camp, provide them spending money while they explore their interests in high school, and perhaps even pay for their tuition at a private school. This will give them the foundation to springboard to their dreams, not holding their hand until they approach thirty.

Giving your child a crutch through the early stages of adulthood does not teach them how to walk without that crutch. If you truly want your child to be able to stand up and walk on his or her own two feet after high school, then the time to invest in the child is well before then. Don’t wait around and invest in a college education - give your child the background and tools to succeed as early as you can.

My Take

I have 529 plans for both my daughter and my son that I fund every month. I fully intend for them to go to college, and I don’t want them to be burdened with the level of student loans that I’ve had to face. While I do feel that facing college without someone paying my tuition (just scholarships and student loans) taught me a lot, I don’t necessarily think that the burden was a good deal, overall.

However, if a great opportunity for their growth came along, I’d gladly stop funding the 529 and instead pay for that opportunity if I couldn’t pay for it out of pocket. I would far rather capitalize on a great opportunity in their high school years than contribute $500 or $1,000 to their college fund.

What’s your take?

When I think back to my high school years, I realize that I didn’t have the faintest idea of what I wanted to do with my life, nor many of the options really available to me. I had a sense that I needed a significant change of scenery for a while because I did not want to follow the paths of many of the people I saw graduating from high school and just sitting around their hometown watching the years go by. The problem was that I didn’t know what I should be doing instead - I was the first person in my family with an opportunity to go to college, thanks to scholarships, and that seemed like the obvious route to take, so that’s what I did.

I wish now that I had the chance to do some things differently, but such chances only come along once in a lifetime. Knowing what I know now, here are five pieces of advice that I’d offer to anyone in high school or fresh out of high school about what’s available to them.

Don’t go straight to college unless you’re absolutely sure
One of my biggest regrets in life was that I went to college directly out of high school. I didn’t have even the faintest inkling of the opportunities available to me, so I just followed the general advice of everyone around me, which was to go to college and get started on that career immediately. I went there without the maturity I really needed to make it work, nor a good idea of what I could get out of college. I treated it as an extension of high school - and because of that, most of my years as a student were largely wasted.

If you can’t explain clearly why you’re going to college (and the generic “to get an education” doesn’t cut the mustard), you shouldn’t go to college - yet. If you’re a bright person, the answers will eventually come to you and you’ll tackle it with the right mindset, but going to college without any real goal in mind, especially straight out of high school, is a waste of your time and money - and that of your parents.

Note that I’m not saying that one shouldn’t go to college - just that one shouldn’t go to college without a purpose.

Spend some time figuring out what you’re passionate about - but don’t waste time
A friend of mine took a “year off” after high school to “find herself,” but she actually spent it not doing much of anything at all. She worked at a fast food restaurant and apparently read a lot for that year, finally starting college fifteen months after high school graduation.

If you’re thinking of spending a year or two before college evaluating your life (something I strongly encourage), spend it doing something deeply fulfilling. Don’t just spend it working to earn tuition or spending money. Here are some things you can potentially do:

Volunteer Find a volunteer or other community service organization and get involved big time. Take ahold of a project within it and push it through to completion or some level of success - it will teach you a lot about people and leadership.

Work an internship Spend some time doing internship work for something you’re passionate about, even if it is just photocopying pages or washing dishes. You’ll get exposure and experience and you’ll also find out if it’s right for you.

Commit to a large-scale creative project If you’re musically inclined, write and record an entire album. If you’re a writer, write an entire book. Paint a set of canvasses. Whatever it is, if you’re passionate about it, do it on a larger scale than you’ve tried before.

Travel and experience new things
My plan for both of my children, provided they are interested, is to give them an ATM card, a backpack, and a ticket to DeGaulle Airport for their high school graduation. Even better, I’d like to do it in conjunction with the parents of a few of their closest friends. It is the absolute perfect time in a young person’s life to explore the world and figure out some things about themselves.

It took me a very long time to figure out who I actually was - I didn’t really figure things out until almost six years out of high school, and that was just the first revelation of many. Part of the reason is that in some ways I didn’t really escape where I came from, so it took some significant time for me to view myself independently and figure out who I really was.

Whatever career you choose, don’t chase money - chase passion
Lots of people will make statements like “you need to major in X because that’s the only way you’ll make $40K straight out of college.” Ignore it. If you’re truly passionate about your topic, you’re going to be among the top people in it simply because of the love and devotion you’ll show, compared to many others who are just there at the behest of others.

Not only that, your passion for the subject will continually reflect well on you. Think of people you know who are passionate about what they’re doing - almost always, you see them as a success or, at the very least, the passion is very clear.

The real key? Learn how to stand on your own two feet - and learn exactly who you are and what you’re passionate about. Do this actively, and with commitment. When you’ve got that figured out, the college decisions and what to do when you get there will become far more clear - and you’ll end up with a happier life over the long haul.

When I look back at my college experience, I realize that almost all of the classes directly tied to my major had almost nothing to do with what I ended up doing with my life. Instead, they mostly served to show that I was adaptable and could repeatedly apply basic ideas - which is fine, but it didn’t serve me well on a broader scale.

On the other hand, there were a handful of classes that wound up helping me a lot in my life throughout all of my jobs. I didn’t take some of them as seriously as I should have (if only I had known…) but the skills that I picked up in these classes have come up time and time again. In short, no matter what you’re doing in college, try to fit at least some of these courses into your educational plan.

Here are the five courses that were really helpful to me in adult professional life.

Basic English and composition At the college I attended, all students had to take a two semester sequence on basic written English - something I later discovered was fairly standard. The first semester was grammar, which was rather boring but managed to ingrain some basic tenets of written English into me. The second semester was composition. They were basically a continuation and reinforcement of what I had learned in high school, but I still find them to be a big part of the foundation of my current life success.

Technical writing The part of this class that stuck with me were the repeated exercises we did. We had some piece of technical writing due twice a week, and larger pieces due every other week. This basically forced me to actually practice my technical writing, which has served me over and over again. If you take a technical writing class, don’t bemoan frequent assignments - instead, realize that this repetition is forcing you to learn skills that will serve you forever.

Public speaking The public speaking course that I took was mostly useful in helping me to learn to handle nervousness while speaking in front of others. I learned several little techniques to get over it, and also learned the best tip that anyone has ever given me for life in general: speak slower. If you have to communicate to a room full of people, you’ll lose a lot of them if you talk fast.

Survey of American history “How is this possibly applicable or useful?” you might ask. I found that looking at American history at a college level presented a very clear view of the chain of events that led to modern America and explained the reason behind many things we take for granted: income tax, highways, and the reliance on the federal government, for example. It was very interesting in that the two semester sequence I took was taught in tandem by an individual with a liberal perspective and one with a conservative perspective. If you want to self-educate yourself in the same way, try reading A People’s History of the United States and A Patriot’s History of the United States side by side, though you’ll miss out on the wonderful conversation that a college class can have. The clean view you get of the United States from this will serve you well throughout life.

An applicable foreign language Many college majors require a certain amount of a foreign language. Choose a language that could potentially be of use to you in your life - a heritage language or a language spoken by people that you associate with or may associate with in the future. In the United States, a solid default choice here is Spanish. I chose Latin and, while it was entertaining and actually a bit useful here and there, I would have found either Spanish or French to be much more applicable to my life.

Most colleges make room in the curriculum for these courses; if you have a chance to take them, fit these classes in and don’t blow them off - they will serve you time and time again throughout your life.

At the start of the last college semester, I provided ten tips for personal finance management for college students:

Get some free money.
Make it automatic.
Look for cheaper entertainment.
Don’t get any credit cards.
Eat in the cafeteria.
Look for free stuff.
Empty out your pockets at the end of each day.
When you go buy something, ask around and see where it’s cheapest.
Get an interesting job.
Keep yourself up.
If it makes you feel good, do it.

These ideas will help minimize the debt load that a college student will carry after college (and also make a lot of things easier while in college), but for the most part, they won’t help too much with maximizing your income after you graduate.

If you want to put yourself in a great position after you graduate, do as many of these ten things as possible:

Separate yourself from your parents. Even when I was in university, there were many “helicopter parents” deeply involved in their child’s life. If you’re a parent, back off; if you’re a student, work on trying to build some separation there. A big part of the university setting is figuring out who you are and what your strengths are; a hovering parent issuing phone calls to school administrators is a sure way to find yourself not growing as a person.

Don’t commit to a major too early; instead, find out what you’re passionate about. I found that once I had the time and freedom afforded to me in an academic environment, I discovered interests that I had never even considered before and eventually wound up switching majors even after completing a couple years’ worth of classes. Instead, my advice is to take very general requirement classes the first year and spend some time seriously considering what really lights your fire. A big hint is usually the topics that you find yourself thinking about regularly outside of the context of classwork.

Do not load yourself down with classes the first year. The first year at college is usually a giant culture shock - new people, new environment, new material, new challenges. Don’t take fifty credits the first year - in fact, don’t take much more than the minimum required to be considered a full time student. You can make up for it later when you’ve got your career directions and goals figured out. Even better, spend some of that time sitting in on a few classes. If you’re still figuring out where you want to go, take lots of little tastes of various directions and spend your time figuring out what you actually want. The first year or two of college will provide you with more freedom and opportunity than you’ll probably ever have again in your life - take advantage of it.

Find a job connected to what you’re doing, even if it doesn’t pay well. Once you’ve settled in on a major, find a job that relates to that major, even if it’s on a volunteer basis. So many students go work at Taco Bell for $7 an hour - it might put a few bucks in your pocket, but in the long term it’s a giant mistake. Once you’ve focused in, go through all of the professors in the department and find one or two that are doing things that really pique your interest (Google them and find out what they do). Then request a meeting, ask a lot of questions, and see whether they have a role that you could fulfill. In most majors, this will probably be nonpaying, but in some, you might get minimum wage if they have something available.

Obviously, during the summers, look for internship opportunities, but you can look at such a job as an “around the year” internship and, quite often, the professor can help you net a very good internship for the summer. A curious and intelligent student doing a lot of work will cause any professor worth his or her salt to lend a helping hand.

Sample some organizations related to your interests, particularly to your major. Most large universities are absolutely loaded with student groups and organizations. Find ones that match your interests and attend some meetings. Some will click with you - some won’t. If it doesn’t click, don’t worry about it. If it does click, though, make it a point to get more involved with that group. How will this help? A select number of groups that you’re involved with can be a real resume-builder.

Get involved in any general leadership organization. I also recommend finding an organization that focuses on leadership activities. Try to get involved with the student government, or be involved with general interest groups that focus on character building, public speaking, or other things that are useful no matter what you choose to do. Not only are these useful in helping you figure yourself out and learn how to work well in a team environment (which, in all likelihood, is where you’ll wind up working), but it shines on a resume.

Once you find an organization that matches you, get involved and become a leader. Once you’ve found an organization or two that really clicks with you, work hard to be a leader in that organization. Run for an office, then eventually run for president. It may seem like a lot of work that you really don’t want to deal with, but this type of activity not only trains you for later, but it also looks fantastic on a resume.

Keep your studies up. Note that I didn’t say “keep your grades up.” If you keep up with your studies, grades will follow. Attend every class, and in smaller ones ask questions if for no other reason so that you stand out to the teacher. Don’t hesitate to ask questions after class. Absolutely stop by office hours if you have any question at all. Get to know the teachers a bit and demonstrate that you’re working hard on the material - and actually work on the material - and you’ll do just fine. A 4.0 is only vital if you’re trying to get into an exclusive graduate school, so don’t be upset if you get a B. On the flip side, don’t just blow everything off and struggle to stay in school at all - your transcript will be a piece of the package that gets your career started.

Take every opportunity to speak, perform, or present publicly that you can. This is especially true if the idea of speaking in public scares you like crazy. I’d encourage you to take a public speaking class, read How to Win Friends and Influence People (if for nothing else the tips on how to speak to others), and then look for opportunities in your organizations to speak and present. Don’t worry about it if your first attempt is awful - keep at it and you’ll get better. You should also keep a list of your public speeches and presentations, as they can be useful to have as your career advances.

Build lots of connections. If you do nothing else in school, do this. Talk to lots of people and make an effort to keep tabs with them. Lots of students today use Facebook for this - make an effort to gain a lot of friends on there and leave lots of messages and wall scribblings. If you click at all with someone, make sure to keep in touch with them a bit. Find ways to connect people that you know - if you have a wide social circle, you’ll often find people that you can connect with each other for mutual benefit. I really recommend reading Never Eat Alone for a great introduction on how to do this. I didn’t make many good, strong connections in college, and it’s something I still regret.

College is both a time to figure yourself out and also a time to build up your skills and resume. If you work hard, you can easily do both, maintain good grades, and have a lot of fun. Most of my best memories of college were from moments spent being involved with groups and getting to know others that had similar interests.

In the last few days, a bevy of recent college graduates about to enter the workforce have written to me and asked what they should be doing with their finances at this point in their life. These are the smart ones - they realize that taking a few steps in the right direction now are going to put them ahead of the game for the rest of their lives.

That being said, here are seven things that any recent college graduate should strongly consider doing as they enter the workforce.

Set up an automatic payment plan on your student loans. Call up the people that hold your student loans and see if there are any benefits for making the first twelve or twenty four or thirty six payments on time and also if there’s a benefit for making automatic payments on the debt. Quite often, you can get a half-percentage point or more knocked off by doing these things, but even if you don’t, set up an automatic payment plan. Don’t pay extra, though, unless the loan is very high interest (above 9% or so).

Sign up for the 401(k)/403(b) immediately at work. Ask the person who helps you set it up how much of a match the company provides, and contribute enough of your own to get all of the match. Ideally, you want to contribute enough so that the total of your contribution and the match is 15%. Since you’re just starting out, go with aggressive investment choices.

Start an emergency fund. I recommend setting up an account at an online bank, like ING Direct or HSBC Direct. Their accounts are convenient (especially ING) and they pay a very nice return (well over 4%). Then set up an automatic contribution to this emergency fund each week - $25 is good. Why an emergency fund? This is the money you tap if your car breaks down so you don’t have to go in debt - the interest works in your favor if you put in the money ahead of time.

Get to know as many of your professional colleagues as you can. This not only includes people in your own workplace, but people working similar jobs in other workplaces. Read the book Never Eat Alone and really absorb the advice - it’s incredibly valuable. You’ll eventually find that this group of people is the most valuable thing you can cultivate in your profession, even more valuable than your job over the long term.

Practice frugality. This is perhaps the most dangerous point in your life for letting your spending get completely out of control. Don’t let it. Be vigilant and keep your spending under control. Of course you’re going to want to spend some money right now, but put a very firm cap on it and keep it in place.

Start an investment plan. My advice is to put everything in the Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 fund - Vanguard’s funds are very well managed and they treat you very well. Open one up directly through Vanguard and set up regular contributions to it. Why? This will put you on pace to do whatever you want down the road - it might be a house down payment, it might be the first step towards retirement, it might even pay for some incredibly fun things in a few years like international travel or a BMW - whatever you wish. Just get one started, start some automatic contributions, and let it grow.

Have fun. Do things. Go out with friends. Travel a bit. If you’re going to spend money at this point in your life, don’t spend it on stuff, spend it on experiences. You’ll have plenty of time to get stuff when you’re older and have a house and a family and you’re wishing you had more experiences when you were first starting out.