Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/116

 give me a definite allowance each month and tell me I had to live within that, I should do it, and take pride in the accomplishment even if the amount were much less than I now spend. I have nothing on which to plan now." The fellow who leaves college and gets a job will usually have to live on a definite monthly salary; he might much better learn to do the trick while he is in college.

The freshman should begin at once to do business in a business-like way. He should open a checking account at some reliable bank and should pay his bills regularly by check. He should carry his check book with him always, and should number his checks consecutively. One of the greatest difficulties which I have to encounter is with the college fellow who writes checks without having his regular book with him and who then forgets to make the entry when he gets back to his check book. The result is an overdrawn account and a blot on the man's credit.

College students are so notoriously careless in keeping their bank balances and yet are ultimately so sure to pay up that merchants and even banks in a college town have grown more lenient with such derelicts than is wise. Students often learn to count on this leniency and purposely overdraw their accounts and so make a small enforced loan until such time as their next allowance shall arrive.