Having that special talk ... about money
By Dana Dratch • Bankrate.com

Parents and students need to sit down and have a serious talk about budgeting and finances before students head off to college, says Mark Oleson, assistant professor of personal financial planning and director of the Office for Financial Success at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Important kinks to work out: What are the expenses the student will encounter? How much money will she have, and how does she access it?

"I see a lot of parents handing the kid a credit card, thinking they are doing them a favor," he says. What happens too many times: The student uses the card for everyday expenses, not for emergencies, as parents intended.

Then the parents pay a couple of bills, get disgusted and take back the card. By then, the student is accustomed to using cards and gets his own. Unfortunately, he's not used to budgeting and paying the bills, which sets up a dangerous situation.

"They need information, not just a parent card," says Oleson.

What parents might not know: College students are often bombarded with multiple credit card offers once they hit campus. So fill them in on the pluses and minuses of using credit.

Learning to manage their finances in a semicontrolled environment, such as college, where the parent is accessible for help and advice, can really help in the long run, he says.

"I've talked to a lot of students who say, 'I'm graduating and I'm concerned,'" Oleson says. The parents always handled everything, the students have never dealt with finances and they're "scared to death," he says. They might not even know how much student-loan debt they've accumulated or what their payments will be after graduation.

If the lines of communication stay open, the student will be better off.