w w W , .. .... 66 Weneda, ovmer14. 212/ Te taemn SNACKER From Page 5B As a child who grew up in the middle -.class, Katai always had a fresh supply of Goldfish crackers and nachos available every afternoon after she got home from school. Now an adult, Katai still treats herself to snacks on a regular basis despite not having the same income or financial acumen that her parents had. "I was raised middle class, but I did not graduate into that stratum. What I graduated into was a world where I have a drama degree in a recession, and 'that translates firmly into the lower class," she wrote. "I buy myself snacks and drinks and dinners in restaurants because it is a way of pretending that everything is okay. I know I should be saving this money, but the deprivation in all the other ways ... freaks me out and makes me sad." Katai experimented with her own spending and realized that when she monitored her purchases of food and drink at restaurants or at the grocery store, she saved $130 a month, which is an impressively lower figure from her average $360 per month food expense. For Katai - and for many Americans, she predicts - snacking is a huge income suck, and is often a way forus to pretend that we can still spend money even if our incomes don't exactly allow it. Little things like crackers and smoothies don't seem like they are going to impact our incomes that much. But then we buy too many of them and look at our credit card statements. Less money, more problems What some students who have help from their parents or scholarships don't realize, Tolentino said, is that money is not an infinite flow. "If you're the type of person who has your parents' credit card and you use it occasionally for birthday dinners or a pair of winter boots, that's one thing," Tolentino said. "But then there's the per- son with their parents' credit card who sits online and shops all day." The ideal vision is that after we grad- uate, we will instantaneously become real people, get our acts together and be responsible with our finances. We will cook more, eat out less and open retire- ment accounts. But Mike Dang, cofounder of The Bill- fold, said that's not what happens. For the first few years post graduation, Dang said people tend to live lifestyles as if we had the same financial aid and parental support as we did in college. "(College students) instantly want to feel like adults," he said. "A lot of that has to do with going out and meeting friends for dinner and drinks and talk- ing about jobs even if they can't neces- sarily afford it." According to information provided by the University's Career Center, 79.3 percent of LSA students who graduat- ed in 2010 found jobs that make below $45,000 a year. A large majority of them head to big cities such as New York, Chi- cago and Washington, D.C., where the cost of living is significantly higher than that in Ann Arbor. And keeping up with a similar life- style as we did in college, according to Dang, is just not financially viable. The Internet is filled with tales of twenty- somethings defaulting on student loans or filing for bankruptcy after developing a crippling credit score. "Parents aren't going to want to sub- sidize their kids for their whole lives," Dang said. "You just can't spend money in the same ways. Understanding how debt works is a really important thing." Tolentino did note, however, that though graduating can be financially startling for students, the speed at which the real world sets in is much less abrupt than it was a decade ago. "The transition isn't as sharp as it used to be," Tolentino said. "A lot of people have a cushion from their par- ents and get help now and then." Take, for example, writer and actress Lena Dunham (TV's "Girls"), who lived in her parents' Tribeca loft until she was 26 after graduating with a liberal arts degree from Oberlin College in Ohio. "I feel like I'm constantly asking (my parents) to please stay out of my work life but also to please bring me soup," Dunham said in an NPR interview this year. Dunham is one of many people in her age group who have opted to move back home with her parents. According to a 2010 New York Times Magazine article, 40 percent of people in their 20s decide to move back temporarily with their mothers and fathers. Some students aim to live a more upscale life upon graduating. Busi- ness junior Alison Dunbar, who is the vice president of the Retail and Luxury Goods Club, said that though she can't afford to wear all designer clothing as a student, she aspired to wear more of it when she got a job. "It's important to wear better quality things and dress appropriately as you get older," Dunbar said. She went on to describe herself as "more on the Michael Kors end of luxu- ry goods" than a "Prada girl." What is luxury? As the daughter of an author and an artist, my perspective on luxury comes from within my family: my grandmoth- er. For the past 40 years, my grandmoth- er has gone to the salon every Wednes- day at 10 a.m. to get her hair fluffed and styled and her nails re-manicured. I've always felt that this was a luxury. It's not that I don't care that my roots have grown out three inches or that I have more split ends than I can count, but unlike my grandma, I just don't have the money to keep up with it. But I've realized that I do take a lot of the things I spend money on for granted, because being able to go out to dinner every week or buying so much coffee that my heart races for three hours is a luxury in itself, even if it feels necessary or unavoidable. Dang said habits like mine will need to change if I don't want to go into debt. "If it's easy for you to spend more than you have," he said. "The only option is to get rid of those temptations." Wednesday, November 14, 2012 The Statement - 3 the leaders and the worst a week of daily stories by zach bergson and kaitlin williams - LEADERS -- * An Earl of Sandwich shop opened in a space formerly used as a public restroom. Insert obligatory poop. * Pope Benedict XVI announced he will soon launch his own Twitter account. #Salvation- In 140CharactersOrLess G Gen. John Allen upholds thatthe approximately 30,000 pages of e-mail exchanged between him and Gen. David Petraeus' biographer and alleged lover don't indicate an affair. They indicate that the U.S. military has way too much free time for the amotunt of wars we're in. James Bond has slept with more than'50 women and continues to be a beloved figure, while Gen. David Petracus had an affair and is shamed into resignation, proving that every- th ing seems cooler when you do it with a British accent. Last Friday, University students and alums hosted the first Michigan Sport Business Conference in Blau Auditorium. The event featured 24 sporting industry speakers and four discussion panels. PERCENTAGE OF FOOD BUDGET SPENT ON DINING OUT AGE 5 de 35 o 44 4a- SOURCE: BUREAU ',F 1L >v f 36% 40% 40% 41% 45% 45% * Residents in more than 30 states have filed secession petitions following last Tuesday's election. Isn't democracy grand? * Charges of assault on a minor filed against Elmo voice actor Kevin Clash have been retracted. Lala-lala, lala-lala, Elmo loves being Vindicated by the American justice system, lala- lala, lala-lala. WORST The leases for several businesses in the University's Union - includ- ing Amer's Mediterranean Deli, Subway and Wendy's - will expire in April, and the University announced it will occupy Amer's space. _ COVER PHOTO BY TERRA MOLENGRAFF