“One of the biggest mistakes recent college graduates make is quickly trying to replicate a lifestyle it took decades for their parents to achieve,”

students who take on heavy debt to buy a fancy new car, a large screen TV and other trappings of a middle class life damage their long-range prospects for financial advancement.

Put down Architectural Digest and think of cinderblock bookshelves, a used car and a so-so apartment as tres chic frump, and remember that your parents probably had lawn furniture -- or worse -- in their first apartment.

“Get the money before you buy things,

Credit can be seductive.

Learn the difference between “smart” and “stupid” debt.

Henry David Thoreau’s observation: “We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.”