The concept of money is one that applies to people from all walks of life. That being said, not everyone actively keeps up with the state of our nation’s economy. I discovered this while interviewing people on campus. Most people I talked to chose to talk about their own financial situations rather than the economy as a whole.

The only person who had something to say about money from a political standpoint was my roommate, Christian. He said that he is pretty indifferent when it comes to President Trump, so I asked him about Bernie Sanders. Christian didn’t seem to feel passionate about him either, but he liked Bernie’s plan to “tax only the top one percent of wealthy people and redistribute that to the really poor people”.

I was glad no one else had anything to say about the economy because I’m not too up on that either. My friend Ryan explained to me that he really doesn’t know or understand too much about the economy, although he wishes he did. “I guess right now it just doesn’t concern me that much,” he said. “I don’t really even have that much money in my bank account, and my parents still pay for most things. I feel like I should get my own finances in order before I start worrying about how our country is doing.” I resonated with what Ryan said completely and found our situations to be similar.

When I mentioned money, my friend Ben started talking about how he feels that he has been spending too much since he got to college. I asked him why he thought that was and how it compares to spending at home. In Ben’s opinion, campus points and meal swipes are analogous to your parents cooking your meals. “It’s really just a matter of how much I eat off campus because then I have to use real money,” he explained. “When I’m at home, I eat out way less than I do here.” I really liked Ben’s financial approach that eating on campus as often as possible is a way of saving money. After all, it’s already paid for.

The remaining people I spoke with just gave me insights on how financially stable they felt and if they felt that they could support themselves. Obviously, you would think that everyone wouldn’t be confident yet because they are in college with the purpose of finding a well-paying job. However, some seemed to have a better grasp on their own financial state with clear plans for the future. I just found it interesting learning about how seriously different kids treated money because there was quite a bit of variance.