Tips for young adults to avoid debt

College students often enter adulthood with more than a degree — all too often they enter the adult world saddled with debt. Student loans average $20,000, with credit-card debt reaching nearly $3,000 — more than double that for graduate students.

Here’s a statistic: Less than a quarter of students polled felt prepared to handle finances after college, and 30 percent of freshmen said they weren’t prepared to manage their money. Here’s a book to tuck into the backpack: “Please Send Money, A Financial Survival Guide for Young Adults on Their Own,” by Dara Duguay (Sourcebooks).

“Please Send Money” opens with a comparison of young adults to ostriches: believing that if you ignore a problem, it will go away. All too often, that’s the first step toward leaving school weighed down by debt and going on to a young adulthood of money mismanagement.

The book shows how to break that cycle.

Among other things in the book that young adults need to know:

• Tax chart showing what take-home salaries really look like after taxes are deducted.

• A credit-card chart showing how long it takes to pay off a credit card if paying only the minimum each month.

• Tips on buying a car: buy an inexpensive car, bank the money you didn’t spend, and watch it turn into a million dollars; don’t buy the first day you’re out looking; comparison shop; read the paperwork before you sign; don’t accept an adjustable interest rate; and get the cost of insurance before you buy.

• Credit-card debt in college can impact a future career: Run up debt, take on more hours at work, leaving less time to study and lowering grades, putting scholarships at risk, and possibly leading to dropping out.

• The real costs of setting up a first home after college — don’t forget to calculate the cost of paying back student loans.

• Marital debt and setting up a budget.

• The growth of a small investment.

• Avoiding the path to bankruptcy.

•Understanding Wall Street.

Parents, if you buy this book for your young adult, read it first before you hand it over. Seventy percent of students polled said they learned money management from their parents. There’s something for everyone in this book.