College marks the first time many college students seriously start managing their own finances. Often, they make some mistakes along the way. Perhaps it’s not a huge surprise that more than half of all college students (55%) admit to keeping financial secrets from their parents.

“It may be that a student doesn’t have as much money as (his or her) peers and is trying to keep up with what their friends are doing,” says Christine Schelhas-Miller, who wrote a book about college finances. “Or they may be getting lots of credit card offers and naively sign up. Then they’re not sharing this information with parents, because they’re afraid of getting in trouble.” (Time)

Paul Asay has written for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for PluggedIn and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He recently collaborated with Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, on his book The Good Dad. He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.