I often think back to my first year in college and how nervous I would be every time I logged into my online bank account.

I relate the number in my savings account to infinite limits that I learned in Calculus. Whenever the equation was ‘1/x’, I knew that ‘x’ approaches zero. And just like that equation, I could always count that my bank account at the end of the month would be zero.

No one ever directly taught me how to save, and though I was fortunate enough to have parents who could pay for anything I needed or wanted, I never learned how to save enough for long periods of time.

Given my monthly allowance, I try to divide the amount of money I was given by however many weeks were in that month and attempt to budget my spending.

That worked for about two weeks.

Somewhere during in the middle of the month, after a long week or bad day, I would impulsively spend my money.

Whether it was food, drinks, clothes or shoes, my balance would exponentially fall after that one fateful day out, and I would find myself scraping by for the rest of the month.

I never told my parents if I fell low on money because I wanted to appear as if I was a real adult that could handle taking on bigger responsibilities. After a couple of months in college, I had realized how bad my spending habits really were.

I was an emotional shopper and a reckless spender. I would buy useless things on Etsy when I was bored and buy clothes I never wore just for the sake of doing something. Because of this nasty habit, I couldn’t restock or purchase all the vitamins, food and other necessities I needed in college when I needed to.

It was time for an intervention.

I had my parents open another savings account that had a set amount of money I could never withdraw without a ridiculously high penalty fee. Every month, I had to put away one-fourth of my money to that account, and allocated whatever was left over.

I learned to wait a bit before buying things I liked. If I wasn’t 100% in love with it, I wouldn’t buy it. If I did love it, I would make sure I could buy it at the end of the month, after I had bought my groceries, medicines and school supplies. I also learned how to buy things on sale, and reap the benefits of a student discount.

Every now and then I have fall backs where I splurge on myself if I feel I have earned it, and I don’t hate myself for it. I just make sure that I don’t repeat it time and time again.

The fact that I hadn’t known how to properly save as a legal adult scared me. In college, especially at SMU, most parents still financially support their children. While that is very fortunate, it is not the case for all students.

Most students in America have financial aid, take out loans and have to discipline themselves so they don’t overspend.

This is a crucial lesson that should be taught to all students before going off to college. Habits can die hard, and in this case, it is better to learn how to save now and spend later, rather than being the 30-year-old who still lives in their parents’ basement.