Congratulations on being an adult. Being an adult means much more than simply being 18; it entails being responsible for all your actions. If you sign a lease and skip town, they can come after you. As an attorney, I often recorded judgments against college students who skipped leases, and twenty years later, when the person had long forgotten the incident, they sold their house. The escrow company notified me of my judgment, which was recorded in the county records, along with many years of accrued interest that was to be paid out of escrow.

Your actions can now have consequences that can follow you for the rest of your life. It shouldn’t be a problem, except that peer pressure is so strong that you may do things against the law and suddenly find the rest of your life is forever modified. Have a good time and just use the common sense you have.

A Single Crime

You think I’m just some “old guy” talking smoke. Take the case of Brock Turner, a star freshman athlete who, in 2015, committed a sexual assault that changed his life forever. The prison time was the least of his problems. Look what happened to him.

Future Career. Brock was a star swimmer on the Stanford Swimming team. After his conviction, he was kicked off the swimming team, the NCAA barred him from future events. Brock destroyed his dream of competing in the Olympics. He killed all hopes of achieving his personal lifetime goals.

College Graduation. He was kicked out of Standford University and refused lifetime readmission. Furthermore, Brock’s college education would likely be at a different college, probably a public university, with far less prestigious job opportunities. He also lost all his friends and connections, who no longer wanted anything to do with him. It is unknown whether he returned to college. The guess of many is that he did not return to finish his degree due to his notoriety.

Future Jobs. Brock’s future employment opportunities are severely limited with big corporations, which always conduct background checks. Would you want to hire someone with a conviction record and lifetime sexual offender registration when there are so many other potential job applicants? He will earn far less income during his life than he would have if he were a Stanford graduate and an Olympic medal winner.

Marriage. Imagine trying to explain to anyone seriously interested in marrying you that you are a registered sexual offender and must report to authorities for all your life and that you tried to rape an unconscious drunk woman. The women who will marry you are far more limited.

Jail Time. Brock also served time in jail for a felony sexual assault. Talk about an unpleasant interruption in your life.

National Embarrassment. Brock’s name is forever linked in the public mind with the sexual assault. TV shows were made about the incident. Congresswomen read pages of his attacker’s letter, gaining worldwide publicity. In a criminal textbook, his picture is featured above sexual assault.

I urge you to think twice about someone suggesting you use a date rape drug because everyone is doing it or that it is acceptable to rape a woman forcefully. What was once allowed in the 1950s is now punishable by jail time.

With Uber and Lift, there is no need to drive after you have had a beer or more. Why risk your license for a few dollars? If you are caught driving in most states under age 21 with any blood alcohol, it is an automatic DUI (see my future article on the consequences). It will also result in the suspension of your license. In California, see Vehicle Code §13202.5.

Being a Tenant

When you lease an apartment or room in a house, realize almost all printed lease forms are drafted by attorneys, and an attorney can put in virtually any provisions the landlord wants. So, your first step is to read the lease, line by line, word by word, and highlight in yellow anything you don’t understand or that sounds unfair. You are in an enviable position, being eligible for numerous free legal aid and tenant assistance programs. If you have questions, have one of their attorneys review your lease and explain which provisions you can live with, and which are unreasonable. The landlord figures most tenants sign the lease and never read it until it is too late. A lease is a compromise, and everything is negotiable, from the rent amount to the individual provisions in the lease.

A common question is if you should get renter’s insurance. The issue is how much risk can you live with. If you go on vacation and, leave your door unlocked, and return to find your apartment fine, then the risk was acceptable. Conversely, if you return to see your door open and all your possessions removed, then the risk is unreasonable. Everyone has their definition of acceptable risk.

I recommend obtaining renters insurance because it is usually moderately inexpensive and offers excellent protection. The first is if you have a fire in your kitchen and it burns part of your apartment and part of your neighbor’s apartment, which costs a lot to repair and could bankrupt you. Check with your insurance agent, but most rental policies can provide coverage for such situations. Secondly, the landlord does not ensure the safety of your personal property. If someone breaks into your house and steals your TV, computers, or other personal property, the landlord is usually not liable. Here is where your insurance policy is so necessary.

Another common question often concerns whether a landlord can enter the attendance property whenever they want. The short answer is no, at least in California and in most states. California requires that individuals can only enter for specific purposes and provide proper notice. An exception might be in an emergency, such as when your bathtub is overflowing, and water is leading down to a lower unit. In California, if the landlord fails to provide 24 hours’ notice and is not entering for one of the four permitted purposes, they may be liable for trespassing. (California Civil Code ¶1954.)

Debit and Credit Cards

When you look at a debit card and a credit card, they may look almost identical. However, there is a significant difference between the two.

Debit Card. A debit card gives you access to your bank account. You can go to the store and pay for something with a debit card; the amount of your purchase is automatically deducted from your bank balance. When you run out of money in your account, the bank will notify the merchant that the purchase price was denied. The debit card is merely a very convenient way of accessing your bank account.

Credit Card. A credit card is a whole different animal. When you decide to buy something comma, you don’t pay for it; the bank does. Then, at the end of the month, it charges you for those purchases. The bank loves it when you can’t pay and only make the minimum required payment. The rest of the purchase for items is at a very high rate (often between 18% and 24%). If you keep charging and only pay the minimum amount, you can get deep in debt, and the interest rate can exceed your income, so the only solution is bankruptcy. That is a terrible way to start your life.

Advice. My advice is based on the law of statistics. Most college students with credit cards tend to spend far more than they have. Don’t get suckered by the high interest rates. Use a debit card, and you’ll never have a problem spending more than you have. You may not be able to get everything you want, but you won’t end up drowning in debt upon graduation.

Unprotected Sex

My father told me an axiom that God gave man only enough blood to run his mind or his penis, but not both at the same time. I have found that to be very accurate. When your penis is hard, you will do things that you would never otherwise do because you can’t think beyond the next 60 seconds.

The first thing is always to use a condom to protect you from becoming a father and to prevent you from getting an STD like gonorrhea or syphilis. If you get a woman pregnant and she doesn’t want to get an abortion, you’re going to pay child support until that child turns 18. Worse, I know some women who would never marry someone so immature and unreliable to have a child support obligation.

The second thing to know is that a small percentage of women may try to get pregnant by you. Why me, you ask? With a college education, you have a reasonable chance of becoming financially successful. Some women will intentionally try and get pregnant by you (as happened by two people in my extended family who were forced to marry the pregnant girl). My son was the team manager for one of the major college basketball teams in the nation, and the story going around was about a girl who knew when she was ovulating and intentionally had sex with the basketball player. He didn’t marry her and never saw her again, even though he was sending child support work payments for the next 18 years.

Conclusion

College can be one of the happiest and most wonderful times in your life if you use common sense. Have a good time.