Not About Making Friends, It's About Spending Money

I don't have much in common with the people who traditionally tell you what to do with your money. I'm 22. I only graduated from college last Thursday, skipping most of the ceremony because I couldn't get out of Boston and into New York fast enough.

I don't know anyone who is less responsible with money than I am. It's astonishing how fast you can run through the stuff without even trying. I've spent the last two years writing for "Mad Money," Jim Cramer's hit show on CNBC, and have less in the bank today than I had on the day they started paying me. How'd I get that kind of job in college?

Pure merit, I'm sure, but being Cramer's nephew didn't make it any harder to get my foot in the door. (If you're expecting me to apologize for that, get serious, and get a life. How does anyone get a break these days? From their friends and relatives, and that's another topic I will be touching on in the column.)

Because I had a quasi-real job writing for "Mad Money" for the last two years of school, I got to play loan shark to my shiftless, broke-ass friends (federal government, if you're reading this, I'm not charging anybody interest).

This column is for them and everyone like them: young people, in college or recently out of it, without a clue about taking care of themselves financially (or psychologically, professionally and romantically-- yeah, Dan, I mean you. [Dan is a young straight fellow who is afraid of the ladies.]) And the standard advice penned with alarming frequency by the strait-laced establishment types -- save money, cut up the credit cards and live on a careful budget -- isn't doing any of you much good.