A graduate, donned in cap and gown, used to be the symbol of hope and promise.

But listen to the media nowadays and it seems the only things Joe Grad has to look forward to are overwhelming debt and bunking out in his parents’ house.

“Merely keeping one’s head above water, rather than getting ahead, has become the top priority for Americans between the age of 18 and 34,” warns the Village Voice.

“Just starting out and already behind,” bellows the Chicago Tribune.

We’re not even Gen X or Gen Y anymore. We’re “Generation Broke,” according to a report by Demos, a think tank in New York.

How did we earn this dubious distinction? Take a look at these statistics from the “Generation Broke” report:

· 71 percent of young adults revolve their credit card balances.
· College seniors are graduating with an average of $3,262 in credit card debt and $18,900 in school loans.
· Incomes have not kept up with the cost of basic necessities.

In a nutshell, we are drowning in debt and our incomes can’t begin to cover what we need.

And whose fault is it?

Well, depending on the media outlet or think tank, you can take your pick.

It’s the colleges’ fault for raising tuition. It’s the government’s fault for not raising Pell grants. It’s the credit card companies’ fault for pushing credit cards on college campuses.

Poor Joe Grad is stuck in a perfect storm — higher college costs leading to more debt, and insufficient income once he does start to work. Joe is in the hole before he’s even out of the gate.

But is it really as bad as all that?

Are we all destined for bankruptcy — or, at least a life with one eye out for the collection agents?

Not necessarily.

The media and the “Generation Broke” report have made some excellent points. As a generation, we do have a debt problem. As to our spending — well, it does seem like there’s always more month than paycheck.

But there are answers. And they’re not the typical “if only the government would give more money away to the poor college kids” policy solutions we so often hear. They start with us.

First, the debt.

Obviously, the best way to eliminate school debt is never to accumulate it. For every $10,000 a graduate borrows, she’ll repay $16,000 over ten years.

If you are college-bound or college-now, consider carefully how you can hold down costs — starting with your choice of university.

A co-worker, who had saved a nice little nest egg for his son’s education, put it in clear cut terms. “Okay,” Dad told Son. “You can either attend Cornell and come out $40,000 in the hole, or go to Colorado School of Mines and come out with nothing, or you can live at home, go to Tulsa University and come out of school $40,000 ahead.”

The son chose the $40,000. True, he could have had more prestige. But he realized that starting off debt-free was worth more. You may not have a college account to fall on, but your decisions will still determine your financial stress — or lack of it — later on.

Whichever university you choose, you can also become a little more Scrooge-like with expenses. Even Harvard, that bastion of high tuition, advises its students to watch the pennies and avoid debt with suggestions like:

· Rent frugally: Live in a dorm or, at the very least, get a roommate.
· Don’t eat out, and, if you do, keep careful track of your spending.
· Don't use credit cards. Pay off all consumer debt before the academic year begins.
· Don't bring a car — it’s far cheaper to rent for occasional needs than it is to make payments, insurance and parking.

Of course, for many of us, it’s too late to do anything about our school debt. It’s there and we have to deal with it.

But deal with it, we should.

Reading Ezekiel recently, I hit Chapter 18 where Ezekiel is listing those things that are detestable to the Lord. I admit my eyes glazed a little as I waited for the Old Testament, Baal-type stuff. But I sat a little straighter when I read this line: “He (“he” being the unrighteous man) does not return what he took in pledge.”

I reread the section. Amidst adultery, robbery and idolatry, there it was — failure to pay back what you have promised to.

It had never really struck me that God took my financial obligations — my student loans, my mortgage, my car loan — as seriously as that. But He does.

Let’s face it, debt is easy nowadays. We don’t have to have an income to get a credit card. We don’t have to have a down payment to buy anything. Credit card machines are everywhere. Even buying milk, we’re making a pledge to pay, not paying.

But God takes that pledge seriously, and so should we.

According to the “Generation Broke” report, one out of every five of us was either late or missed a loan payment in the last year. If we really want to honor God with our finances, that is unacceptable.

So, if you owe a lot, be wary about taking on more debt. You may want a newer car, or a home, but first obligations first.

Of course, that brings us back to our incomes. How can we return on our pledge if our incomes haven’t even kept up with basic necessities?

But here’s where we have to dig a little deeper. In reports like “Generation Broke,” they’re quick to point out that a young adult’s salary is woefully insufficient for his expenses. They’ve even got the budget to prove it.

On Joe Grad’s average starting salary of $36,000, he’ll have a monthly take home pay of $2,058. After rent and utilities ($797), food ($456), car ($464), student loans ($182) and credit card minimums ($125), poor Joe only has $34 left for the month. And he hasn’t even bought a pair of Levi’s or paid for his DSL.

Joe’s sunk, right?

But let’s take a closer look at those numbers. Turns out, they’re not a budget at all. They’re averages of what we spend — not what we need. The $797 figure is the average rent for the top 5 U.S. metropolitan cities for college-educated, single young adults. Sounds like an overpriced Friends apartment.

And $5,471 a year for food? For one person? There are lots of families I know who feed four on that same figure. But they’re not eating out for lunch everyday.

If Joe is going to live in one of those top 5 metropolitans and pay his sky-high rent, maybe he could at least drop the car and take public transportation.

It’s no fun to tighten the purse strings. But instead of bemoaning how inadequate my salary is, I’ve started to look to my own parents. They started out with much less than I did.

It’s okay to admire what they’ve earned — homes, autos, furniture and vacations. But it’s not okay for me to want what they have now without the years of hard work they put into their achievements.

It was their own lean years — with small apartments, low-prestige jobs and dry bank accounts — that helped to shape my parents’ character. They learned to be frugal, to budget and to be content. It’s still hard for me to pay $1.79 for a Coke when dining out, knowing my Dad would be ordering water.

Those lessons served them well and, I would guess, are exactly what made the later, heartier years possible.

So maybe I should be thankful for the opportunity to learn those lessons as well.

“Generation Broke?” Not a good thing if we’re talking about spiraling debt and spending.

But just plain broke? Starting out with a little, but being financially responsible — trimming spending and aggressively reducing debt? Knowing that we’re short of where we want to be, but understanding that financial discipline will get us there? And ready for what God has to teach us during this time?

Well, that doesn’t sound too bad at all.

Maybe broke is just where we should be right now.