By CLAUDIA BUCK, Sacramento Bee

Financial resources for college freshmen:

- "Dollars & Sense," an online program sponsored by the California Society of CPAs, is packed with money management skills for college students, including saving, investing and avoiding credit card debt. www.calcpa.org

Academics. Social life. Roommate drama. Food. (Lots of food).

Amid all that's crammed inside the cranium of a college freshman, there's one priority that's often overlooked: Money.

As in how to save it, spend it, budget it.

Many students - and their parents - are getting a first taste of financial independence.

When Air Force Tech. Sgt. Larry Kight was a young recruit eight years ago, he got his first taste of an enemy he hadn't reckoned with: money.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- When Bonnie Garcia opened the official-looking letter in her home mailbox, she was bothered. It was a letter from U.S. Claims Services, a Bakersfield company, saying she had unclaimed money sitting with the state of California. For a small fee, it promised to help her obtain the funds from the state Controller's Office.

Summer's here: Time for basking on the beach with a good book. With so many of us in "staycation" vacation mode, that may mean traveling no farther than the backyard and plunking down with a meaty best-seller or a riveting murder mystery.

Amid these queasy, uneasy economic times, why not indulge in some financial brain food, as well?

In less than three minutes, it was over.

With the flip of a switch, Scott Linzy tilted a bushel of white paper files into the steel jaws inside his mobile shredding truck.

Instantly, the pile of paper was reduced to a mound of confetti-like fluff. A security camera on the side of the Absolute Secured Shredding Inc.'s truck recorded the quick-moving process.

Did the Internal Revenue Service forget your kids?

For hundreds of parents expecting a $300-per-child stimulus payment, the IRS could still owe you.

Because of computer glitches and taxpayer filing errors, as many as 350,000 tax-paying parents nationwide were shorted the $300-per-child payment they're due under the federal government's stimulus payment plan.

Until this week, it's been purely speculation where 130 million Americans will plunk down their not-so-hard-earned stimulus checks.

Pay down bills? New hi-def TV? Vegas vacation? Feed the gas pump?

Economists, government officials and others have been doing plenty of head-scratching in anticipation of just how - or whether - people will spend those $600 or $1,200 checks.

For the 15 girls clasping hands in celebration, their recent graduation ceremony was a rite of passage.

Get ready, here they come. If you're among the 130 million Americans counting on getting IRS "economic stimulus" checks, take note: The first batches will start going out in six weeks.

Starting May 2, the IRS will begin issuing the first payments - typically $600 for individuals or $1,200 for a couple - for those who file a tax return by April 15.