There's a lot of great advice here. I'll add a couple more:
1) Make it a personal quest to graduate from college with zero debt.
a) First and foremost, that means working your tail off in high school, getting straight A's, and getting good SAT/ACT scores so you can get scholarships.
b) Secondly, if you can, keep working through school, as long as your grades don't suffer.
c) Choose a major with actual job prospects.
d) Be tight with your money. Your income will be limited. The "Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy" is full of stories of students celebrating their latest student loan by blowing it on stupid stuff. Wait until you actually have a full-time job out of college before you even start thinking about getting an iPhone.
e) Save as much money as you can right now. Assuming you live with your parents currently, your out-of-pocket expenses should be minimal.
f) Minimize spending on textbooks. Buy used, get the previous edition, share with another student, get an international edition (same content, but smaller, black & white, and paperback) whatever. Behind tuition and housing, books were the next biggest expense for me in college.
g) Choose a school with a reasonable cost. I have a nephew planning to attend a specialized Engineering school in a couple years, with an annual tuition of $60k. He's also been accepted to another university with a very well-respected engineering program, with a yearly tuition of about 1/10th that cost.
2) As soon as you can afford to, start maxing out your tax-advantaged accounts (Roth IRA and traditional IRA). This may not be possible until you're out of college, but the money you save early in life will be far more valuable than the money you save close to retirement.
WRT credit cards, my wife and I got credit cards while at college, purely for the purpose of building up some sort of credit history so we could qualify for our first mortgage. We used the credit cards for groceries and only groceries. If you're disciplined with it, it can be a good tool.