For far too many college students entering their senior year, student loan debt is causing more sleepless nights than final exams—but not for Eve Mahaney, a Class of 2018 photography major at Ithaca College and daughter of Jim Mahaney, Prudential’s vice president of strategic initiatives.
Jim and Eve both spoke on Facebook Live to James Dennin, staff writer with Mic.com’s “The Payoff,” about how their family confronted the high cost of college, and what they learned from Prudential’s survey of 2,369 college students and graduates, Student Loan Debt: Implications on Financial and Emotional Wellness.
“A lot of the students [in the survey] really didn’t understand how the loans would impact them when they took them out, when they’re 18, 19,” Jim Mahaney said. “We are seeing some folks that are really thinking that, ‘I’m having to delay some of the things I want to do in my life, because of these loans.’”
Eve Mahaney told Mic.com that open discussions about her family’s finances and her future empowered her to make the right decision about where to attend college and how much debt to take on.
“I don’t think that it’s a comfortable subject for kids, especially kids in high school who are already stressed about a million things … that they want to talk to their parents about money or anything, or talk to their parents, period, sometimes,” she said. “They don’t want to talk about that hard stuff. And I don’t think a lot of them did.”
“Our planning was good, it wasn’t easy all along,” Jim Mahaney said. “It was very emotional along the way, but she’s in a good place now.”
See Student Loan Debt: Implications on Financial and Emotional Wellness for the research findings and for “Lessons Learned,” practical advice on how prospective students, current students, and graduates can handle student loans and the costs of college.
To speak with Jim Mahaney, contact Sheila Bridgeforth or Discretion Winter.
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