Kent State seniors gathered to learn how to budget life after graduation at the “Donuts and Debt” event at Williamson Alumni Center Tuesday afternoon.

The Alumni Association hosted the event as part of Senior Week 2015. David A. Dumpe, associate finance professor, lectured students on how to create a budget.

Dumpe also did a budget exercise with students to show them what kind of spending money they will have after paying bills.

“When students graduate and get that first paycheck, it feels like the most money they have ever seen,” Dumpe said. “This exercise is meant to show you it’s not as much money as you think it is. During the first three to six months after graduation, students usually start collecting debt by going out and leasing cars, big apartments, buying furniture and spending money instead of saving.”

Dumpe also said how important a person’s credit score is and how it relates to the payments they make on their loans.

“Credit score is something that most students that graduate are unsure of,” Dumpe said. “They don’t understand that making late payments does affect them. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be able to pay your bills on time.”

Dumpe said managing your finances is 5 percent head and 95 percent behavioral.

During his PowerPoint presentation, Dumpe said the average Kent State student owes $26,000 in school loans.

Christen Nohra, senior integrated language arts major, said she is graduating with $15,000 worth of student loans to pay off.

“I came here today to try to get some advice on budgeting,” Nohra said. “Personally two payments that I am most worried about making are my car payment and student loan. It’s scary to think we are about to be out in the real world.”

Brittani Dougherty, senior zoology major, said she attended the event because she hasn’t taken a finance course in college so she wanted some guidelines.

“I really learned a lot about how interest accumulates today,” Dougherty said. “It’s important to pay on the principle of a loan.”

Upcoming events for Senior Week include Show Your Selfie Spirit Wednesday, Flashes Forever Thursday and Move Out & Scoop Out Friday. To learn more about any of these events go to www.ksualumni.org/seniorweek2015.

Contact Zabrina Hvostal at [email protected].