Apr 15, 2017 06:13 AM EDT By Audri Taylors, UniversityHerald Reporter

College preparation is an exciting time for someone who anticipates a bright future ahead. But for some, it can be an intimidating and scary phase to go through for many given reasons. And one of them is because of the reality of student debts.

According to Credible, a research conducted by LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute suggests that millennials who start with their careers with $30,000 in student debt have less retirement savings compared to their debt-free peers. This is enough reason to explain the so called loan aversion, or the fear of being burdened with student loans.

Loan aversion is technically the fear or unwillingness of a person to take loans or debt in order to pay for college, despite the fact that the loan will help someone achieve success by being able to earn a college degree. A research, published in AERA Open and funded by the Lumina Foundation, was conducted to find out evidence on the levels of loan aversion in the US, according to Vanderbilt University.

Angela Boatman, who co-authored the study with Brent Evans and Adela Soliz, all assistant professors of public policy and higher education at Vanderbilt's Peabody College of education and human development, said that loan aversion is very common among a lot of people but the levels vary in different subgroups and population. And the study can help in understanding the students' behavior and attitude towards borrowing money for higher education.

While more than half of the adults have said that borrowing money is wrong, this mindset can affect or inhibit future success of individuals because it will affect how the young people will make decision about college. When loan aversion gets in the way of deterring individuals from pursuing higher education, these will result in negative consequences not only for the person himself, but also for the society. That is because higher education is associated with better health, better career and better life.

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