This post may contain affiliate or referral links, which means I may receive a commission if you purchase something using my link. It will be no extra cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting Getting Fit Fab.
Thank you CreditRepair.com for sponsoring this post. CreditRepair.com’s team understands that a credit score is not just a number; it’s a lifestyle.
Money–everyone’s least favorite topic, especially my own. I never was good with saving money. It burned like a hole in my pocket. If I had it, I felt compiled to spend it. Which is probably the reason I got into so much credit card trouble at the ripe age of 20. Once I turned 18, I was receiving credit card applications, and all I thought was, “I’m officially a credit card holder now”. Nope, that is not how any of this works. In order to “spend” that money on those credit cards you had to pay them back. Which was hard for me, since once I got my paycheck, I saved the bare minimum and spent the rest. Being young and naive, I had no idea how much those credit cards would come to haunt me when CA and I applied for my first lease and for when we began the mortgage process for our first home.
I had no idea that decisions I made at a young age could prevent me from leasing my first car and give us a mountain of trouble buying our first home. Your credit score is everything when buying, leasing or doing any kind of loan transaction that requires a bank to approve you for a large sum of money. I also had no idea where to start in order to repair the damage to my credit. Luckily there is a website called CreditRepair.com that is ready to help you reach your credit score goals with the knowledge they have. You don’t have to let your credit score define you, but you do have to put in the work to fix it! You can get help from CreditRepair.com with a free consultation & get on the road to repairing your credit. A bad credit score can cost you more than just high interest on a loan it could mean not getting approved at all. CreditRepair.com has served over 500,000 clients, so they’re knowledgeable about credit repair & can help you live that life you deserve.
I’ve put a few ways that you can prepare for your financial future:
- Spend WISELY on credit cards. Did you ever hear the phrase, “only buy things with your credit if you can afford to pay for them in cash?” This how we treat credit cards now, we put monthly bills on them because we’d be paying for them anyway. Therefore, when that bill comes, we pay it off immediately. If we pay for dinner, travel, or anything that was already budgeted, we make sure to pay that on the next bill. Budgeting and spending go hand in hand for spending wisely on credit cards.
- Budget everything. This is CA’s area of expertise. He budgets our bills, spending, and savings every single month. He has a spreadsheet that he uses, since we both get paid each week, he has it broken down weekly of which bills get paid. Most of our credit cards are on autopay, this way we never have an issue with a late payment. Also, our monthly bills are all on auto pay, such as Cable, Electric, Cell Phone, Car Payments. Everything is streamlined so that there’s less guess work as to what bill gets paid when and where all the money is going.
- Pay off the smallest debts first- This goes in hand with budgeting. Eliminating smaller debts create small victories as well as coming off your credit report first. Once the small ones are paid off, they are reported as a $0 balance which can raise your score and improve your credit-to-debt ratio.
- Be informed- You can’t run from debt collectors forever, you need to face the music so to speak, and tackle debts head on. Collections take 7 years to roll off, late payments take 4 years and inquiries take 2 years. If you don’t know you have an old collection you won’t be able to pay it off. Use the CreditRepair.com credit score tracker and monitoring services to keep an eye on your report and submit challenges when applicable.
- Be honest with your significant other and yourself. If you’re putting finances together as a couple, lay everything out on the table for each other. Maybe you have no credit because you never had the need to open a credit card, or you just didn’t want to get into debt with a credit card. Or you have bad credit from a few mistakes as a young adult, being honest is key. Make a realistic budget and maybe leaving some wiggle room for that one cup of coffee you like to treat yourself to. If you are taking hold of repairing your credit yourself, utilize CreditRepair.com to help you improve you credit scores. You can check out their platform and your personal online dashboard where you can track, analyze, and monitor your credit to get you where you want to be.
Your credit score doesn’t have to be a scary thing. Don’t wait until you need your credit score to be high in order to put a plan in action like I did. CreditRepair.com has incredible resources that educate and assist you when it comes to your credit score. Your finances don’t have to be a mess of numbers that can ultimately create a larger problem for you. If you need help managing your credit score, set up a free consultation to jump start your credit repair journey with CreditRepair.com.
