Personal Credit Management
It sounds like something a former game show host would be pushing on TV at 2:00 a.m., doesn’t it? Setting credit score goals seems like something our parents would do when they weren’t trying to figure out how to program the VCR or whose car is parked at the neighbors more and more often these days. And you may be tired of being told excitedly about all the ways you can get your credit report or check your credit score – or at least someone’s estimation of what those might look like. We cover a lot of topics across the Goarly family which are arguably more naturally engaging. Factors to consider before refinancing your mortgage? Absolutely essential to any homeowner. The pros and cons of personal bankruptcy? If you’ve ever been in debt difficulty (and who hasn’t?), this has at least crossed your mind. Alternative sources for small business financing? Most entrepreneurs wouldn’t mind knowing more about their options. How to know in advance what impact remodeling that bathroom will have on the sale price of your home? I might read that one even if I didn’t have plans to renovate. (And after reading it, maybe I’d start making those plans!) Here’s a section on personal credit management! *Yawn* What else have you got? Oh, look! “Five things to avoid when considering a debt consolidation loan!” That’s much catchier.
We’re genuinely glad you’re reading the site. And we do try to keep things engaging and accessible for the average visitor trying to educate themselves about how to better reach their personal financial goals. If you stick around for long, however, you’ll notice a common theme in many of those articles about managing credit card options or investing towards retirement or making a new vehicle purchase from a dealer vs. buying a used car from the guy down the street. You’ll start to notice how often we point out the impact different choices can have on your credit history. You’ll notice we do seem a bit fixated on your potential to build credit in almost any financial situation. We’ll admit it – we do have an obsession with the importance of being aware of your ongoing credit score rating and how each choice impacts your larger credit goals.
Our Expertise - Your Credit Journey
Notice that we didn’t suggest you needed to meet our credit goals for you. We’ll never tell you what to prioritize or what to care about. We certainly aren’t going to tell you or anyone else how to spend your own money. What would be the point?
We’re human beings. There is often a rather embarrassing gap between what we tell ourselves and what we actually do over and over.
So we talk about understanding your credit score and how different choices impact your credit history and why you should take steps to protect identity online even if you don’t think you’re wealthy enough that anyone would want your identity (side note: that’s not how it works). If you have an income and you make decisions, big or small, about how your money is spent, then you’re on a credit journey whether you’re paying attention to where you’re going or not. We don’t keep talking about the need to manage credit decisions because we want to tell you where to go; we keep talking about it because whether you actively manage credit histories, manage credit scores, manage credit potential – your credit score rating exists. It changes with each choice you make. And, perhaps most importantly, it impacts almost everything else that’s possible (or not) in your life.
We don’t build credit because there’s some inherent glory in having a higher three-digit credit score than the guy next door. It’s not an easy topic to work into conversation at parties without people quickly finding reasons to wander off. We build credit because we want to have choices. We build credit because credit impacts almost everything else we want to do or be in our lives. Maybe that’s fair, maybe it’s not, but it’s reality in United States in the 21st century. You want the freedom not to care so much about money and credit scores? Then take better control of your money and your credit scores.
Goal Based Planning
Why would your bigger wants or obligations be any different? Even if you don’t have a written list of financial goals, (although you should, along with your monthly budget, savings and investment plans, and general credit goals), you probably have financial goals – whether you think of them that way or not. At the risk of seeming harsh, we have a word for people who just live moment by moment and don’t worry too much about what might come next or how they’re going to meet their various obligations. We call them “children.”
Establishing some basic financial management goals doesn’t require sacrificing the things that are important to you. It requires clarifying what things you think are important to you and what things your current habits suggest are actually important to you. It requires setting some realistic financial goals and paying attention to things like your credit score and your credit history. A few generations ago, this was expected of any head of the household, despite being a major time commitment. Today, it’s increasingly uncommon despite being easier than ever before. The wealth of information available on sites like Creditry, the online tools and connections, and the next generation of mobile apps we’ll soon unveil mean attending to your budget, your savings, your investments, your spending, and your credit, is becoming more like clearing the bars on your fitness tracker than getting a degree in economics.
No technology can replace your decision to start, however. The goals are still yours. We can help you meet them, but you still have to take those first steps.
How credit score affects Personal Financial Goals
Why Care About Credit Scores and Reports
The Goalry Way
We said we wouldn’t set your priorities or make your choices for you, but that we’d help. So what is it, exactly, we can do to support you on your credit journey?
Manage Credit Scores and Reports
The Creditry blogs break down and explain the different things likely to show up on your credit report (or reports – which is another topic we cover). We explain why each of us actually have many different credit scores depending on who’s doing the scoring, and the factors which influence each version. We make it easy to not only get your credit report, but to understand what that report is and what it isn’t. We’ll even help you figure out how to deal with the major credit bureaus if you wish to dispute something on your report.
And of course our informational blogs discuss practical, easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement ways to raise your scores and meet your credit score goals. A few are quick and easy, but anyone promising too much, too quickly is probably trying to sell you something you don’t want. We call it goal based planning because some goals take time. That’s OK, because the ones that take the most time are usually the most worth it.
Protect Your Identity
The Creditry blogs break down and explain the different things likMost of the things you can do to manage credit scores or reach credit goals rely on your ability to protect your identity. Otherwise, someone else could benefit from your hard work to start checking off their own list of financial goals – none of which are likely to be the same as your own.
We’ll help you evaluate the major credit monitoring agencies and understand what ID monitoring actually does and doesn’t do.
We’ll talk through practical, easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement steps you can take to protect your identity online and in the rest of your world, and break down those ads promising to protect identity online.
We’ll even help you figure out if those fancy enhanced identity theft protection programs are right for you.
Unified Financial Perspective
Too often, it’s easy to see our debt-to-income ratio as one thing, efforts to accurately price our home as something else, the receipts we save for tax time as a third thing, and the boxes we check to join our company’s suggested retirement plan as a fourth – each item completely unrelated to the others. That’s not entirely wrong. Each financial realm has its own terminology and sometimes its own rules. At the same time, there are only four basic things that happen with money – we make it (income), we spend it (expenses), we save it (preservation), or we invest it (growth). Everything else is just variations on the theme.
We won’t pretend it’s always easy. Even sitting down to make a list of financial goals or get serious about our budget can be emotionally and mentally draining. Financial decisions can be difficult – that’s why we generally only allow adults to make them. But it doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sometimes seems. There are solutions and answers for almost everything you’re facing or will face. It is doable, and you don’t have to do it alone.
Where would you like to start?