RELECTIONS OF YOU FROM THE FINANCIAL MIRROR
How To Build And Maintain A Good Credit History For A Good Future
Look at a mirror and you will see your real self. Now, picture the mirror as something magical that, when you look at it, youll see yourself in terms of the financial dealings you have done up to this point in time. This, in effect, is what your credit history is all about. It is the sum total of your financial life for a certain period which reflects whether or not you have paid your bills on time and whether or not you owe certain parties some money.
Why Your Credit History Is Important
You would look at the mirror to see that everything is in order with the way you look before you start your day to meet the world, right? In the same light, your credit history would reflect your financial appearance for the benefit of interested parties.
Who are these interested parties?
Future creditors are among them. These are people whom you might approach in the future so that you could secure a loan to buy a house, or a car, or even a boat, or to acquire some capital for a business. These can also be credit card companies who would have to approve of your application before you can be granted use of their plastic money.
Also, a lot of companies would look into their applicants credit histories to determine their financial responsibility and perhaps even their financial aptitude and trustworthiness.
Knowing these facts, youd immediately know that the health of your credit history has deep repercussions in your life. Its more than just a piece of paper detailing your financial dealings. Its an accurate representation of your financial self.
Building And Maintaining A Good Credit History
There is only one rule here, a mother postulate from which everything else stems from. That rule is this: do not spend more than you are capable of paying!
Uncontrollable, and oftentimes vicious, spending habits are the usual culprits of a dilapidated credit history. If we spend more than what were capable of paying, we leave a lot of monthly bills unpaid. Being delinquent with these necessary obligations would reflect negatively on our credit history.
A good, balanced, and workable budget plan is essential from the very beginning. Formulate a budget and stick with it! Do not deviate from this as such act would just give you the misguided courage to desecrate the plan and fall under the tortuous spell of spending. Commitment and good foresight are essential components in creating, and sustaining, a budget.
Include some leeway for emergencies in your budget. Do not nurture the thought that emergencies are licenses to allow you to spend outside of what you have planned. A solid budget plan considers expenses for contingencies as well.
If you have to apply for a credit card, get a secured one, or better yet, a debit card instead. These types of plastic money would have a credit limit equivalent to the money in your bank account, hence effectively eliminating the possibility o overspending.
There is a basic formula for good financial planning. Place 50% of your monthly salary in your savings. Pay your bills with the other half. Allot some money for your expenses until the next payday. Save 10% of what will remain as your contingency fund. The rest is what you could spend for your luxuries. This has not failed those who practice it, and there is no reason why it would fail you.
At the end of the day, a good credit history would boil down to how responsibly you have managed your finances. If you treated your expenses well, with a level of maturity that keeps the future in mind, there is no doubt that you will bear witness to an impressive credit history that would leave those creditors gawking and those employers jumping with excitement.
Tags: Finances