I know a lot of you guys liked my post about how to save money, so I thought I would do one on how being real about your finances is important! Ever since I was young, my parents made sure that I knew how to be financially and fiscally intelligent, even to the point of my parents getting me a card card when I was sixteen. While it was under my father’s account (not my own), it was in my name so I got the benefits of the card.
Since I had a credit card so early (and it was being used regularly and being paid off by my father), I started out with a decent credit score when I applied for my first credit card. I did this right before the start of my sophomore year of college. Since then, I have been religiously taking care of my finances and ensuring that I would have the best credit score possible.
The first rule of finances is to be honest. Be honest with not just yourself, but with your banking institution. When you apply for a new credit card, be real about your rent and your income. If you’re a student, put that you’re a student (if applicable). If you say you earn $10,000 a year, the company issuing the credit card will most likely ask for proof of this income. If you’re honest, you can avoid all of the hassle.
The next rule is to know what you want with your credit card. A great resource that you can use is NerdWallet.com. I love this website because it helps compare credit cards for people with all types of credit and organizes cards by their APR percentage, their cashback deals, if they have an annual charge, and much more. When applying (or even thinking of applying) for a new credit card, be sure to go to NerdWallet.com to do some research on the card(s) you want!
Helpful tip: they also have a blog section of their website where they write about financial tips that would be super helpful to anyone who reads it!
Another thing that you need to know is how to increase your credit score. If you Google “how to increase credit score,” you’re going to find thousands and thousands of tips and tricks that swear it’ll increase your score! Most of the time, it doesn’t. There are just good habits that you should follow:
- Pay your bills on time
- Try to pay over the minimum amount due when possible (If it’s $25 a month and your bill is $100, try to pay $75)
- Make sure to keep your balance under 30% of your available credit. If your bill has a $1500 max, try to keep your bill under $450. If you have to, pay multiple times during your monthly cycle.
I hope that these tips help you! If you want more financial advice, head on over to NerdWallet for some good information. Thank you so much for reading and please leave a comment down below!
Love,
Kaitlin
Kaitlin H Powell 