This guide outlines how to build and maintain a good credit score, now matter what stage your life, career or business is at.
A good credit score is important at every stage of life. It can help you get approved for a loan, qualify for lower interest rates, and even get a job. But what is a good credit score, and how do you get one? A credit score is a number that lenders use to assess your creditworthiness. It ranges from 300 to 850, with higher scores indicating lower risk.
It can help you get best emergency loans when you need them, and it can also help you get lower interest rates on loans and credit cards. In general, a good credit score is anything above 700.
To build a good credit score, you need to use credit responsibly. That means making payments on time, keeping your balances low, and only using a small portion of your available credit. You should also avoid opening too many new accounts in a short period of time, as this can lead to inquiries on your report and lower your score.
Once you have a good credit score, you need to maintain it by regularly using credit and paying your bills on time. If you have any questions about your credit score or how to improve it, you should speak to a financial advisor.
How to create a good credit score
We’ll share some more tips on how to maintain your credit score throughout life.
The College Years
Most individuals regard the college years as an ideal time to start building your credit score. Even if you don’t end up going to college in your late teens and early twenties, you can still look at this period as a time when credit building should be your goal.
You might buy a car at this point. Assuming you don’t have the money to purchase it all at once, you can build credit by always paying the monthly amount you agreed upon with the dealership.
This is also a suitable time to get your first credit card. You might select a secured card before you get an unsecured one. A secured credit card comes with a low credit limit, usually a few hundred dollars. You can use it to make small purchases. If you pay them off during each billing period, you’ll avoid paying interest, and your credit score will rise slowly and steadily.
Your Work Life
It makes sense to assume that you’ll get a job after college. When you do, you should have more cash coming in. With this enhanced income, you can expand your lines of credit. You can do this by showing your credit card issuers that you’re making more money, and they’ll probably be willing to increase the card’s maximum.
If you keep paying off the balance every month and don’t max out your cards, you can maintain a healthy income-to-debt ratio and a low credit utilization ratio. That’s part of how you can keep your credit score high.
Marriage
After working for a few years, you may decide to get married. If you do, that doesn’t mean your past credit history and that of your spouse will merge. You will maintain your own credit score, but if you decide to open any joint accounts with your spouse, that will appear on both your credit reports from that point forward.
You might choose to work together with your spouse at this point in your life to pay off debt. Getting a mortgage when you’re ready and paying it every month can also go a long way toward raising both of your credit scores by bolstering your payment history and enhancing your credit mix.
Retirement
Almost everyone wants to retire one day. If you keep up your credit score through regular payments and sound financial decisions throughout your life, that will make managing your finances during your Golden Years a lot easier.
If you continue to follow the tips we’ve laid out, you should have solid, almost unshakable credit by this point in your life. However, it’s still important as a senior to keep old accounts open and use other best practices that will keep your credit score healthy in case you should need to take out a loan for any reason.
Smart financial choices are the key
Many individuals start building their credit score through regular car and credit card payments during their college years. Later, during the early years of working life, it’s beneficial to continue on the right path by carefully managing your income-to-debt ratio.
If you marry, you may decide to combine finances with your spouse or keep them separate, depending on how your credit scores look. Regardless, you can work together to work towards financial goals such as paying off debt or a mortgage. When you retire, you will have more options and a lot more flexibility if you keep your credit score high earlier in life.
Building and retaining a respectable score is possible in all of life’s stages with discipline and proper money management. Follow these tips to get on the right track, whatever stage of life you’re in.
