CREDIT SCORES
Ugh, daunting, I know. Who wants to think about their credit score? Most people don't want to, but you should. Or you could be like me! I've always prided myself on having a high credit score. I mean, I was never at 850, but I was pretty high up there. Until we called to refinance our house...
When we bought our current house, my husband's credit score wasn't so hot as he had a tax lein against him which wasn't his. If we want to talk about pains in the butt, it's trying to get a lein off your credit that 1) isn't yours and 2) is in another state. It took over a year to resolve the issue! My score was bright and shiny, though.
So we finally got the check from the title company which meant this issue had finally been resolved. Yipee! We call our home mortgage company to refinance. And find out my credit score isn't as wonderful. What, me? You must be lying! I ordered my free credit reports from Annual Credit Report. (This is the legitimate site, not the Free Credit Report site that they advertise on tv with the catchy songs. They let you print off your credit score from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax free once a year.) Gulp. Yep, that's not so good. I'm on both mine and my husband's car loans, so that made a huge impact. So my credit score was in the "pretty good" category, but I want it in the excellent category.
The past few months we've aggressively been working to pay things off and I'm happy to report that when I checked my credit report and score this morning (for $1 at Experian, one of the three major companies -- who knew they run sales, too??) it has improved greatly. I am now in the excellent category. Woohoo!
Our spending was not in the excellent category this month, though, as Jimmy put it, as long as we had the money and still have some leftover at the end of the month, oh well, just do better next month. We saved $340 in April but spent 3x that. (Don't even ask. I don't want to think about it again.)
We're not working anymore hours, in fact, my husband is working a few less hours every week. It's all about being smart with your money. I'm amazed at how much progress we've made since January, and I hope this blog can encourage and inspire you as well! I hope you can be in the same boat! Granted, we still have loans and payments and what not, but we have the freedom to pay more towards them all every month. We're on track and I'm very excited! Assuming the refrigerator doesn't die or something, anyway. ;)
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