Planning For Our Future + Credit
Thank you Lexington Law Firm for sponsoring this post. A high service partner and consumer advocate that will help you fight for the credit you deserve!
Vinny and I have had a long and interesting journey with our finances and credit scores. Over the years, life has thrown us some interesting curve balls that have contributed to some ups and downs with our credit scores. As we’ve had more children and life gets more complicated, certain “adulting” duties like monitoring your credit score can sometimes slip through the cracks. It wasn’t until we NEEDED our credit score that we realized there were some negative errors on our report that were giving us an unfair score.
But before I jump into finances and credit scores, let me back up. Four years ago Vinny and I were chasing what we thought was our “dream”. WE have dreams to have a bigger house, more things, fancy cars. But in a single moment we realized that this pursuit would lead us to unhappiness. It would lead to little time spent together because Vinny would always have to be working to “keep up”. Each month we were financially and physically stretched thin but had “everything” we thought we wanted. In 2017 we sold everything we owned to travel full-time as a family including our home.
It was through some of those stressed and distracted periods in our life that some negative items appeared on our credit report but at that time, we were just too busy to notice them. So when the time came to buy our first home, we were quickly introduced to the complex world of credit scores, credit repair, and how it all affects our ability to get approved for home loans. Prior to this, we hadn’t paid too close attention to our score as we really didn’t have a need for it. Neither of us had TERRIBLE scores, but we also didn’t really know what was on our credit report or how our score was calculated.
It wasn’t until we began the process of applying for a home loan did we really start to dig into our credit score. When we did, we discovered some inaccurate items that needed addressing and that were negatively affecting our scores. At first, Vinny attempted to resolve the items himself, but quickly found out it was way more time intensive and complicated than he thought. So we chose to work with Lexington Law Firm, and we are so glad we did! The process was smooth and clear and the results were definitely worth the investment. Our scores improved over 100 points!
In addition to our scores improving, one of our favorite features of their service is that they offer credit coaching and a score improvement. Lexington Law Firm really helped educate us on how a score is impacted and what we can do to improve and maintain our good scores.
Fast forward to now, and we have a much different view on our credit scores. Although we aren’t looking to purchase a home today, we are much more mindful of our score and what affects it. Here’s a few generally good habits we do ourselves to keep our score in good shape:
Check your credit report at least 2 times a year for inaccuracies
Try to maintain a 33% or less debt to credit ratio on all credit cards
Have no more than 3 credit inquiries on your report at any given time (they fall off after 1 year)
Request credit line increases on lower limit cards to increase your overall available credit
