Things to Know About Your Money After College

DDminaj

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Things to Know About Your Money After College​

Figure out the answers to these questions now to set yourself up for financial success for years to come.

1. What’s Your Credit Score?​

This sounds like a dreadfully boring place to start, but it’s key to making a solid financial plan. Understanding your credit history give you a solid financial picture you can build from.

You can get directly from a credit bureau, but that won’t include your score. Instead, I recommend a tool that shows you your credit score and the elements of your credit history that affect it.

Among other information, these tools will let you see:

  • Your FICO score or VantageScore. Each of these can be useful. They’re different, though, so make sure you know which one you’re looking at and how it compares to what creditors and lenders will see.
  • A breakdown of your debts. Any credit cards, auto loans, personal loans and student loans in your name will show up, including how much you owe and which company you owe it to.
  • Payment history. You’ll see if you have any outstanding negative marks, like unpaid bills. You can use this information to pay them off and clean up your credit or, if they’re old, wait for them to
Word of warning: These tools earn money by recommending products like loans and credit cards. Their recommendations can be useful to help you save money and improve your credit — but first make a plan and shop around. You might find better options on your own.

You might learn that you have which is also useful information. It means you haven’t borrowed or used credit cards long enough to generate a credit history.

If that’s the case, choose one of these steps to start building credit:

  • Become an authorized user on someone else’s credit card — like your parents or another family member.
  • Open a secured credit card with a deposit and low credit limit.
  • Take a credit builder loan.
  • Open a store credit card — but don’t use it too much.
  • Finance a big purchase, like furniture or appliances, with the store.
  • Use a cosigner for a credit card or small loan.
  • Use a service that reports your rent payments to credit bureaus.
 
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