Establishing Credit

First rule to the game is good credit. Starting from the earliest age possible, you should have a checking account. Having an ATM card is a good idea. Also from the earliest age possible, you should get someone to cosign a loan for at least $1000, do not spend the money, just put it in the checking account and pay the money back for a period of at least one-year. Do not miss or be late on any payments. If this is not possible, then there are credit card companies that will allow you to open an account with them. You give them 300 or 500 dollars and you borrow your own money when you use the credit card. As long as you make consistent monthly payments for one full year, you will establish credit. If you do not have a computer, maybe it would be a good Idea to take some of the money and buy a second hand computer, because the key to good credit is managing your money. If you are going to be making payments on anything, there are some great computer programs that will keep you from making mistakes. I use Microsoft Money. There may be some better programs, but I love what this program does for me. It keeps track of every penny I owe and every penny I make, and it tells me when to pay bills and what bills to pay. It takes a while to enter all the information, but once it is done it is easy. When I get paid, I deposit my whole check into my account, I have an ATM card for withdraws. I always keep my recipes from the ATM and when I enter my deposits, I also enter my withdraws. I enter my bills at the same time, if there is a problem, you will see it right away on the computer, and you can make adjustments before you actually write your checks out or pay with bill pay. This is also very handy at the end of the year when you do income taxes. In the time it takes to print a sheet of paper, you can have all your income and expenses ready for your tax return. It is very important to organize early, because it does not take much to ruin your credit. Computers are almost necessary to keep up with the unbelievable number of people you owe money to. It will keep surprises to a minimum. After you establish credit, get a credit card, I recommend spending around $200, then cut it in half, and again pay the minimum payment for over a year. Then pay it off. If you can do this without being late or missing payments, then you will have excellent credit. To be able to make it in America, it is very important that you have good credit. Credit is very tempting to use, but if you don't use it for the right purposes, it will keep you enslaved for the rest of your life. Let me give you the best example. A car is the very worst investment you can ever make. Unfortunately, most people need to have a car to work. A car alone could keep you enslaved for the rest of your life. For what??, so you can get from point A to point B. You must be patient, if you do things right, in the future you can drive whatever car you want to. Never finance a car for more than 3 years. If you can't afford the payment, then the car is too expensive for you to have. If you can't get a good 2 or 3 years of paid off service out of a car, then you should not buy it. (most people only keep a car about 5 or 6 years) My car is currently paid off, I just paid it off, and it is 3 years old and has 70,000 miles on it. I hate this car, I would love more than anything to by a new car right now, but I won't. Every month that I am driving this car, I am putting $300 a month in the bank to put a down payment on my next car. I will drive this car until the wheels fall off. I want my next car payment to be as low as I can get it, and with paying it off in 3 years; I will be able to save for the next one. Eventually I will only pay cash for my cars. Remember this saying, "I will borrow for profit, not ego".