Now, I have figured out a plan that works for me at this point in my life.  This may or may not work for you.  What I do is I take and add up my bills and then I divide by 4.3 ( this is about how many weeks are in a month).  I take that number and compare it to my weekly earnings.  Now I take a number that I am comfortable with putting in savings and add 15 percent to it.  When I first started to do this, I felt that I had absolutely no money, that was just the opposite.  I had money, but I just wasn’t spending it.  As time went on, I was able to live with on the little “pocket money” that I had.  You would be amazed how you can stretch your money.  Every once and a while, I would take a peak at the account online and see what the balance was and I would have a little party in my head.  It feels good to save money!  There is no way around it!

One way that you save money if you have a hard time disciplining your self is to have direct deposit.  What I do is I take that amount that I have allotted  to save and have that money be deducted from my pay check and automatically deposited into a savings account.  I don’t even see that money at all.  You know the old saying, “Outta sight, Outta mind!”  That is exactly what happens.

Not everything that I said is going to directly mold to your specific life, but these are basic principles that I have lived by and have treated me well.  Just remember folks, when it comes to saving, discipline is the main key.  This fundamental key of discipline will carry on with you.  It will create good habits that will stay with you for life.  It will most certainly give you a solid advantage to stray clear from getting into bad credit. Always keep your eye on the prize.  Once you see the fruits of your labor, you will most certainly satisfied.

1. Request a credit report:

Most people do not know that you are allowed by law one free credit report from each of the big three credit reporting bureaus each year.  The big three are: Equifax, Experian and Trans Union.  Now if you figure that out in your head, that means that you can get one free credit report roughly every quarter, or every three months.  Now, they will not give you your credit score, they will give you the report.  This will outline every open accout, late payment, every account that went into collections and so on.

2. Examine the report carefully:

When you get the report, make sure that you go over that report with a fine tooth comb.  It is important to realize that your credit is literally your trustworthiness to lenders.  When you walk into the bank to get a loan for a car.  The loan officer does not go by a judge of character, they will go strictly by numbers.  The loan officer is not going to say to themselves, ” Wow, this guy has a nice suit on and it really looking sharp today.  I think that I will give him a loan.”  Now that would be nice if they would do that, but that is not how the cookie crumbles.

3.  Divide and Conquer:

It is important to not let your self get too worked up over this.  This is very important, but not a life and death situation.  It’s imperative that you do not let your debts go unresolved.  Make sure you have a plan installed.  Do small things to improve your bad credit.  Open a savings account at a bank.  Once you open and start to save money, this shows banks that you are taking initiative to improve your financial status, and save for the unexpected.  Make payments on time.  This is one that usually slips by people.  I myself have let that happen to me, and it came around to bite me in the hind quarters.  Making your payments on time will greatly improve your credit score for the long run.  If you have unpaid bills, and they have gone to collections, make a concerted effort to contact the collection agency to make the full payment or settle on a price you and the collections company are comfortable with.  Remember, unpaid collections are fare worse than paid collections.

Remember that these are just a few of the steps to take at revamping your credit report and score.  Folks, it’s not going to happen over night and suddenly you will wake up and be approved for a $500,000 mortgage from the bank.  Like with most things in life, it only takes a short time to ruin, but a long time repair.

So many people get dragged into this marketing ploy, it’s not even funny.  You start to think, “Yeah, I need that new car, this one is not cutting it anymore!”  What you don’t understand is that, yeah you will be approved, but the interest rate will be so astronomically high, you will not be able to see all of the numbers on graphing calculator.  But, by the time you get to that point, you will start to make excuses for yourself to have this new car.

If you absolutely need that car.  Make sure you do your research first.  Contact the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and check if the dealer has had complaints filed against them.  What a lot of the time, shady car dealers will do, is inflate the cost of the car, and then knock some of the price tag off and then they make it look like you are getting a fantastic deal.  Then they will slap the high interest on the loan.  be careful with this one.  When you finance through a dealer, the dealer gets a cut of the finance.  So if you call the lender your self, you may be able to get a few percentage points off. Bad credit car loans are a bad idea as a whole.

All in all, make sure that you expense all avenues before going with the high interest car loan.  This can even ruin your credit more so than it was before.  One rule to go by, ALWAYS make sure you can afford it before you sign your signature on that line!

The key to differentiating these two is to remove the emotion from the situation.  When you want something so very badly, you can become stuck in a rut.  You begin to fantasize about this particular item or thing.  You begin to trick your self into saying that you can no longer live with out this item or thing in your life.  It has become a life and death situation.  When you start to live with this kind of life style, then you start to throw the other important things in your life to the way side.  For example, you start to not pay attention to the due dates on bills, because they do not have a higher priority than the item that you lust so very badly.  This is when your credit starts to take a turn for the worst.

My mother taught me a lot of things, and one key thing that she taught me was, when you want something so badly, you end up getting it.  Then give it a months time or so and you will no longer appreciate it.  I have done this so many times in my life I cannot count.  i will give you a prime example of this.  I used really be into cell phones.  I would rarely have a single cell phone for more than a few months.  I would buy one, then I would get bored of it and then search for a new one with bigger and better features.  Then I would get the best one out there, and the viscous cycle would begin all over again.  So you see that it is one bad financial decision after another that snowball’s and ruins your credit.  If I had just stayed with one particular cell phone, then I would have saved myself a lot of money.  The same principle can go with a lot bigger purchases like buying a car, or home.

What you need to do is stick to your guns when it comes time to “want” something.  Is it really what I want?  Can I really live without this thing?  These questions need to be answered before buying anything.  If you start out with small items, you will learn a good habit for when it comes time to purchase your first big item.

Well, In most cases, the answer to that question is going to be a no, you cannot afford it.  I think that the American people are just as at fault for the catastrophic  mess that the country is enveloped in as the lending companies that are always blamed.  i grew up in a family that always bought quality merchandise.  My parents philosophy was that you always get what you pay for.  Meaning, if you buy something on the cheap, then it is obviously not going to last long.  I think that most people have that same ideology, but the reasons are a bit skewed.  Its more used for showing off to the neighborhood of what you have, then actually doing it for economic reasons. My mother always had a good formula to combat impulse purchasing.  Give your self twenty four hours, and if you still want/need it , go and get it.

Most of the time, people would like to say woe is me, and it’ s not my fault for the situation I’m in.  People are always trying to make excuses on why it was out of their control.  In some instances, people have there identity stolen.  In this case, it would be very unfortunate for the individual.  In most cases, companies will advise you that your identity has been compromised, and they will offer free credit monitoring for you on your behalf.

All in all, your credit is all up to you.  It is your responsibility to be mature and pay your bills on time and come up with a budget with all of your expenses in mind.  It is easy to get caught up in the “hype” of the glitz and glamor of the world we live in.  Peel back that very thin silver lining, and all you get is empty promises.