For those who have good credit, how do you stay disciplined on paying bills on time?
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lela1026 wants to know:
For those with good credit , does it derive from having an abundance of money due to education with high pay, two workers in the home, or no dependants? If you are a single parent and do have decent credit ok how do you do it? Is direct bill pay the way? Just good habits, what’s your motivation. I need some tips! I am inthe process of re-establishing credit and wonder what habits others have that help keep them from crashing and burning when it comes to credit?
For those with good credit , does it derive from having an abundance of money due to education with high pay, two workers in the home, or no dependants? If you are a single parent and do have decent credit ok how do you do it? Is direct bill pay the way? Just good habits, what’s your motivation. I need some tips! I am inthe process of re-establishing credit and wonder what habits others have that help keep them from crashing and burning when it comes to credit?
Tagged with: Dependants • Establishing Credit • Single Parent
Filed under: True Credit
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I have good credit, and I’m not rich. I am the sole moneymaker for a family of four. Some basic principles:
1) Don’t be house-poor. Don’t buy the biggest house your mortgage lender will qualify you for, or the biggest rent your landlord will qualify you for. This is true of any business transaction – don’t even REVEAL to a vendor how much you can afford.
2) Look at your monthly expenses like a hawk. This is the stuff you buy every month, like taxes, insurance, rent, car payment, groceries, and gas. Total it all up. Make sure it isn’t more than 75% of what you make. If it is, start looking for cheaper stuff and ditching stuff. I pay $60/mo for car and home insurance combined, and I don’t have cable service.
3) Use Quicken. If someone forgets to send you a bill, it will warn you, and you can call them before you are past due.
4) Pay bills on time and electronically. You can set up electronic bill pay from your bank to pay everything 5 days before it’s due.
5) Pay the credit card bill in full at the end of every month. If you have a problem with that, tear up the credit card. If you stick to principle #2 and don’t go crazy with discretionary spending, you should be OK.
6) Live cheap. We moved to Indianapolis because housing was cheaper. We own a chest freezer so we can stock up on groceries on sale. The motto is a dollar saved is two dollars earned (after taxes).
–>Adam
The biggest money drain for most people is the little bit here and there for small items out and about like coffee, soda, snacks.
Try keeping a log for just 1 week on every penny you spend, it may shock you how much money just dribbles away.
other things is search online for free budgeting tips, distasteful as the word is a budget is the only way, the key is to not make it difficult to use
i think the biggest hurdle is living with in your income.
make out a budget with all your expences on a monthly basis and compare this with your income. make what ever and i mean what ever ajustments to your expences you must to end up with a 15 to 20 % cushion.
also a good idea if you don’t know your monthly expences is to write down every penny spent and where it went. with this you will know where you stand and can make the necessary ajustments to your spending habits.
all this really takes self control, but can be very rewarding
I have had both bad credit and extremely good credit in my life. One thing that helps me is having a budget and staying within it. If you make $1000 per week or $100 don’t spend or commit to spend more than you can afford. Surprising this isn’t taught in schools and I guess you just have to use good old common sense when it comes to this.
Always be aware of impulse buying, why do they place the milk at the back of the market so you have to pass so many other things to get to it? Good Luck, you can do it.
If you get in the habit of writing a check as soon as you open the bill and sending it right back the same day or the next day at the latest rather than allowing all the bills to accumulate before you sit down and write your checks to pay them all at once you will see how easy it is to keep up. Forget about direct debit from your account, I had a bad experience with that some years ago and it was a reputable company (my life Ins co.) that double dipped my account in the same month and when I checked with my bank to have them fix it they said it was between me and the Ins Co. their hands were tied because I gave permission for my Ins Co to debit my account and the bank has no idea when or how much. My banker said “don’t give anyone free access to your account, there’s too much funny stuff going on nowdays.” It’s not the responsibility of the bank to police everyone’s account, and besides they don’t have time. Most bankers don’t use direct debit for their own personal bill paying….. what does that tell you?