Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Clark Howard is the man!
Every chance I get, I listen to Clark Howard. He is a great resource for financial advice and tips, and he's fairly entertaining. His site is full of links and suggestions to get your financial situation under control. It is all thanks to him that I am where I am now, with my credit debt manageable and living within my means. I have used his site a lot, and will continue to use it as an invaluable resource in researching the process of buying my first house.
Credit Sesame Review
I figure I'd start off reviewing my suggested links with Credit Sesame. This site will allow you to track your current rating. It gives you a score on par with your FICO score, ranging from 300-850, although I do not believe the score it gives is actually your FICO score. It will update you monthly on your score, as well as changes over time in your score. With this site, it will also give you recommendations and ideas on how to save money and improve your credit. It also gives you a list of factors that may impact your score and possible ways to improve.
Along with all this, they offer badges, based on your credit, that you can share to "promote your financial responsibility and showcase your good credit standing". Unfortunately, at this time the sharing isn't working so I can't show you my badge, but when it's back up and working, you'll be able to see I've earned the Excellent Badge.
Along with all this, they offer badges, based on your credit, that you can share to "promote your financial responsibility and showcase your good credit standing". Unfortunately, at this time the sharing isn't working so I can't show you my badge, but when it's back up and working, you'll be able to see I've earned the Excellent Badge.
The Beginning
Hello, my name is Loren and I'm starting a new financial blog. Currently, I'm just beginning the process of buying a house. I'm at the very beginning stages, and I'm going to try to be as transparent about this process as I can. I'll also be going over other financial related stuff on this blog, along with helpful links and tips I come across.
I'll begin with an explanation of where I am as of now. I have not begun more than just trying to get my ducks in a row. I ran a credit report on all three bureaus just over a year ago, and all of them came back with good stuff. I did have one negative thing on a single report from a residence over 5 years ago. It is a debt that went to collections on cleanup costs for an apartment. I won't bore you with the details of why I owe the money or why I didn't pay (Unless you want to hear about it), but since then I've had nothing but on-time payments. I've increased my overall credit since the report was run, and I've kept my debt-to-credit ratio at a decent level.
Currently I am paying around $800 in rent to my parents, which is basically paying their mortgage payment on the house I'm living in. I did some research at BankRate.com and determined that I could hope for a rate around 4% and with that I could easily afford a $100,000 home with a 30 year mortgage.
I've also been watching my credit score using CreditSesame.com. The site will keep your credit score up to date, and it uses the same 300-850 scoring as the real FICO scoring system does, but I don't think what they give you is a true FICO score. Currently my score is 772, which has earned me their Excellent Credit Badge.
I'll begin with an explanation of where I am as of now. I have not begun more than just trying to get my ducks in a row. I ran a credit report on all three bureaus just over a year ago, and all of them came back with good stuff. I did have one negative thing on a single report from a residence over 5 years ago. It is a debt that went to collections on cleanup costs for an apartment. I won't bore you with the details of why I owe the money or why I didn't pay (Unless you want to hear about it), but since then I've had nothing but on-time payments. I've increased my overall credit since the report was run, and I've kept my debt-to-credit ratio at a decent level.
Currently I am paying around $800 in rent to my parents, which is basically paying their mortgage payment on the house I'm living in. I did some research at BankRate.com and determined that I could hope for a rate around 4% and with that I could easily afford a $100,000 home with a 30 year mortgage.
I've also been watching my credit score using CreditSesame.com. The site will keep your credit score up to date, and it uses the same 300-850 scoring as the real FICO scoring system does, but I don't think what they give you is a true FICO score. Currently my score is 772, which has earned me their Excellent Credit Badge.
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