I spoke with my lender today, who ran my credit report, and she announced that I needed more credit cards.
What?!? I need to create more debt for myself, so someone will give me a 6-figure home loan??? What's wrong with this picture???
And here I thought I was doing good...not entrenching myself in mountains and mountains of debt like every other American. I have one credit card, that I pay every month. I have a student loan, a car loan, and I pay all my other bills online...on time. I guess I come from the mindset of older folks: "If you don't have the money for it, then don't buy it." Which is why I have one credit card...by my choice. If I had more than that, I could get into a lot of trouble, pretty quick.
What does this mean for Heather? It means I am putting off homebuying for the time being. I hate this apartment, so I will look into probably renting something bigger. Besides, I've been wondering if this is an indicator that I probably should be moving somewhere else outside the Midwest.
It feels that nothing is going right for me, the house and all other things in my life. I've been bummed out all day. I went to the craft store, and it didn't even lift my spirits.
Time to hit the chocolate.
1 comment:
Heather,
You are being very responsible. Too responsible. I used to work in a credit office and I bet I know what the problem is.
I'm betting that it's that credit card that you pay off every month.
That is ABSOLUTELY the right thing to do from a personal financial point of view.
But credit card companies don't like that. They don't make any money on finance charges when you do that. So it doesn't enhance your credit score.
You'd be better off charging like, $100 on the card, paying a bit more than the minimum required payment every month, but always leaving a balance on the card.
They love that stuff.
Plus, don't over romanticize home ownership. I've owned two homes. One was a cracker box in the suburbs, one was a ginormous, 115 year old dream home in the country with tons of character and charm.
They both required a lot of sweat, work, money and time to maintain. Made a little bit of money on the cracker box. Invested it in the dream home. Sold the dream home without making a single penny. Broke even.
Now I rent a house. Nice place. Nice landlady. Anything serious needs fixing, I make a phone call. That's it.
I'm just sayin'.
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