How To Improve Your Credit Score Today from blogger Danielle YB Vason of She Makes Cents | Money Hacks

5 Ways to Start Improving Your Credit Score TODAY

Published on April 26, 2017May 10, 2017 by Danielle YB Vason11 Comments

A great credit score can be the difference between being approved for that car you’ve saved for, that house you’ve looked at, and even that job that you just interviewed for that is now pulling your credit history. If you have a low score, the people who decide whether you are an “attractive” candidate hold the cards. If you, however, have a great credit score, you hold ALL the cards. I learned this when I was buying my first home just three days after my 24th birthday. In the midst of trying to prove to my parents that I was, in fact, a real and financially responsible adult by doubling up on student loan payments and keeping my credit card balance low, I was unknowingly improving my credit score. In fact, during the contract negotiation period of the home buying process, my score improved by 20 points. A great score also came in handy once I moved because the majority of my utility expenses did not need a deposit and I was offered a lower rate. No matter what your score is, it is never too late to start improving it.

Here are 5 Easy Ways to Boost your Credit Score

First and foremost, it is imperative that you know your score, that way you know where you stand. By law, all US citizens are entitled to one FREE credit history report, but depending on where you live your state may pay for one more. Georgia residents, for example, are entitled to two FREE credit reports from each reporting agency. This is a great time to make sure that all the information is correct and give you an overview of where your finances stand. Related Post: How to Dispute Errors on Your Credit Report
Pay your bills on time. It sounds simple, but I’m going to take a quick flashback to my college days when I was on the dance line of the marching band featured in Drumline. (insert flashback bubble here) To be early is to be ON TIME, to be “on time” is to be LATE, and to be late is UNACCEPTABLE (end flashback bubble…now). The same essentially holds true with how you pay your bills. The earlier you pay your bill, the better. For one, you are certain that your bill will be received by your service provider way before the date. More importantly, paying your bills as soon as you get them can be a quick but subtle increase to that credit score. I try to pay all bills within days of receiving my statements and then record the due dates and balance due in my calendar. This allows me a quick glimpse of my monthly financial trends. This is something I recommend to EVERYONE!
Use only one credit card. If you have more than one card, start paying down the card with the smallest balance first by doubling the minimum payment. Once, that card is paid down, move to the card with the second lowest balance. Double the minimum balance and tack on whatever you were applying to the first card, until that card is paid down, and then so on. This, lovely people, is what is called a money snowball. Next, choose one card to work with, preferably the one with the highest interest rate and take the other ones out of your wallet. Freeze them, cut them up, lock them away but whatever you do, do not close them. Closing a credit card can sink your credit score faster than you can say “She Makes Cents”. Don’t do it, don’t do it, do not do it…
Increase your credit limit. Now that you have worked towards reducing the debt on your existing card, credit card companies should begin to see you as an “attractive” customer. Call your company and request a credit increase. Again, this is not meant for you to start increasing your spending¸ but rather it is an opportunity for you to increase your credit to debt ratio. Can anyone say credit score boost? Related Post: How The Debt to Credit Ratio Affects Your Credit Score
Pay in Cash. I have said it before and I will say it again. Paying in cash forces you to really consider whether your purchase is right you. Personally, I find that paying for things in cash acts as a visual aid and helps keep me on track with my spending. In swiping a card, I can’t “see” my funds dwindling, but watching your cash go from thick to thin is definitely a sign that you could be mindlessly spending. When you pay in cash, you don’t have to worry about interest rates and hidden charges because Cash is ~~King~~ QUEEN.

{2015 Week 11 Update} 52 Week Money Challenge

Published on March 13, 2015March 9, 2015 by Danielle YB Vason1 Comment

I believe that through knowledge and discipline, financial peace is possible for all of us. -Dave Ramsey

I’ve been contacted by quite a few of you asking for a copy of the 52 Week Money Challenge, which shows me that I am not the only one looking to save money. While you won’t save a MAJOR windfall doing this challenge, you will gain financial discipline. It’s harder than you think to get in the habit of saving but once up pick up the skill, it’s well worth the effort. If you are new to She Makes Cents, I am happy to report that I paid off my credit card doing this challenge as additional payments over the minimum. I am now adding this extra money to my wedding savings account after I see how much I have left from doing a zero based budget…aka, my saving grace!

How Are You Going Use Your $1300+ ?

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{Cash Is Fab} How One Girl Resolves to Never Use Plastic Again!

Published on January 11, 2015 by Danielle YB Vason6 Comments

This morning I was cleaning out old files from the computer, aka procrastinating writing my next blog post, when I found an old resolution. I wrote in it December of 2013 but never posted it. I decided to post it today, however, to show what a year of working toward financial goals looked like for me. I encourage you to write down your goals so you can have a reference of just how far you have come and then take a step back and acknowledge your progress. Check out my 2014 financial goals below:

Cash Is Fab! How One Girl Resolves to Never Use Plastic Again!

Some people hear the word “resolution” and immediately shutter. I on the other hand, look at resolutions as a new beginning… a do over to do better. Hey, if you don’t like the word resolutions, substitute it for goals because everyone knows that goals are AWESOME! This year I resolve to pay off my credit card balance before my birthday in August, kick start my snowball toward financial freedom, and say no to plastic forever (ambitious, right?). I am working toward this goal by paying a set amount every two weeks (each payment over the monthly minimum) and doing the 52 Week Money Challenge (Bingo Style) every Friday. If I were okay with just paying the minimum, it would take me 4 years, instead of eight months, to complete step one of my financial plan. The Bingo version of the challenge plays a big role in completing my financial resolutions because if I am having a tough financial week, I can pick a lower amount to save. Once the credit card is paid off, my monthly credit card payments (including the 52 Week Challenge savings) will become extra payments to my student loans and so on until I have zero debt. I keep myself motivated by constantly reminding myself and my accountability partner, The Mr., of my ultimate goal to pay of all debt, credit card, student loans, and mortgage in the next ten years. If I can’t afford to pay for it in cash, I can’t afford it!

Now, one year later my credit card balance is not a concern because it is non-existent. I sometimes forget about the stress that carrying a credit card balance had on me. Yes, I paid my credit card off and before my target date by doing this risky move, which worked and then immediately backfired. I also think about how my snowball plan for my student loans has been transformed into a snowball for my October wedding expenses to the Mr. Boy oh boy, what changes can happen in a year.

Finish the Sentence: I Resolve to ________

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{Giveaway Winner} She Makes Cents Congratulates….

Published on February 24, 2014March 14, 2014 by Danielle YB Vason3 Comments

I want to take a moment to congratulate our giveaway winner, Bree S. of Illinois! When asked about her financial goals for 2014, Bree replied, “One of my financial goals this year is to be able to actually budget (yes I said the B word!) myself so that I can afford to move-out and have my own apartment. As a college graduate working full-time, this would be the ultimate reward to finally feel independent. It would only make “cents” “. Please accept this as a small token of my appreciation for your reading and commenting on shemakescents.com!

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{Financial Goals} Tackle Your Credit Card Debt Today

Published on January 2, 2013January 1, 2016 by Danielle YB Vason4 Comments

Have you ever heard the phrase, “a goal without a plan is just a wish”? Well I’m starting to think that is true. Like many of you, I always have financial goals… some I have shared on this blog and others I have not. As we start this brand new year, I have to ask myself, were my goals of last year actual goals or just wishes for the future? I started reflecting on this the other day while looking at older posts about financial goals. Sure, I can list some of my goals but without a plan, how can I help you as readers follow my financial journey? Isn’t that the point of all of this? I also started wondering how much is too much to share? The answers to these questions will unfold throughout 2013, but for today, getting a plan together is the priority.

The Problem: In my pre-She Makes Cents life, I worked every month and in a short amount of time, I paid off my credit card. Then the bottom fell out and I was using my credit card to simply…live (very honest moment). Long story short, my balance of about $5300 (rounding up) is nowhere near, where it should be. Why, you may ask? Because I was caught up. I started swiping to get the “cash back” deals that I told myself I would pay it off at the end of the month and didn’t. I wasn’t using my envelopes as I should have and I might not have fully realized the my new financial situation.

The Solution: In reading some of my older posts, I remembered a period where I locked my credit card up in a safe deposit box. Initially, I just wanted to see how long I could go without credit card spending. I wasn’t swiping, I wasn’t living beyond my means, and the balance was slowly decreasing over time. I am a very goal oriented person, so I know adding the component of an end goal date, one of the tips featured in the post How to Make and Achieve Your Goals, will help. Thinking back, why did I ever take the card back out?

The Plan: If you are in a similar situation, this is how I plan on making this wish into a goal and a goal into a “been there done that”. While I would like to have this paid off in a year, I know I may need cushion. My end goal date for credit card payoff is August of 2014. That means, with my interest rate, I will need to be making a payment of $294.36 per month to be credit card free by next August (check out the credit card payoff calculator at the bottom of my sidebar to figure out yours). Instead of paying the minimum, which is NEVER a good look, I will pay the fixed rate listed above or more. Also, whenever there are cash back deals through my bank, I will use the “rewards” to pay down my credit card. In my research, I have heard the advice to pick up the phone and call your credit card company for a reduced interest rate but depending the company, they may label you as a “high risk” customer and close your account, so do your research first.

How Are Your Eliminating Your Credit Card Debt?

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{Got Goals} How to Make and Achieve Your Goals

Published on December 27, 2012February 15, 2018 by Danielle YB Vason7 Comments

My TV best friend, Carrie Bradshaw, once stated that “as we drive along this road called life, occasionally a gal will find herself a little lost. And when that happens, I guess she has to let go of the coulda, shoulda, woulda, buckle up and just keep going”. I coulda lived without that purchase, I shoulda saved more, and I woulda done it like this if… Well folks, one of my favorite things about going into the New Year are the ability to reflect and refresh. It’s time to move toward your goals/resolutions for the future.

Replace Your Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda with Been There Done That!

Write your goals out. Sometimes putting pen to paper makes things so much more real. Mental goals will always stay within the mind if you don’t take this first step.

Keep It Real. Sure, I would love to save $10,000,000 in a years’ time…wouldn’t everyone and buy a yacht? For my lifestyle, though, that would be a highly unrealistic goal. Impractical goals are the enemy of progress. I’m not saying lower your standards. I’m saying that setting attainable goals and completing them makes you want to push forward to reach even higher. In contrast, setting unrealistic goals simply enforces a defeated attitude.

Set a Goal Date. There are many procrastinators in my life…me being one of them. Setting a goal date is like doing crunches and knowing you have five more to go… it just pushes you to complete it. Now imagine just doing crunches without knowing how many you have left to go. After a while, you will abandon your goal, right? Set a date and strive to hit it.

Tell Someone. Find someone or several people and tell them your goals. Not only will you have someone to help keep you accountable, but if you have someone who actually wants to see you succeed, they will help eliminate triggers that will get you off task. This may mean that you will hear the word “no” when you need to hear it but aren’t ready to accept it.

Check-In. Last year, I was able to accomplish many of my goals/resolutions because SMC reader, Audrey, asked for an update. Little did she know, it made me reflect on the goals that I wrote about and published for the world to read (steps 1 and 4) and made me want to follow through on those long-lost goals. In fact, I ended up writing two update reports for those that follow SMC.

I challenge you to push forward. Maybe you need to revisit a goal that was abandoned. Maybe you have new goals. Take a day or two and really think about where you want to be and thing create a roadmap on how to get there. Good Luck!

{Honesty is Free} What Does the “Fab Life” Mean to You?

Published on June 27, 2012December 27, 2012 by Danielle YB Vason5 Comments

So I took a little hiatus…okay, well a longer one than expected, but I am back with a vengeance. I needed some time to have new experiences so that I can have something exciting yet honest to write about. To be honest, the original idea behind this site was to inform and inspire ways to use your “cents” to live a fab life. Along the way, I believe I got off target. So as we prepare for our upcoming one year mark (March 1^stJ), I want to take things back to basics. To do so, I’ll start with a simple question; what is the fab life? My answer could be ever-changing, but at the moment, great people, great food, great fashions, great adventures, great love, great leaps of faith, and a greatly styled place to come home to.

Fab People

Fab Fashions

Fab Adventures

Fab Love

Fab Faith

Fab Home

So that is what I’m going to write about…how to get the fab life without breaking the bank, my budget, or my financial integrity. I hope you join me along the way and learn from both my successes and my failures. That’s life and sometimes, you don’t learn the lesson until you fall on your face and have to get back up.

Talk to me! What is the “fab life” to you?

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Budgeting 102- Spending Diet

Published on April 13, 2011April 19, 2013 by Danielle YB Vason3 Comments

I saw the movie Eat Pray Love not too long ago. In it, is a reference to an old Catholic joke that I have become very fond of. In a voice-over, Liz, played by Julia Roberts, recalls the following:

I remember an Old Catholic joke about a man who spent his whole life going to a church every day and prayed to the statue of a great saint begging, “please, please, please, let me win the lottery.” Finally the exasperated statue comes to life and looks down at the begging man and says “my son, please, please, please, buy a ticket”.

Sometimes I find myself in situations where I am the one begging and sometimes I am the statue. Today, I come to you as the statue. I once heard it said that we buy what we want and beg for what we need. Is this you? Have you put you financial security at risk with things you wanted and now you are begging for a financial miracle? Be a part of your own miracle…buy a ticket. I am taking the points mentioned in Budgeting 101 step by step. Like dieting and working out, budgeting takes time, restraint, and accountability. I invite you to join me on my Spending Diet.

Write Down Everything You Spend Your Money On. Since April 1, 2011, I have been writing down EVERYTHING I have spent money on. I included this advice in Budgeting 101 with the suggestion to do this for two weeks. I would now like to retract that advice and tell you to extend it for an entire month. Every financial and money management writer will tell you to do this. Honestly, it wasn’t until the beginning of April that I actually did this myself. I thought between my memory and online banking statements, that I had an accurate grasp on how, when, where, and with whom I spent my money. SMC readers, I couldn’t have been more wrong. My spending chart has revealed that I am an emotional spender who blows a great deal of my food budget on eating out with my sister because I believe we don’t see, talk, or interact as frequently as we once did. My spending chart personified aspects by my sometimes-narcissistic personality. I made a donation to my alma mater that I really couldn’t afford, because I didn’t want to be the 5,999 person who comes shy of the 6,000 donor goal for the Founder’s Day scholarship fundraiser. I also learned that while there are aspects of my personality where I am admittedly spoiled, I also spend and give the a great deal of my money to others to make them happy. Hi, my name is Danielle and I am an emotional spender. Buy the ticket. I am putting myself in financial rehab to get back on track like my Rah Tiffany did years ago. I have locked my credit card away and most importantly, I am learning to say no to others. Catey Hill, the author of Shoo Jimmy Choo created a Day to Day Spending Chart that I particularly like. I used Hill’s chart as an example and made one that fits my own financial goals and spending style. Buy what you need and you will not have anything left to beg for. Buy a ticket and let’s start our financial journey together.

If you are interested in my own Spending Chart, please email me at shemakescent@gmail.com
subject: Spending Chart

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The Benefits of Teaching Children About Money

Published on April 5, 2011June 30, 2020 by Danielle YB VasonLeave a comment

“I now realize that the greatest power in the world is the power of knowledge” (insert lol here if you already know where I’m going with this). The quote, was something that every student from my elementary school and I had to say at the start of every day. Nevertheless, the quote holds true– there is much power in knowledge and the sooner one understands a concept the better. Yesterday, in The First Piggy Bank, I posed the question: how do you introduce the concept of saving to children? To take that question a step further, when is the best time to introduce the concept of saving to children? The earlier the better. The benefits of teaching your children about money early on are both immediate and long-term. It helps in the development of smart saving habits earlier in life and also teaches discipline and self control. Understanding that just because you want something right now doesn’t mean that you can afford it, will save children and parents in the end. I’m glad I shared the tidbit of my first one hundred pennies because it allowed me to dig deeper into my memory bank of children and saving money. One memory definitely comes to mind. I was in high school and my best friend at the time had a little sister in elementary school. Instead of spending her money on snacks and little kid things, she decided one day that she was going to save her money for a limo. I thought it was extremely funny at the time, but admittedly, I didn’t realize how financially mature she was. The little sister, maybe around 5 years old at the time, decided on a goal and chose to cut her spending to save so she could one day afford her dream car, even if it was a limo. Some adults still haven’t mastered this concept in their endeavor to keep up with the Joneses, but that’s for another post.

While tweeting, I came across a link that directed me back to a site that is becoming a quick favorite of mine and a financial must: www.mint.com. Mint and the Scholastic have teamed up to teach kids the basics of money management. Mint education has figured out a way to make learning about personal finance fun with how to articles to interactive games that guides kids to adults through the ends and outs of money management. Personally, I can’t wait to read More Education, More Problems? The Myth of Grad School.. Teaching kids about saving early will help them to respect your hard-earned money earlier in life. Just remember, adults, it is never too late to learn about personal finance and money management. See The 5 Golden Rings to Your Child’s Financial Success to start the conversation with your child/teen or a child/teen that you care for.

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The 5 Golden Rules to Your Child’s Financial Success

Published on April 5, 2011June 30, 2020 by Danielle YB Vason2 Comments

Children learn what they see. How can you teach children about the horrors of impulse spending when you are guilty of it yourself? Clean up your act, first. In school, kids are taught the basics: reading, writing, mathematics, and science, rarely are they taught money management. Therefore, as an influential presence in a child’s life, you have the opportunity to shape their thoughts and views regarding personal finance.
Make it fun! If it starts to feel like a school lesson, then you will start to sound like the teacher from Charlie Brown. Several online resources available can make learning more enjoyable. For example, the FREE online video game I played yesterday on Mint’s Education page is both fun and illustrates how smart money decisions equals #winning
Break it down so it is understandable. When I was younger, I couldn’t understand why my mom told me we couldn’t afford a monkey (a pet I was totally obsessed with having), when I saw her simply put her ATM card in the machine and magically receive money back for the things she wanted. Explaining where money comes from is a good place to start in the conversation about money.
Stop reinforcing bad behaviors. Merchants put all the goodies closest to the register for a reason. Not only are all of the goodies close to checkout, they are often strategically placed at a child’s eye level. This sets up the stage for several scenarios that counter-act the concept of smart money management. I worked in retail while in college and I saw kids and parents alike get suckered into buying items they had no intention of buying. I also witnessed, more often than not, the adults who bribed children into good behavior with the promise of a purchase. One way to stop reinforcing bad behavior is to explain that we are going into this store for “xyz” and if a tantrum for an impulse buy comes up, explain that if you want the item, you must save “blank” amount of money…also known as establishing financial goals #5.
Make Financial Goals Together. Want a new bike? Video game? Nail Polish Set? Bracelet? Start saving. Adults if you want a new TV, that cute handbag from the other day, or that iPad 2….start saving. If you save and enjoy it, then they will too. In addition, there is much gratification to be found in accomplishing a goal.

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