Thinking Ahead Financially

You may not realize it, but having a clean credit report is one of the most important things you can have to secure your financial success. It may not seem fair to you, but your credit is taken into consideration every time you make some of the biggest decisions of your life - from buying a new house, to getting a business, personal, or construction loan, even applying for a job! A tarnished credit history can keep you from getting some of the things you have always dreamed of.nnYour credit history says a lot about your responsibility to your finances to companies who look at it. If you are constantly late on payments to companies or fail to pay at all, they note this information on your credit history, which other companies and employers can access when they are considering you for that perfect job or that new car. A clean credit report shows that you are responsible and can make the scheduled payments on time, every time, which is what most companies want to hear, especially if they are putting their own financial security in your hands by offering you a loan.nnHowever, if your credit is already tarnished, and you would like to clean it up, there are companies available to assist you in becoming debt-free, and many methods to help you get back on the right path. While this is not always an easy task, maintaining your credit health is crucial. A clean credit report can open doors for you that you did not think were available, while bad credit can follow you for years to come and can be all the difference between getting the house of your dreams or being turned down for the construction loan.nnThink Retirement When YoungnnMost young adults do not think about retirement too much. This is definitely the case with young teenagers as well. However, it does not change the fact that we all will grow older and that retirement day will fast approach. It stands to reason that we are never too young to start planning for retirement and part of that plan is to start saving money and getting a good return on the investment of what is saved. nnJust think about it. If a young person starts saving at age 18 and retires at age 65, then that is 47 years of steady saving. If a person were to save a dollar a day then that in and of itself would be $17,000+ dollars without even the consideration of interest. If a person is to save $1 a day for 47 years at a 5% return and a 3.1% inflation rate, that savings would grow to around $70,000. Thus, you cannot start too young. In fact the younger you start saving for your retirement, the better.nnInitially, you might want to invest your money into some investment vehicles that provide high rates of return. These of course will be the riskier investments, as they tend to return higher rates. When you are young, it is advisable to do this because you can bounce back from market downturns with plenty of time to recover. As you get older and closer to retirement, you want to protect what you have accumulated and keep the investments in less-risky vehicles. Of course, you won’t achieve the high rates of return that you would in the risky ones but the idea here is to protect yourself from taking losses close to retirement. Also, make sure that all of your retirement investments are tax-deferred in that you do not want taxes to negatively impact you while you are building your retirement fund.