Great post for ending the year! 
One big thing I have learned is that there is always more to learn. From everyone!
Also, forgive yourself for your mistakes/missteps. Don't be embarrassed to share them with others! People who "beat up" on a person who is brave enough to post their mistake has zero class, imho.
I guess this, too. We really are all in this together. To those who have been kind to me (and) others in their journey, thank you!!!
@Anonymous wrote:Great post for ending the year!
One big thing I have learned is that there is always more to learn. From everyone!
Also, forgive yourself for your mistakes/missteps. Don't be embarrassed to share them with others! People who "beat up" on a person who is brave enough to post their mistake has zero class, imho.
I guess this, too. We really are all in this together. To those who have been kind to me (and) others in their journey, thank you!!!
+1000. I loved this comment! It really illustrates the aspect of us all being a unified, supportive community.
For me, I have learned restraint, which is saying something for me. I am finally at the point where I see folks going after the latest, newest cards and I feel zero urgency to jump in. Even when I was getting mailers from FNBO, I did inquire here (the forum) but still, never really felt any urge to app it.
I am happy with my current lineup, I'll occupy the jump seat here as CreditAddict and Ron1 one drive forward. 
@Anonymous wrote:For me, I have learned restraint, which is saying something for me. I am finally at the point where I see folks going after the latest, newest cards and I feel zero urgency to jump in. Even when I was getting mailers from FNBO, I did inquire here (the forum) but still, never really felt any urge to app it.
I am happy with my current lineup, I'll occupy the jump seat here as CreditAddict and Ron1 one drive forward.
You are definitely ready to garden. Come join us...
@Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone,
I thought it might be helpful for us to post on the board some of the credit card lessons we have learned during the course of the year in the hope that these may help others, both those new to the board and seasoned members as well (we are all always learning, are we not?)
I'll start the thread with a few:
1) Reduction can be a good thing. I've added credit and am now culling the herd to further refine my profile into the profile I want. I'm reducing down from 230k in credit and may even decide to get down to 170k over the next 9 months in order to not show "too much credit" to creditors. It's great to both add with a purpose and to downsize when needed.
2) Adding with a purpose. I planned in advance which cards I wanted to add when I went on my spree in July. Now that I have those cards, I'm culling some from the herd that will be less helpful to me going forward.
3) Needs change. A card that may have been helpful to me one year ago may not be as helpful to me now, and it's important to have the flexibility to realize that.
4) Utilization is key. When I started reading posts on myfico early this year, I didn't understand utilization as well as I do now. I never maxed out a card, but I often kept cards at 50% of credit limit. Reading and learning about utilization has helped me keep my overall utilization to between 4%-6%. I even get very watchful in a good way if an individual card exceeds 20%, just so I don't repeat prior utilization mistakes.
5) Be aware of what is going on in the credit world, and keep your knowledge current. I've learned a lot from fellow myfico members and that knowledge has helped me in my approach to lenders. For example, I've always had a great relationship with Barclay; however, seeing some of the posts on here about certain trends others have experienced has helped me to treat certain lenders even more conservatively.
6) Dramatic moves in the credit world are probably not a good idea. I have read situations on my fico where members have made dramatic moves in terms of utilization spikes, adding 15 cards all at once, opening and closing cards rapidly, or other moves that can spook lenders, and I am careful to keep that knowledge in mind when considering decisions of my own.
7) Learn from mistakes. Learning is a process and is ongoing for all of us. We've all added cards that we question ourselves about later and say, "what was I thinking?", even when we have a plan. Different things happen and learning is key.
8) Share knowledge with others in a friendly way. We all have something to share, but none of us has all of the answers and being humble is important. Treat others as fellow learners in the journey, not as if any of us are an expert and the other person is not quite where we are at in terms of knowledge.
9) Credit is a journey, not a race. It's exciting to see others adding credit yet important to do so in a measured, planful way. I'm not new to credit, but when I see people who are new to credit trying to add too quickly, I hope they will learn valuable information from others on the board that there isn't any rush to build, especially if your profile does not support adding many cards at once.
10) Diversification is important. It's best not to put all or most of your eggs in one basket with a particular lender, or with too many of the same types of lenders. A diversified mix of lenders is really helpful given the ups and downs of the financial world today.
11) Respect the difficult journeys of others. We all have our individual challenges. I feel fortunate that I've never had negatives in my credit history, and when I see others who have built their way back from some really challenging negatives into a success story, I have a great deal of admiration and respect for that. Well done!
Great thread, and reading it has me thinking. The blue bolded are probably the lessons that I've really embraced.
Another one would be the concept of gardening and learning when it's really just time to chill and not have any real changes to your report. Patience in the credit world really is a virtue.
I'm looking forward to others responses.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:For me, I have learned restraint, which is saying something for me. I am finally at the point where I see folks going after the latest, newest cards and I feel zero urgency to jump in. Even when I was getting mailers from FNBO, I did inquire here (the forum) but still, never really felt any urge to app it.
I am happy with my current lineup, I'll occupy the jump seat here as CreditAddict and Ron1 one drive forward.
You are definitely ready to garden. Come join us...
Been in since June . Took a HP in November for a very nice CLI on my Prestige card but zero apps.
Thanks for sharing. A lot to think about for me as I stepped out the garden and picked up 14 new trade lines since 8/15. Inquries went through the roof, scores dropped to 660 - 690. Me still insisting one more app before the end of the year. My final thirst for hunger of a new TL ....so my New Years resolution for 2016/17 in the credit world is to stay in the garden for the next 2 years and read these forums only!! Shoot for 760s ficos and let these new TL age. I have accumulated enough travel rewards/sign on bonuses for the next 2 years so woot woot. Thanks for sharing infor my ficoers.