I know you are all hard at work with your credit goals. Have you progressed as far as you hoped? Were there any unforseen expenses that cropped up and may have thrown you off schedule?
As a reminder, participation in these monthly checkins is optional, but encouraged. The goal is to help keep you on track, so feel free to post your progress updates here. This is a no-judge zone; feel free to say what's keeping you up at night or give yourself a kudo for having it all together.
Did you hit any potholes or speedbumps? Achieve some milestones, either small or mighty? Change your goals or add new ones?
Let us know how you're doing!
I know it's the last day of the month, but I'm in.
No baddies on reports anymore. Just carrying a little debt that I would like to pay down which will increase my score. I also really want to close some accounts as I bring down utilization.
I did this challenge years ago, and it led to buying my current house. Hopefully I will have the same success in raising my score this time around.
2017 Goals
1. Save $10k to $15k this year toward new car purchase in 2018
2. Pay down 15% of debt by the end of Dec.
3. Close 2 CC
4. Increase 401k contributions incrementally to catch up max
5. Get scores over 700
Simple Goals but all important.
Edited to add goals
@Kidcat wrote:I know it's the last day of the month, but I'm in.
No baddies on reports anymore. Just carrying a little debt that I would like to pay down which will increase my score. I also really want to close some accounts as I bring down utilization.
I did this challenge years ago, and it led to buying my current house. Hopefully I will have the same success in raising my score this time around.
2017 Goals
1. Save $10k to $15k this year toward new car purchase in 2018
2. Pay down 15% of debt by the end of Dec.
3. Close 2 CC
4. Increase 401k contributions incrementally to catch up max
5. Get scores over 700
Simple Goals but all important.
Edited to add goals
It's never to late to join. 
Your goals are AWESOME! I wish you all the best in reaching them.
Who big jump, 774. Keep doing what you learn. you see my scores, below. This was 28point Equifax jump, need to update my scores.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Kidcat wrote:I know it's the last day of the month, but I'm in.
No baddies on reports anymore. Just carrying a little debt that I would like to pay down which will increase my score. I also really want to close some accounts as I bring down utilization.
I did this challenge years ago, and it led to buying my current house. Hopefully I will have the same success in raising my score this time around.
2017 Goals
1. Save $10k to $15k this year toward new car purchase in 2018
2. Pay down 15% of debt by the end of Dec.
3. Close 2 CC
4. Increase 401k contributions incrementally to catch up max
5. Get scores over 700
Simple Goals but all important.
Edited to add goals
It's never to late to join.
Your goals are AWESOME! I wish you all the best in reaching them.
Thank you! Will there be a Feb thread
So I'm effectively set now; went and picked up a replacement credit card for the Sallie Mae which is going away and I'm back to rewards complete.
The travel gig isn't really getting into full swing until March, but if I wanted to I can pay for none of my meals during the weekdays... 70% of my meals paid for (and it's better food than I would normally eat both in health and quality) has utterly refactored my budget.
Decided I'm going to re-evaluate after a year pretty much my entire life, so I'm going to sit on my hands credit wise and put as much lipstick on the current pig as possible for if I need to make changes come next January.
Did put a deposit down on a Model 3 Tesla, so that or moving is my next credit requirement both of which are far more important than a meaningless credit card so that's the plan for the rest of 2017... twiddle my thumbs and watch my flatlined credit score for the next 9ish months till some negatives start falling off hah.
@Kidcat wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Kidcat wrote:I know it's the last day of the month, but I'm in.
No baddies on reports anymore. Just carrying a little debt that I would like to pay down which will increase my score. I also really want to close some accounts as I bring down utilization.
I did this challenge years ago, and it led to buying my current house. Hopefully I will have the same success in raising my score this time around.
2017 Goals
1. Save $10k to $15k this year toward new car purchase in 2018
2. Pay down 15% of debt by the end of Dec.
3. Close 2 CC
4. Increase 401k contributions incrementally to catch up max
5. Get scores over 700
Simple Goals but all important.
Edited to add goals
It's never to late to join.
Your goals are AWESOME! I wish you all the best in reaching them.
Thank you! Will there be a Feb thread
Welcome to February thread...LOL! 
Well, fellow myFico Challengers, I got quite the unexpected score boost of 30+ points! Not sure why though. Nothing big happened like a baddie dropping off or anything like that. I knew that my first CC I got last year was turning a year old in Feb....The only other possibility is that last month, 50% of my cards had a balance at statement cut. I PIF each month, but I don't micro-manage my cards to ensure only one card has a balance at statement cut. I tend to let the statement cut and then PIF soon afterwards. This month, the % of cards reporting was 37% (again PIF) and overall utilization between 4%-5% depending on the CB...but nothing much else that I can point to other than statement cut balances reduced now that monthly charges are back to normal after the Christmas season. - so not sure...but I'll take it.
EQ increased by +35pts from 716 to 751, TU increased by +32pts from 725 to 757 and EX increased by +32 from 760 to 792. The Alliant Share Secured loan had already reported earlier in the month and the point boost from it was already reflected in my latest scores posted. So shrugs on these nice increases.
I had hoped that my mortgage scores would also increase nicely. Stayed up past midnight waiting on the availability of the new 3B report ( sad, I know), but there was no movement except on EX - which was expected due to the Alliant Share Secure loan - so no surprises there. A bit disappointed that the mortgage scores (atlease not the ones I wanted) didnt' go up, but atleast they did not decrease like last month. 
With all that said, I get to knock off one more goal as it was reached this last reporting. Super happy about this one!
2017 goals:
Reach Fico 8 700+ score across the board. This esssentially only means increasing my EQ score. TU and EX are already above 700, so I only hope to maintain those scores. EQ has been a tough cookie to crack lately.Get Fico 8 740 or more across the board- Get Fico 8 760 across the board. Essentially, only need to increase EQ and TU by a few points. Should be possible, but...my scores might be close to leveling off - so we'll see.
- Get middle mortgage score to atleast 740. This may prove harder than it looks as my mortgage scores are slow to budge lately or they tend to move down!
- STAY in the garden until close on mortgage.
- Save up atleast 5% down for mortgage.
- Reach my first EVER Fico 8 800 score! I don't know if this is even possible with baddies on my report,...but... no pain... no gain, right?!Try to get the three 30-day lates off of my CRs via GW letter.
- Try to get the PIF State Tax lien removed from my EQ and TU reports.
I've added two new goals! I hope this isn't against the rules. 
Well, that's all folks! Remember to stay focus on what's important and don't allow yourself to get caughtup in the fray of credit!
Happy Goal Reaching!
[edited 02/06/2017]
Removed the goal "..have pre-approval mortgage offers in hand by end of 2017..." I decided that I will not seek pre-approvals until Feb/Mar 2018.