Following in my footsteps after testing the waters and clearing the path, I've got my DW, DS and DD all going on the same path as me to building (rebuilding in my and DW case) credit. Kids are brand new to credit. I've been explaining credit to them for about 2-3hrs every Friday evening during family night. We cover different topics each time and I encourage questions. They are quite excited about all of it which is good. I love that they are into it. Being taught about credit is something that was never brought up even once when I was a kid - not at home and not at school. It's a real shame that we all had to learn it by so much trial and plenty of error. I want to give my kids the best leg up I can offer them. Anyway, here's the path, thus far:
- Joined local CU (Redstone FCU)
- Redstone FCU secured card (Me- started with $250, now it's $5K, DW- started with $250, now $5K, DS- started with $500, DD- started with $500)
- Discover card 2 months later (Me- $1K SL, DW-$1K SL, DS- $500 SL, DD-$500 SL)
- Joined NFCU (I actually qualified through my work, but my dad & three brothers all former military. My wife & kids qualify through me.)
- NFCU SSL Pledge Loan (Me- $5K, DW- $5K, DS- $5K, DD- $5K) (I just setup all three of them for this - Awesome product, btw!)
Next on the to-do list is NFCU CC's for all of us.
(I also got a BofA Cash Rewards CC and an AMEX BCE, but I'm recommending different paths for the rest of my family for now)
I will recommend gardening for all of them after NFCU CC's - with the exception of any SP CLI's that can be obtained.
If you have children, especially if they're still young and have no credit yet, I would recommend that you start teaching them about credit as soon as feasible. They are sponges and soak this information up. That said, it's never too late to help anyone learn about credit at any age if they are interested and want to understand. :-)
