Good Morning,
I was sitting here reading the forums as I have most mornings over the past two years, and I thought that I would share a couple learnings that were very helpful to me as I have progressed through my rebuild, or perhaps I should call it my initial build since I have never really had good credit.
Some background, I am 48 years old, Married for 25 years, with 4 Boys (27, 22, 17, 16). I have been blessed to have always had a stable and rewarding career in oil and gas. Up until the last 3 years, I managed money horribly, our life was always feast or famine. We routinely made poor financial decisions, but I have always made good enough money to pull ourselves back up without having to face dire consequences, and so the cycle lived on and on. When I finally decided that I could no longer live the way we were living, I sucked up my pride and asked my best friend whom I respected immensely for how he managed his finances for help. I was ashamed and embarassed to show him how poorly I managed my families finances, but my desire to learn and grow trumped that shame and embarrasment.
First Learning - Your credit report is not the right place to start when you embark on a build or rebuild. There is a reason that your credit report looks the way it does, and that is the first thing that you need to fix. There is a saying Finances over FICO, and I think it is a powerfully stronger phrase then it gets credit for. When I started, I was averaging 8K a year in overdraft fees to Chase, it was not uncommon for me to take out pay day loans to take a vacation, I almost never paid any bill on time except my rent. In short, I did not live on a budget, never knew how much money I had except the day my paycheck was deposited, and even then, I really didnt know. So the first thing that my friend and I did was develop a budget, and a list of goals. My best friend works for me, so every day almost, he quizzed me on how were doing on our budget. Over that first year we built momentum, we built an emergency fund, and we built some savings to start working on the credit stuff.
Second Learning - A credit build or rebuild is a marathon not a sprint. I joined MyFico at the end of my first year that I described above, I believe it was 7/2020. When I finally started digging through my credit reports, I remember feeling so defeated at the multitude of negative reporting. I became an addict of this forum, I learned a ton, and I developed a plan. I never asked questions on this forum or even posted about what I was doing because of the feeling of embarassment, but this forum was a huge factor in my progress to date. I begin each day reviewing my accounts and my goals, folowed by browsing the forums. I will not get to a clean profile until late 2025, but I have finally gotten to a spot that I feel good about where I am, and it has taken 3 years to get here, and I still have 3 years to go until I reach my goal of a clean profile. We were able to purchase our first home earlier this year, and for the first time ever I am not ashamed to walk into a car dealership and buy a car with the credit that I have. I havent been late by so much as a day on any account I have in 3 years. And best of all, I have had zero stress due to finances!
I hope my story and learnings can help someone in the ways that so many other's story had helped me along the way.
@Anonymous We seem to be very similar in our approach, If a mouse farts anywhere near an account or credit report of mine I know almost in real time. My wife say's I am obsessed, I dont really think that is accurate, I find it to be a source of motivation and a feeling of freedom from stress associated with finances. I have a excel file that I keep updated with scoring factors, each of my score versions from my monthly 3B, and a transcription of my tradelines and balances from my report. I update this file monthly, it helps me measure cause and effect on my scores. We very rarely if ever use a debit card anymore, I have become somewhat of a rewards junkie so that has been my focus these days since only time can help my profile at this point.
Thank you for sharing. I now don't feel embarassed to say I just learned how to use credit properly in October 2021 at 41 years old, thanks to my BFF who has an 850 Fico 8 score, (her scores are on my vision board.) I finally started making "comfortable money" where I could put my bills on autopay and not worry about it. So with good payment history under my belt and getting new quality cards over the last few months, I'm feeling pretty confident about my future. I've never had a credit score this high before, and I'm anticipating the day I can finally break the 700s. Thank you for sharing your story. You are right, fixing your finances comes first. I'm glad I finally started posting on the board yesterday after lurking for more than a month. 
@DLynn1920 Thank you, and Welcome to the Forums!
I really do not have a score goal in mind, my goals are more abstract. I want a clean profile, I want options to optimally manage financial resources, and I do not ever want to feel beholden or lucky to have been extended credit, ohh and I love playing the credit card rewards game on money I am going to spend anyways. I really never carry balances anymore, I have a little over 50K in available CL spread across 12 cards that I am still trying to grow. I do not practice AZEO, but I rarely have more then 1 or 2 cards report a balance, and it is generally less then a 100 bucks or so, some of my cards limits are still too low and the pending charges catch up to me at statement day.
@JM427 wrote:@DLynn1920 Thank you, and Welcome to the Forums!
I really do not have a score goal in mind, my goals are more abstract. I want a clean profile, I want options to optimally manage financial resources, and I do not ever want to feel beholden or lucky to have been extended credit, ... I do not practice AZEO, but I rarely have more then 1 or 2 cards report a balance, and it is generally less then a 100 bucks or so, some of my cards limits are still too low and the pending charges catch up to me at statement day.
Looking at your scores, you have made some AMAZING progress! You SHOULD feel proud. Heck, I'm proud of you! Since I'm a newbie, could you explain AZEO? I too try not to carry a balance by the statement date. This month will be more difficult as I have a trip coming up and I've been shopping. I'm still making multiple payments this month and by the next cycle, I will be back to zero balances.
Dumb question, when can I have great-looking informative signatures like the rest of you? I learn so much just from reading those. And it is motivating.
@DLynn1920 AZEO stands for "All Zero Except One" and refers to reported balance on revolving accounts. This method will yield the absolute best possible points assessment for your profile with regards to utilization. The premise is that all of your revolving accounts reports a zero balance except one nationally recognized card that reports a small balance such as 10 dollars, but certainly less then 8% of that cards CL. To successfully implement this method requires a little study of your accounts to see when the statement close date is so that you make sure you have a O balance. For me and my goals, it just wasnt worth the effort to me, but for folks that are wanting every point in short order it is a very effective way to maximize scores.
The signature badges are available when you rank up a couple more levels, with the rate that you are commenting on posts it will be in no time.