Guest written by our friend Gladys Fuentes
Saving money has never been something I’ve been good at. When I was in college I opened two credit cards because I could (and because the people at the booths were offering free t-shirts!) and I proceeded to take out tons of debt because I just didn’t really understand the consequences of racking up tons of money on my credit cards. Anyway, now that I’m an adult I’ve been working hard to repair my credit and earlier in the year I was finally able to afford my very own condo! I spent a lot of time finding the best deal and I set up my utilities through ElectricCompaniesTexas.net and by calling the water company and I haven’t put ANYTHING on a credit card which I’m really proud of. I think having a mortgage will help build my credit back up and in a few more years I should be in better shape than I was. I think if I was a teacher I would make sure and teach all my students how to manage their money responsibly. I actually think high schoolers should have to take a class on how to balance their checkbooks and not rack up debt and keep their credit scores high. My parents weren’t really responsible with their money so I didn’t have good role models when it came to making sure I was doing the right thing. It’s not an excuse by any means but I would give anything if I could go back and pay a financial advisor or an accountant to keep me on the right track. There’s something to be said for managing your money responsibly and how that can impact the rest of your life – I know my last boyfriend had a big problem with how bad my credit score was and it became something we fought about often. I don’t ever want to let money get in the way of any of my relationships ever again.
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