- Another Perspective on Wealth
- Setting Personal Goals
- Understanding and Managing Credit
- Introduction
- Learn About Credit Bureaus, Credit Reports, and Credit Scores
- Identify Appropriate Uses for Credit Cards and Explain How They Can Help You Achieve Your Financial Goals
- Learn How Credit Cards Work and Describe the Costs Involved
- Learn How to Manage Credit Cards and Open Credit
- Summary
- Assignments
- Conclusions 1: Learning to Give
- Conclusions 2: Decide to Decide
Effectively Using a Credit Card
The following are some important keys to using your credit card effectively:
- Know your goals: What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to accomplish financially? A leading financial publication recently reported that the average baby boomer will pay $1,200 in interest annually. That is a lot of money. Instead of paying interest, why not use that money to attain your financial goals?
- Spend money only on things planned for in your budget: If you understand your goals, and if your budget is consistent with your goals, you will buy only things that you have planned for in your budget. If expenses you hadn’t planned for arise, and you decide that they are necessary expenses, you will have to go back and revise your budget to make it work.
- Do not go into debt: Prophets have counseled us not to go into debt except for a home or an education. Follow this counsel and avoid credit card debt whenever possible.
- Use wisdom in deciding what to buy: Use wisdom in your expenditures. Learn to get away from the “buy now, pay later” mentality and adopt the “save now, buy later” mentality.
