Good credit essential for easy living

by Omar Ojeda, staff writer

As any college student knows, the spring semester is always more difficult to complete than the fall semester.

It’s even harder when it’s your final semester, and you’re ready to graduate. But you’ve put off a couple of your hardest classes until the end, which makes it the most unbelievably stressful semester ever.

Along with Design I, I am also enrolled in World Literature I and II. I think that last sentence speaks for itself. I guess my mode of thinking the first three semesters was, “O’, I’ll take that next semester,” and I kept saying the same thing every semester after that, which brings me to where I am now, continuously stressed and broke.

I know being broke doesn’t have anything to do with my classes, but it adds to my financial stress. Between those two, I don’t know which one I should worry about more. I know school is a top priority and supercedes almost everything in a student’s life. A degree will help you to be someone in life, but what good is it having a high-paying job with status when no bank trusts you because your credit is shot?

Having descent credit is the key to comfortable living; it’s your signature in life. Your credit score is going to reflect on how your name is viewed and trusted. Older people are always saying that when you are younger, you have your whole life to build your credit. But that’s not the case. When anybody turns 16, they want a car. When they turn 18, they want their own place. You can’t do any of these things unless you build your credit early in life.

Building credit is easier than you think, and, no, you don’t have to get a credit card to build credit status. Paying for a cell phone or insurance on your car under your name can build credit. Having a checking account and never getting over-drawn can help as well. There are various ways to help build credit too, such as taking out small loans for school or whatever else you want and never being late on a payment.

The point being is that if you want to have a successful and comfortable life, complete college while taking care of financial business also. If we didn’t have bills, we wouldn’t own anything. It is a lot easier to handle more things while you are young and take it easy the rest of your life than to put it off until later and suffering when it catches up to you.