Buying A Home
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
"Terrible Credit" here again with an update
Hey guys. I just wanted to update you all because you were so helpful. DH and I met with a mortgage lender last night. We knew we wouldn't qualify but we had to meet with her to get a referral to a credit counselor in our area.
DH and I similar scores, in the mid-500s. Most of our troubles are from bills (medical and otherwise) that we couldn't pay after I didn't return to work after DD was born. I know everyone has a sad story, so I'll spare you the details. It is a pretty sad story, though.
We're looking at $1500 to get squared away with everyone to whom we owe money and another year of timely payments before we can even talk about a mortgage, but that's fine by me. I don't feel like we'd be making this decision much more quickly even if we had good credit.
I'm most disappointed that my work, which pays $20/hour, cannot be counted toward our income because I'm part-time and want to stay that way indefinitely. (Well, it can't be counted for two years, anyway.) I'm most hopeful at how quickly things can be improved once we're financially able and mentally/emotionally committed to making it work. I'm also excited that we got this referral to the credit counselor. She has a great reputation.
Any tips on maintaining motivation? Its corny I know, but I'm thinking about printing some pictures of attainable "dream homes" around our place and taping little reminders in my wallet to help me think twice before I spend. We're also going to a cash system when we get our paychecks this week.
Re: "Terrible Credit" here again with an update
As for motivation, when we were saving up our down payment, I would look at houses online like you are doing. Another idea is to imagine how you will decorate your home.
Awesome! It sounds like you have a solid plan and thanks for the update!
Maybe set little goals for yourself? Make a list of people you need to pay off (that $1500) so you can see what youve accomplished? Then set other financial goals like save $1000... Then save $2500... Then $5000?
I don't know if you use mint.com to track spending and goals but it is great and free. I know you said you'll use a cash system so it would be more difficult to track spending but you can set up goals and you get a little congrats notice when you accomplish them! I use it to track spending and they send emails when you go over budget so I try hard not to do it.
Over the last four years I've done a lot to improve my credit and overall financial situation. As someone with a mild shopping addiction it was hard, but now that I'm where I am I can't tell you how glad I am that I buckled down. It's really one of the best things you can do for yourself.
I was in $12,000+ of credit card debt with no idea how to get out. I used a non-profit credit counseling service to consolidate into one payment and paid as much as I possibly could. I think the trick for me was making myself get excited about seeing the "balance owed" box go down as a replacement for the excitement I used to get from buying clothes. The debt is gone now and it's so freeing. That means I also have $500 a month in my budget that was previously going to my credit card payments! Two years ago my credit was at 600 and now I'm at 740.
It might be good to set a monthly savings goal. Figure out what an attainable savings amount is each month and aim to put that away. Every time you go to spend money, ask yourself if what you're buying is better than owning a house.
Also, don't close any old credit card accounts and avoid applying for anything that will ping your credit report. Age of accounts and recent credit inquiries will be a factor in upping your score.