Student Credit Card and Credit Education Blog

Even though the focus of this blog is student credit cards, there will also be tidbits of information from other avenues that support your ultimate goal of being able to retire with as much as wealth as possible.

I found this great article on Yahoo! Finance, which clearly explains some introductory steps to take once you attain your first job. Granted, most of you are in college and might not be thinking about plans following graduation, but these tips are excellent advice that everyone should heed.

A few highlights:

Start saving now! – Time (and compound interest) are your friend! Use them to your advantage and invest as early as possible.

Invest in your company 401K, particularly if they match – This investment pulls pre-tax money out of your paycheck and throws it into mutual funds (usually). You don’t pay taxes on anything you earn in this account, until you ultimately pull it out at 59 1/2. (at which point your tax bracket should be much lower)

Try a Roth IRA – This accepts up to $4K of after-tax money and puts it in an account that you can invest however you want. And once you hit 59 1/2 you’re welcome to the money, tax-free!! Did you turn some stocks from $1K to $100K? All that money is yours to keep!

Check it out and get yourself educated on how to wisely save your hard-earned money! (step 5 in the article)

Since you’re here, you must have an interest in credit cards. I do, of course, and will help you along with deciding which credit card to sign up for, and also to provide assistance with all the crazy terminology that’s used on a regular basis.

Let’s begin with why getting a student credit card is important.

So, you just graduated college and want to buy a car. You find a beautiful red Honda Civic that has a sunroof and an adapter for your iPod. The salesman asks, “How are you going to pay for it?” You respond, “I’d like to finance the car.” The salesmen asks for your social security number and goes off to his computer in order to check your credit rating .

He comes back and says, “I’m sorry, but your credit score is very low, so your monthly payments are going to be quite high.” Not the answer you were looking for – that’s why a student credit card is key!

Signing up for, using, and paying off a credit card while you’re still in college lets the U.S. banking industry know that here’s someone we can trust with our money, because they have a history of paying it back. So, making sure that you can handle this big responsibility will benefit you in the future, whether you are buying a car or a house. Are you up to the challenge? Sign up here!