#59 Money & Finance: Credit, Money Management, and Saving

I knew the names of the 3 credit bureaus and that a credit score was a 3-digit number, the higher the better, but virtually all of the other information in the article was new to me. I'm glad I now know the percentages each factor contributes to the overall score, and the actions I can take to keep my score up.

I have never made a budget or a spending plan. I'm a tightwad by nature and have never needed one. I like the Frugal Living spending plan steps better than the University of Florida one because I think the biggest and most important step would be analyzing my expenses. I would divide them into Absolutely Necessary, Almost Necessary, and Not Necessary. Then I would figure out how to reduce the costs of the Absolutely Necessary and Almost Necessary items. Then I'd subtract from my income and see how much (if anything) I could spend on Almost Necessary and Not Necessary items.

The main thing I learned from looking at the TCDRS web site was that you can only get very general information from the web site. For example, how do my TCDRS and Teacher Retirement System years of service effect each other? How much would the death benefit be compared to the retirement benefit? You can't find out very detailed information from the site.