If you’ve ever wondered what your credit report looks like, wonder no more. This guide will give you insight into your credit report, including what information it contains, how to read it, and why it’s so important.

There are three main credit reporting bureaus in Australia, and you can access their version of your report in a number of ways, including in a written/physical format or through an online dashboard.

Each variation may differ slightly in the way it’s presented, but the bulk of the information will be the similar. For this guide, we’ll be using the convenient (and free!) Credit Simple online credit report dashboard to explain what your credit report contains.

Credit Simple gets its data from the credit reporting bureau illion.

Your credit score

When you first login to Credit Simple, you will see your credit score. This is a reflection of your credit-worthiness boiled down from a heap of lending data into a simple number.

Your credit score and score trend

illion scores range from 0 – 1,000 and the higher the score, the more creditworthy you’re determined to be.

Here’s how the scores break down:

• Score of 0. This is the lowest score you can get and means you’re the riskiest kind of borrower. People with a score of zero either don’t have a credit history at all or have experienced a very negative credit event like bankruptcy.
• 1-499. You have a below-average score and are considered very risky to lend to.
• 500-699. You have an average score and with a few small changes to your borrowing behaviour, you could easily improve your score.
• 700-799. You have a good score and lenders are likely to give you favourable treatment. However, you may want to limit the number of applications you make, as this is what is likely keeping you from having an excellent score.
• 800-1000. You have an excellent credit rating and are considered the least risky to lend to. This puts you in a great negotiating position with lenders.

Your credit history

Your credit score isn’t a magic number that is pulled out of thin air. It is the result of a calculation that incorporates heaps of data around your borrowing habits. The data that your credit score pulls from is called your credit history.

Credit Simple also provides your credit history, broken down into the following categories:

• Personal information. Your name, date of birth, address and previous address.
• Accounts. The accounts you have open including mortgages, credit cards, utility accounts and even equipment hire. It also includes details like the amount you owe and a complete breakdown of your payment history.
• Enquiries. The times you’ve authorised a lender or a utility to do a hard enquiry into your credit history (a hard enquiry is an official inquiry related to an application for a loan). Looking at your own credit history (soft enquiry) won’t decrease your score, but too many hard enquiries can lead to a small deduction.
• Authorised agent enquiries. The times you’ve allowed an authorised agent, such as a mortgage broker or a car dealer, to do a credit enquiry on your behalf.
• Defaults. Any payments that are at least 60 days overdue (or were at least 60 days overdue at the time of payment).
• Serious credit infringements. Situations where a lender believes you fraudulently tried to obtain credit or tried to fraudulently avoid your credit obligations.
• Judgements and Summons. Publicly available court records pertaining to your debts.
• Personal insolvency. Publicly available data from the Australian Financial Security Authority related to bankruptcy.
• Other public record information. Other publicly available information that may be useful to potential creditors when determining your creditworthiness.
• Company directorships. Publicly available information from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission about any previous or current directorships you’ve held in any company.
• File notes. Notes placed on your credit history (at your request) explaining or disputing the circumstances surrounding information on your report.

Here’s what it looks like in the tool:

The categories of reporting in your credit report.

You can expand each section to see much more detail about each. Here we are looking at payment history of a specific account listed in the accounts section:

A detailed repayment history for an example account

What can you do with this information?

As you can see, a credit report is quite straightforward although it can contain quite a bit of information. The good thing about a tool like Credit Simple is that it allows you to have all of this information at your fingertips and dig through it systematically.

Going through your report with a fine-tooth comb can help you in a number of ways. You can:

• Identify areas where you could improve. If you see that late payments are hurting your score more than you thought they were, it’s likely to propel you to make changes.
• Identify errors in your report. If you see something reported that you dispute, you can bring this up with the lender or the credit bureau. Credit Simple lets you lodge a dispute right through the tool.
• Negotiate better terms. If you see that you have a good score, you can have more confidence in negotiating with your lender for better terms like lower interest rates and reduced fees.

The information in this blog post is general in nature and does not constitute personal financial or professional advice. It is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual. We do not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the information and you should not rely on it. Before making any decisions, it is important for you to consider your personal situation, make independent enquiries and seek appropriate tax, legal and other professional advice.

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So business is booming and you’re not content to just maintain the status quo…. you want to grow your business into something bigger. Well, strap in because you’re in for an exciting ride that will expand your skills, test your mettle and ideally put your business on the trajectory toward bigger success.

Here are some tips that any small business, sole trader or freelancer can use to grow their business, regardless of industry.

Decide how you want to grow

There are many ways to grow your business, so you need to decide how you want to grow. Here are some examples.

You can:

• Add new products or services to your offering. A piano teacher has a unique and effective method of teaching and decides to develop an instructional app that utilises this method. Or a craft brewery decides to expand the number of varieties of beer it brews.
• Open up a new physical location. The brewery’s owner is a hit in his home town and he sees an opportunity in a location a few towns over.
• Go premium. A photographer realises her work is unrivalled, so she drastically increases her prices and targets the premium market. A move like this could significantly change the way you do business.
• Hire another “you”. The piano teacher hires a former student to teach her method to students, allowing her to double the number of students she can reach.

Take advantage of credit

Most of the examples above will probably require a financial investment: to fix up the new physical location, to boost your marketing, to develop the app or to hire the new employee.

If you have your sights high, now’s the time to start thinking about building your business’ credit history.

If you’re registered as a company with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and you have an Australian Company Number (ACN), your business will have a credit file – which may or may not be empty depending on how much borrowing you’ve done.

As long as you are in a position to pay it back on time, getting a loan is a good way to build your credit history – as is signing up for utilities (phone internet, power, etc) in your business’ name.

This can be beneficial for the following reasons:

• It helps with future loans. When/if you need bigger loans in the future, lenders will want to see a positive credit history.
• It helps with partnerships. Potential partners can also access your credit score to determine if they want to do business with you, so a good track record does much more than help you get loans.

Before you get any new loans, it’s good to know where you currently stand. If you sign up for Credit Simple for Business, you can see your business credit score and history for free, forever. You must be a director in your business in order to access it.

Build processes

This means developing a series of repeatable steps that help you achieve a particular outcome for your business, for example, a six-step process for vetting a supplier.

Having processes in place will free up time for you to focus on growing your business, make training new employees a lot easier and help you avoid costly mistakes (like taking on an unreliable supplier).

You can build processes into almost every business function: customer service, public relations, accounting, IT, operations and more.

Learn marketing

Many small business owners are skilled in a specific area related to their product or service, and that has been enough to keep them operating on a small scale.

Maybe you’re a photographer whose stunning family portraits and fair pricing drive enough word of mouth to keep you employed. But if you want to drastically increase your business, you’ll need to improve your website, advertise, network and possibly partner with other service providers such as a makeup artist.

The skill set required for these activities is different than that required to take stunning photos, so you’ll need to adopt a sales and marketing mindset sooner rather than later.

The information in this blog post is general in nature and does not constitute personal financial or professional advice. It is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual. We do not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the information and you should not rely on it. Before making any decisions, it is important for you to consider your personal situation, make independent enquiries and seek appropriate tax, legal and other professional advice.

The post Here’s how to grow your business if you want to take it to the next level appeared first on Credit Simple.

Just as we hoped, Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR) has improved the credit scores of millions of Aussies.

Late last month, the Big Four banks shared the remaining 50% of lending data with the credit bureaus, marking the biggest milestone in the history of the new reporting regime.

Literally overnight, nearly half of all Aussies using Credit Simple received an improved credit score.

What is Comprehensive Credit Reporting?

CCR is a reporting scheme that takes all of a borrower’s credit history into account, both good and bad.

Prior to this, lenders were only sharing the bad stuff with the credit bureaus: things like late payments, defaults and making too many loan applications.

Now the bureaus see more of the good stuff, like on-time payments and accounts in good standing.

For that reason, this type of reporting is sometimes called positive credit reporting.

Most other developed countries have been using positive reporting systems for quite some time, so it’s a welcome change Down Under.

Has it helped?

Initial results seem to suggest that positive credit reporting lives up to its name. In fact, nearly half of Credit Simple users saw their credit scores increase – by an average of 27 points on the 1,000-point illion scale.

On the flip side, nearly 30% saw their scores decrease – by an average of 53 points.

26% saw no changes to their score.

What should you do if your score changed?

CCR offers a number of opportunities for you to improve your financial situation, whether your score increased or decreased.

If your score increased

If your score increased, you should immediately try to take advantage of your good fortune. The number one way you can do that is by negotiating better rates with your lenders.

Our research shows that homeowners positively affected by the new scheme could save 0.5% p.a. off their current mortgage rates, which for a $373K home loan (the national average), works out to be a saving of $112 per month or $40,000 over 25 years.

With a higher score and more transparency into your credit file, you can now walk into such negotiations on the front foot.

If your score decreased

There’s still plenty to be positive about even if your score went down. For one thing, you now have more transparency into why it went down. The comprehensive nature of the new scheme means there’s more information on your credit file – information that you can easily access and view using a tool like Credit Simple.

With all this information at your fingertips, here are some steps you can take to improve your score:

• Look closely at your credit history. Log into Credit Simple or request your credit history from one of the bureaus. If you see a late payment you totally forgot about, pay it as soon as you can. If you see any negative events you don’t recognise, alert the credit bureau and your lender. With Credit Simple, you can alert us right there in the tool.
• Set up direct debit. Paying on time used to not account for much, at least as far as your credit score went. Now you’re rewarded for it with a higher score. Set it and forget it using direct debits and watch your score climb over time.
• Keep a healthy amount of debt. Your credit score and credit history are important because they show how well you can handle debt. That means you have to have some debt in the first place. If it’s within your means, consider getting a simple, low cost credit card if your credit history is bare.
• Have birthdays. Demographics also play into your score. As you age, you get the advantage of being identified with a group of people widely considered to be good borrowers. As long as you don’t make a lot of financial mistakes, your score should increase as the years go by.

The information in this blog post is general in nature and does not constitute personal financial or professional advice. It is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual. We do not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the information and you should not rely on it. Before making any decisions, it is important for you to consider your personal situation, make independent enquiries and seek appropriate tax, legal and other professional advice.

The post Comprehensive Credit Reporting is a boon for Australians appeared first on Credit Simple.

Up to 6 million Australians could save up to $40,000 over the life of an average 25-year mortgage, following the introduction of new laws by the Australian Government, according to consumer advocate group www.creditsimple.com.au.

The introduction of Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR) means Australian banks are about to load millions of records with the credit bureaux, and lenders will now be able to see the positive records of the country’s 6.4 million home owners for the first time.

www.creditsimple.com.au CEO David Scognamiglio said the introduction of millions of new consumer spending records will generally see credit scores improve.  

“Until the introduction of CCR in 2014, banks could only judge how much to lend to home buyers based on their ‘negative’ credit score – for things like defaulting on their credit card – which gave an unclear picture on what they could actually afford to borrow.

“Good qualities like paying their credit card or car loan on time were never included, he said.

Registries like illion would now house the new data, allowing up to 90 percent of home-owners to qualify for better mortgage deals.

“Home-owners may be able to get up to 0.5% off their current mortgage rate once their positive credit history is included on their credit record.

“For the average $372,902 home loan, that works out to be a saving of $112 per month, or $40,000 over 25 years.

“Better data gets you better deals, with some of the lowest in the market now being offered at 3.2%.  A lot of people have a 4 in front of their mortgage now, when they should see a 3, and in some cases even a 2.

“Until now, your bank has held all your positive credit or payment information. Under the new system, that information will be held by the credit bureau and shared with other lenders, encouraging new entrants into the market and breeding more competition,” he said.

Mr Scognamiglio noted the system would also help protect more vulnerable consumers as more data also helped the Banks know when not to lend.

“It is more important than ever to make sure you pay your loans on time – missed payments will make your score go down.

“A good score means you are a valuable commodity to a bank.

“Banks will see you are a great payer even if your history is with another bank. That’s a game changer, and will breed new competition into the market, which means rates will get better.

“You should get a better rate if you have a good score, and you should use it as an opportunity to get a better rate,” he concluded.

To obtain your free credit score and report, visit www.creditsimple.com.au

For media enquiries contact Apollo Communications on (02) 9660 4995 or after hours on 0417 170 084.

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Online home loan calculators can be among the most valuable tools you’ll find as you seek to maximise your borrowing capacity, nab the best deal and work out the most cost effective way to pay the darn thing off. 

What is a home loan calculator?

“Home loan calculator” is actually a catch-all term that applies to an entire category of calculators that each has its own function. 

For example, one type of calculator will estimate how much you can borrow, while another will let you experiment with different payment strategies. There are even calculators that will help you estimate your stamp duty based on where you plan to buy your home. 

Some require more input from you than others, so you’ll need to know what to expect from each one before jumping in.

With that in mind, here are the most popular types of home loan calculators you’ll find on the net. Keep in mind that they all provide estimates only. 

Home loan eligibility calculator

A home loan eligibility calculator helps you calculate the size of loan you may be eligible for. You’ll have to input some of your personal financial details such as:

• Your income
• Your annual expenses
• How many dependents you have 
• Any other loan repayments you are making
• The amount of interest you expect to pay
• The term (or length) of your loan

If you’ve entered everything correctly, the calculator will estimate how much you’ll be eligible for but you’ll still need to go through the application process to get the true amount.

These can also be called borrowing calculators or borrowing power calculators. 

Loan repayment calculator

You can think of a loan repayment calculator as a mortgage calculator, since this type of calculator helps you understand the details of your mortgage once you know how much you plan to borrow. 

It will estimate how much you’ll pay on an ongoing basis, how you  will pay down your interest and principal over time and how much in total you’ll spend by the time it’s all said and done.

A loan repayment calculator doesn’t require as much input as the borrowing calculator does. 

You’ll just need to provide the following:

• How much you’ll be borrowing
• The term (or length) of your loan
• Your interest rate and whether it’s variable, fixed or introductory
• Whether you plan to repay the loan monthly, fortnightly or weekly

Home loan offset calculator

An offset account is a transaction account linked to your home loan. The more money you stash away into this account, the less you pay in interest on your home loan. 

An offset calculator lets you see how your repayment plan will benefit from a well-funded offset account.  

Stamp duty calculator

Stamp duty is a tax you pay on large purchases and transfers of property, like real estate and vehicles. The amount you’ll pay differs based on the value of the property and where the property is located. 

It’s important to know how much you’ll pay in stamp duty because this expense can cut into the amount you’ll ultimately be able to borrow. 

A stamp duty calculator simply asks you for a few details like:

• How much you’re paying for the property
• The state or territory where the property is located
• Whether or not you’re a first-time buyer (as certain concessions may be available if you are)
• Whether you’ll be living in the property or will be using it for investment purposes.

Other calculators

You may come across other home loan calculators, but most are just fancier versions of the loan repayment calculator:

• Extra repayments calculator. This lets you see what happens to your repayment plan if you decide to voluntarily increase your payment amount at a particular point in the future.
  
• Lump sum calculator. This shows you what will happen to your repayment plan if you decide to make a large lump sum payment at some point in the future.
  
• Home loan split calculator. This shows you how your repayments would look if part of your loan was set to a fixed rate and part of it to a variable rate.
  
• Home loan comparison calculator. This lets you compare the repayment plan for two loans side-by-side, based on the differences in interest rates, loan term and fees.

Who offers home loan calculators?

Nearly every home loan lender will offer a suite of home loan calculators to help you understand what you can expect when it comes time to actually apply for a loan.

Here are some lenders who offer one or more of the home loan calculators mentioned above:

• Suncorp
• HSBC
• IBA (currently undergoing updates)
• ING
• Bendigo Bank
• Ubank
• IMB
• Loans.com.au
• CUA
• Keystart
• Aussie Home Loans
• ANZ
• Commonwealth Bank
• NAB
• Westpac

Each lender has different criteria it uses to work out your loan details, so each calculator might have small differences that take their particular criteria into account. 

For example, each lender will have a different fee structure, which may include an application fee and ongoing account fees (you can avoid some of these fees by taking advantage of special offers). 

That said, the calculators are only meant to provide estimates and are not considered loan offers.

The point is to educate yourself and to determine if you’re ready to take the next steps – which in most cases will be to start the application process or speak to a home loan advisor. 

What else do you need to know about getting a home loan?

Using a home loan calculator is a good way to educate yourself about how home loans and repayments work, but they aren’t the only tools you’ll need to get a full picture of your borrowing power. 

For example, they don’t take your credit score or credit history into account, and these pieces of information play a huge role in a lender’s decision to actually approve the loan.

With a free Credit Simple account, you can access your credit score and your credit history any time you want. Having this level of insight will help you work out ways to improve your score or to identify any dodgy activity like identity theft. 

We also have a learning library where you can learn to prepare for and optimise your home loan. 

The post Everything you need to know about online home loan calculators appeared first on Credit Simple.

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I’m working hard to improve my credit score these days. In the past I was a bit of a bad boy when it came to paying bills – so I’ve been looking into what will kill your credit score, and fast. Real fast.

Your credit score, which is sometimes referred to as your credit rating, will generally range from 0 to either 1,000 or 1,200 depending on the credit bureau calculating it. Your illion score via Credit Simple will range from 0 – 1,000.

An average credit score ranges from 500 to 699, 700 to 799 is very good, 800 to 999 is considered excellent, and 1,000 is a perfect score. 

Anything less than 400 is going to make your financial life a whole lot harder. The lower your score, the harder it is to borrow money, get a home loan, or even open a utilities account.

So with that, here are nine ways to kill your credit score.

Naughty you 1: Live in the wrong suburb.

We know you can’t help this – unless you move. It seems unfair, but statistically the people in some suburbs or towns or areas are more likely to be bad payers than their peers elsewhere. Credit providers base their lending criteria on risk and where you live is one factor. Moving house too often also affects your credit score. That’s because people who move home are more likely to leave bills behind. Potential mark down: 20-100 points.

Naughty you 2: Apply for too much credit.

It is okay to shop around and ask prices. What does affect your score is the number of times you apply for credit including opening utilities accounts. The more there are, the lower your score. A number of applications in very short succession can say a lot about you. A worst case scenario is that there’s fraud involved. It might also say that you’re a bit desperate or your credit is so bad that these companies are turning down your applications. This is a lot of credit activity in a short amount of time – your score could drop by as much as 150 points.

Naughty you 3: Take out too many small-value loans.

If you’re always borrowing small amounts you’re going to look like someone who is bad with money. Potential mark down: 120 points. 

Naughty you 4: Paying late.

Falling behind in your regular payments soon starts to affect your credit score. Some people pay as late as they can every time. The reality is with banks now reporting positive behaviour such as paying on time, late payers are going to stand out. You may earn a few cents extra interest by delaying bill payments. But it’s just not worth it if it’s wrecking your credit score. It’s also less stressful to pay on time. Trust me. When I started paying everything by direct debit my life got so much easier. Potential mark down: 60 points. 

Naughty you 5: Get defaults.

In the world of credit scores, defaulting is pretty up there as one of the biggest “no nos”. Defaults can be loaded in by all sorts of organisations ranging from utility companies, banks, the Inland Revenue Department, your landlord, courts or councils for unpaid fines, or even a breached gym membership.  The more defaults on your credit record the worse your score. Potential mark down: 60 points. 

Naughty you 6: Be too young.

There’s not much you can do about this. But younger people are greater credit risks and are more likely to pay late, go into default or commit fraud. Your credit score will naturally improve as you age. Potential mark down: 20 points.

Naughty you 7: Not paying items in dispute.

Even if you’re in dispute with a creditor you need to keep paying until it’s solved. Potential mark down: 60 points.

Naughty you 8: Going insolvent.

Oh dear. If you’ve got a bankruptcy on the books you’re the lowest of the low as far as credit scores go. The good thing is that it can’t haunt you forever. When you can get credit again, make sure you pay your bills on time every time to resurrect your credit score. Potential mark down: 400 points.

Naughty you 9: Having no credit history.

You might think you’re goody two shoes for never having taken credit out. The reality is that you’ve not shown that you’re good at making repayments. If you’ve been paying your electricity bill on time for 12 months your score could go up by around 80-100 points.

We know things can go wrong in people’s lives. When it comes to credit scores you can turn it around. But that means taking positive action to change your ways. If you think you can do it, you will. We have faith in you.

The post Nine ways to sabotage your own credit score appeared first on Credit Simple.

‘Going guarantor’ are two dangerous little words. “Nan, will you go guarantor on my car? You don’t have to pay any money.”

Stop right there. Going guarantor can be a great way to help others out. But it’s way more risky than most people think. Read this article before you say yes or no. The worst-case scenario is that the lender comes after you for the money. Parents have lost their homes from going guarantor and families have been torn apart. It happens.

Here’s what you need to know:

What’s a guarantor? When Aussies want credit to buy a car, or a house, or open a utilities account, sometimes they’re asked for a guarantor. That’s often Mum or Dad or a friend to guarantee payment if they default. Lenders ask for guarantors when the borrower’s credit score isn’t great, they don’t have a credit record, or too small a deposit. Parents or grandparents going guarantor on home loans is becoming increasingly common thanks to high house prices and in some places, comparatively low incomes for young people wanting to get a foot on the property ladder.

A helping hand: it’s great to help out friends and family. Many Aussies agree to go guarantor because they can or they like to help others. It’s only human.

It’s more than just a piece of paper: many people don’t read the agreement they sign to go guarantor and even if they do, don’t understand the sting in the tail of the fine print.

Unlimited risks: you need to ask yourself if you can afford to pay the loan or bill if the other person can’t. What say they’ve not paid their electricity bill for a few months. Can you pay the arrears? By signing the guarantee you’ve told the lender that they can come after you if the other person does a runner from the payments. That could mean a debt collector on your doorstep taking away your car and other valuables, or in a worst case scenario putting your house up for mortgagee sale. “Ouch” is an understatement. What’s more, if you change your mind you can’t cancel the guarantee.

All their future debt: you’ll almost always find fine print that says you’re guaranteeing all of the other person’s current and future debt with that lender. That’s because there was an “unlimited deed of guarantee” clause in the fine print. It means that if your child or their partner takes out further loans with the same lender, you’re responsible for those as well. There are plenty of cases where the guarantors didn’t know about new loans or they were responsible for debts even after a marriage broken up.

Wrecking your credit record: another nasty problem rears its ugly head if the other person can’t pay and nor can you. It’s then that you’ll ruin your own credit record for a debt that wasn’t even yours.

If still want to go guarantor follow these rules:

• Have the mother of all discussions with the other person and their partner about the consequences
• Use a mortgage broker to negotiate with the lender to limit your guarantee to a fixed sum of money
• Arrange for your lawyer to review the guarantee document before signing and prepare an agreement for both you and the other person to sign
• Consider what happens if your child splits up from his or her partner. You don’t want to be left holding sexually transmitted debt
• In the case of a house purchase, ponder loaning the money for a deposit rather than going guarantor, but make sure a lawyer documents the transaction.

Sometimes going guarantor is the right thing to do. But many people have blotted their own financial future by going guarantor for a friend. Don’t let that be you.

The post The pros and cons of becoming a guarantor appeared first on Credit Simple.

An acquaintance said to me – rather smugly – the other day, “I don’t need to check my credit score, because I don’t have a credit history.”

“Oh, you don’t?” I said. “Have you checked it in the past and discovered you didn’t have a profile in the system?”

“No,” he said. “But I’ve never had any hire purchases or a car loan, so they won’t have anything on me.”

Many people think that a credit history is built solely from credit such as hire purchases, or from bankruptcies or court judgements. And indeed, when you go bankrupt or have a court judgement against you, or you default on something like a hire purchase payment, that goes onto your credit history.

Naughty stuff like this is what we call ‘negative’ information. But now there’s also ‘positive’ information, or ‘comprehensive’ credit reporting. That means that a lot more information now goes into your credit history.

“Do you have a power account in your name?” I asked. “What about your smartphone, and your home internet?”

Sure enough, it turned out he’s got all of these (and more) in his name. So I pointed out that it’s almost certain he indeed does have a credit history, because when you apply for power, phone, internet accounts (and so on), you check the ‘terms and conditions’ box, allowing that company to do a credit check on you.

All these things can go into the calculation that makes up your credit score. So as you make payments each month, that information helps to show how financially responsible you are, and it gives companies an idea of whether or not you’ll be a good customer for them.

On the flip side of the credit coin, what doesn’t go into your score calculation? Well, assets, wealth and income aren’t part of your credit history. You could own umpteen properties, earn squillions, have loads of money in the bank but have a bad bill payment history and have a credit score that’s in the mud. Or you could be financially poor and have an excellent credit score, because you’re meticulous about paying bills on time.

It’s all about how well you manage your finances.

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