Your credit score is a numeric representation of how you handle credit transactions, based on information in your credit report. Once you know how your credit history affects your credit score, it’s time to learn how to improve your score. By understanding which types of debt and other financial actions make the most impact, and by tailoring your priorities to those actions, you can take more control of your credit score. Key Points Making on-time payments is vital to earning a higher credit score. Reduce your credit card balance to improve your credit score fast. Holding different types of credit can help your credit score. The higher your credit score, the more access you have to the best deals on loans, credit cards, insurance premiums, and even apartment leases. How to raise your credit score: Four money moves 1. Get a credit card. One of the ways to establish and build your credit score fast is to get a credit card, use it, and pay it off regularly. Credit cards help your credit score for several reasons: Your payment information is reported each month, helping you to establish a credit history quickly. Paying off the balance each month demonstrates financial discipline and tells potential lenders that you’re someone who honors your financial obligations. By keeping your credit card balance low, you increase your credit score. How much of your credit line you use counts for 30% of your FICO credit score. Pay off your card each month for best results. 2. Use different types of debt. You don’t want to get bogged down with debt, but paying attention to the types of loans you have can help you raise your credit score. About 10% of your FICO credit score is based on your credit mix: Revolving credit. Revolving credit, like credit cards, remains open and usable up to a maximum balance. As you pay down your balance, you have more room to spend. Installment credit. These are loans with a fixed payment term, such as car loans, personal loans, and mortgages. If you need a loan to buy a car or home, having one of those loans in addition to a credit card can help you raise your credit score.
Fundamental analysis is an investing method that helps identify potential opportunities by assessing how financial and economic factors might affect a security’s future value. In the financial markets, there are two primary methods for analyzing the value of a stock or other security: fundamental analysis and technical analysis. While technical analysis means analyzing statistical and historical price behavior, fundamental analysis is based on present and future cash flow, earnings results, competitive factors, and macroeconomic outlook. By researching a company’s financials and other relevant “fundamental” factors, you can get a sense of how much money it might earn in the near, medium, and long term. Earnings per share (EPS) growth often determines a stock’s path. Doing basic fundamental analysis before you buy helps you understand the actual value of the stock beyond today’s price snapshot. But fundamental analysis can vary for the same stock depending on whom you ask. That’s why it’s important to study a variety of sources and not get your information from one place (or just from the company itself). You can’t know everything in advance, but researching the fundamentals can help you understand a company’s recent history, product trends, industry developments, and key issues so you’re less likely to be blindsided. Follow the leaders As an investor, getting blindsided could mean losing money on your investment. But if a Wall Street analyst gets blindsided too often, they could lose their job. That’s why analysts do deep dives to determine if a stock’s value is too high, too low, or in “Goldilocks” territory (just right). It’s also why their analysis is key to your own fundamental research.
Call it what you will—incidents of elder fraud, senior identity theft, and elder financial exploitation are on the rise. Although younger adults report higher incidents of fraud than the elderly, seniors are more vulnerable because they typically have so much to lose: personal savings, retirement money, home equity, and more. In 2022, the number of fraud complaints from adults aged 30 to 39 was higher than the number reported by those 60 and up (94,506 versus 88,262 complaints). Younger adults suffered losses of $1.3 billion. Older adults suffered losses of $3.1 billion—a shocking 82% jump since 2021, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). When you factor in all types of scams, total losses for older adults in 2022 were closer to $28.3 billion, according to data analyzed by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago and AARP. So although it’s vital for everyone to know how to prevent ID theft, it’s especially important for older adults to understand how scammers set their traps—and how to avoid becoming a victim. The psychology of a scam You don’t have to know much about senior ID theft or elder fraud to have heard about the incredible array of methods that criminals use to steal personal data, money, or both. But behind the details, most setups employ a one-two punch that’s as old as the hills: Present a high-stakes scenario that gets the target victim upset or excited. Lay out a plan of action that tricks the victim into sharing personal data or paying a fee/sending money. Whether it’s someone from a software company’s “tech support team” who needs to access your computer immediately about “a security breach,” or your new “sweetheart” urging you to invest in a “surefire” crypto opportunity, scammers create a sense of urgency that can push almost anyone over the edge.