If you have bad credit, remember this one thing: bad credit is not really the problem. Bad credit is the result of bad behavior with money.

Before spending massive amounts of efforts, anguish, and time, cleaning up your credit, try spending meaningful time on your money mindset.

Click this link to check out how to start changing your thinking and your philosophy about money.

Once you change your thinking about money, then your behavior that caused your bad credit will change, and you take steps to address the real issue.

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Money is honestly not that complicated, but we have a tendency to feverishly overcomplicate it or have these hush hush conversations about it.

Talking about money and then disciplining yourself around better spending habits is a mentality. It’s a mindset and a way of thinking about money that leads to better behaviors with money.

It’s important to reflect on how you were taught about money and how that plays in to what you think about money , and ultimately do with money.

What is your philosophy about money, consumerism, and spending?

Here are 6 more ways to instill a positive money mindset

Once you determine some of these basics about how you think about money, then you can begin to look at your credit, which is simply a result of your thoughts about money.

Click HERE to check out 16 Smart Money Moves to make with your money, starting today!

We’ve all seen people make poor decisions with money, fix their credit, and turn right back around 10 years later, and be right back in a worse mess financially.

That happens because we have a tendency to attack the credit while ignoring the behaviors.

Let’s clear something up:

A good credit score, in its simplest definition, means you borrow money and you pay it back. A good credit score doesn’t mean you are a good person, a nice person, a loving person, or a righteous person.

Your credit score is simply a measure of how well, or how poorly, you use credit, or pay debt. Can it have an effect on your lifestyle? Yes.

But relax! I’m not saying don’t fix your credit, I’m simply saying fix your behaviors first.

For some of us, it’s an ego thing. But don’t worry. You are not a horrible person if you have a low credit score. Get that out of your head!

I realize that banks tend to want to tie your quality as an individual to your credit score, and we follow suit by looking down on people with bad scores. Or worse, we look down on ourselves if we have bad credit.

Unfortunately, people have a tendency to equate being able to purchase an item “on credit” with status, self-worth, prestige, and stature. Save yourself that misery and realize this:

Don’t go there!

Bad Credit is the Result of Bad Behavior With Money,

But It Can Be Fixed

Your circumstances, life problems, life issues, mistakes in the past, and future greatness, is never taken into consideration when figuring your credit score.

Most lenders don’t look at you as a person. They look at you as a number on an actuarial table.

Is it good to clean up your credit? Absolutely, yes it is.

Don’t ignore your credit score, and your credit is an important measure of your credit worthiness. It is very important to pay what you owe, and pay it on time and in full.

For the sake of integrity and character, and doing what’s right, you should have good credit based on a history of paying what you owe. So, is there some validity to credit scores, yes.

However, are they the determining factor in who you are, NO!

Never tie your self-esteem to your credit score!

You are not your credit score!

Now that we know bad credit is the result of bad behavior with money, and a result of how you think about money, now we can begin to turn our attention to behavior.

There are 2 primary behaviors that you must change today, before you spend one more moment worrying about your credit:

First, Stop Borrowing Money

If you don’t have it in cash, don’t buy it. Sounds simple, but the small things make the biggest difference. This is a mindset that effects and directs your behavior.

If you become determined to use cash, as much as possible, and discipline yourself not to use credit and credit cards, it changes your behavior with money.

This one step alone will combat a spending culture that has a death grip on many of us that makes us think we deserve stuff just for breathing and being over a certain age.

That is the type of mindset that will keep you flat broke with low credit scores.

Click HERE to check out HOW to buy a house with no credit. Click HERE to learn how to buy a house with bad credit.

It’s ok to practice some patience, save up for it, and purchase it when you have cash in your pocket, or a debit card. And no, you don’t have to have a lot of positive credit to buy a house.

Have a sizeable down payment, the right incomes, target a house you can easily afford based on the right ratios, and underwriting departments at lending institutions will make a way.

Second, Tell Your Dollars What To Do

Take complete control of your money by telling your dollars what to do, when to do, how to do, and where to do.

Click here to learn how to Make a budget and spend your money on paper first,.

Also, use an envelope system, and review your budget on a daily basis if you have to.

You put your money where you want it to go, not where it tells you it wants to go. Develop a budget, plan it out, and stick to it no matter what.

BE IN CONTROL of YOUR MONEY by TAKING CONTROL and HOLDING YOUR MONEY ACCOUNTABLE

Hold your money accountable to you. One way to take complete control of your money is to focus intently on getting out of debt. This frees up money, and gives you charge over your finances!

The Bottom Line:

Fix your mindset, fix your behavior, and then consider fixing your credit. It is altogether likely that once you fix your thinking and behavior with money, the credit will begin to take care of itself.

Remember, bad credit is the result of bad behavior with money and the result of how you think about money.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric is the founder of Smart Money Bro, a blog about empowering people and discussing practical ways ordinary people can be extraordinary with their money. He only writes about things that he has done, and that actually work.

He’s made mistakes and has turned his financial future around, and is now in the position to help others do what he’s done. Read More