Caroline Ulm

Personal Finance- Block 8

May 7th, 2015

Whats My Score? Activities

Part I Go to http://www.whatsmyscore.org/credit101/ and click Start Now. Complete all parts
of the tutorial and record your scores here.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Pretest: 5/5
Credit Card 101: 6/6
Building Credit: 5/5
Copy & paste your certificate here:

Part II Go back to http://www.whatsmyscore.org/credit101/ and click the link to estimate your

FICO score
5. Complete the quiz. What is the estimated range of your score? 685-735 (pretending I am a
few years out of college)
6. Click How was my score determined?
http://www.whatsmyscore.org/break/howdetermined.php
o How long can negative information be reported? It can be reported for 7 years.
o What are the limitations or exceptions? The limitations and exceptions are bankruptcy
(10 years), lawsuits or judgments (7 years or until the statue of limitations runs out,
whichever is longer), and information based on an application for a job with a salary of
more than $20,000 (no time limitation).

What factors are not included in your score? The factors not included are race, religion,
national origin, sex, age, salary, and any other information not proven to be predictive
of future credit performance.
What are the two items that influence your credit score the most? The items that are
most influential towards your credit score are payment history and amounts owed.

Part III Go to http://www.whatsmyscore.org/facts/6improvements.php

7. What are 3 of the 6 ways to improve your credit score? Three ways to improve your credit
score are making more than the minimum monthly payment, keeping your balance low in
respects to your available credit, and making your payments on time.
8. Which way do you think is the easiest? Why? I think the easiest way if checking your credit
report and correcting any errors, as it does not cost you money, you are not limiting yourself,
anyone can do it, and it only takes a little time out of your day.
9. Which way do you think is the most important? Why? I think the most important way is
making more than the minimum payment, as though it was be financially taxing, it raises
your credit score while improving credit history, helps you pay off your debt faster, and
prevent the accumulation of too much interest on loans.
Part IV Go to http://www.whatsmyscore.org/break/gooddebt.php
10.How can debt be a good thing? Debt can be a good thing if shows lenders and any other
parties looking at your credit that you are responsible and financially invested in your future;
mortgages can do this and improve your credit history if you display good credit habits.
11.What five things can a mortgage tell creditors? Do not copy and paste! A mortgage can tell
creditors that you are invested in your financial future, intend to handle your credit & debt
responsibly, intend to continue to have a source of income in order to pay off your debts, are
financially trustworthy, and that they can trust you to pay it back when you need credit for
something else.
Part V - Go to http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/calculators/creditDebt.php?
calcCategory=debt and choose THREE of the following: Emergency Fund; How Much Car Can You
Afford? How Much Will College Cost? Mortgage Payment; Repaying Student Loans
Calculato
r Name
Mortgage
Payment

What info
did it ask
for?
It asked for
mortgage
amount
($300,000),
mortgage
term (15
years), and
interest rate
(15%).

What was
your result?
My monthly
payment
would be
$3,950.37.

Was this more or less

than you expected?
This was a bit more than I
expected, but not by
much, as I assumed the
costs would be high since
it was a $300,000
mortgage.

How will this

impact your
budget?
This would take a
huge toll on my
budget. Assuming
that I would only
make $6,000 a
month, this is most
than half of what I
would make. I would
have to cut back on
basically everything
else in order to afford
this.

Repaying
Student
Loans

It asked for
annual
anticipated
income upon
graduation
($70,000),
original loan
amount
($50,000),
annual
interest rate
(15%), and
initial
payment
period (20).

My monthly
payment
would be
$2,841.02.

This is quite a bit more

than I was expecting. I
assumed that repaying
student loans would have
a monthly payment of
around $1,000, but not
double that. And if I
wanted to pay back this
debt any earlier, I would
have to basically go
bankrupt each month just
to afford it.

How Much
Will
College
Cost?

It asked for
my age (I
gave 18),
college type
(private),
number of
years
attending (7),
and
calculation
type (tuition,
fees, room &
board).

The total cost

for college
would be
$249,452.00.

This is way more than I

was expecting. I knew
college is really
expensive, especially
private ones, but I didnt
think that it would cost
more than $150,000 for 7
years.

Once again assuming

I would make about
$6,000 per month,
this would take out
about a third of my
paycheck. I could
afford this while
staying on budget so
long as I had no other
loans to pay off and
only spent the rest of
my money on
necessities. With this
price, I could not take
out a mortgage or car
loan and still have
enough money for
bills or groceries.
There is no way I
would be able to
afford this on my own
with my budget. I
couldnt even afford it
with my familys help.
In order to even have
a hope of paying for
this, I would have to
get a ton of federal
aid, grants, lots of
scholarships, and
possibly even a
student loan from a
bank. This amount
would demolish my
budget, leaving me in
poverty if I had to pay
every cent of it.