There are many ways to get ahead financially: attend seminars where you cut up your credit cards with hundreds of other people, participate in debt consolidation services that help you take out a home equity loan or refinance your home, or you can transfer debt on one credit card to another credit card with an introductory rate of 0% (which goes up to 12% six months down the road). The reason these methods don�t work is because we don�t concurrently cut our expenses while implementing these strategies. Even if we�re making more money, unless we cut expenses, we will continue to spend more money than we have and incur debt. Manage yourself and your money. Money is like food; we don�t eat only when we�re hungry, and we certainly don�t spend only when we need something. Beware: Debt forgiveness can hurt you. The company that forgives your debt can issue a 1099C, which means the forgiven amount gets added to your taxed income. When there�s a will, there�s another way: Your credit score (also called your FICO or Beacon score) will affect the interest rate you�re able to secure. Credit scores range from 500 to 850. Where are you on the scale? What�s in a number? 500 and below�your in serious trouble 650 to 680 you probably will have a difficult time getting credit, and if you do it will be at higher rates 700+--excellent score How you got your credit score: a) Payment history (35% of score). Make payments on time or early. b) Amounts you owe (30% of score) c) Credit history (15% of score). The longer you have credit, the higher your score can be. d) New credit (10% of score). New credit cards. e) Type of credit you have in use. Mortgages, Bloomingdale�s, etc. There are three reporting services that can give you your score: Equifax.com, Experian.com and Transunion.com. At least once, do an experiment and order a report from all three. They probably will provide a complimentary report each year, per person. You will most likely find inconsistencies in the reports such as missing and incorrect information. Each time a credit report is run on you, your score is lowered by two or three points. You still want to shop around for a mortgage, but consider using a mortgage broker who runs one report to shop around the loan. If you go to five different banks, that can drop your score 15 points.