CREDITED

Today, I have been working on my karma. No, not the good vibes that are awaiting me in the universe. I am talking about my credit karma, aka CreditKarma.com.

As the source of most good advice I receive, I learned from the Today Show that I could get my credit score for free from this web site. Credit shmedit. These things are scary to me. About a year and some change ago, I decided I would work on my credit. I knew hoped I didn't have bad credit, but I wasn't sure it would be considered great credit either. I mean, I hadn't been out on any shopping sprees, that's for sure. If anything, my credit would be iffy because I did things like apply for a major credit card that I had NO intention of using in exchange for a free large bowl of delicious ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery in a moment of weakness following two insane midterms and a term paper during my junior year (true story - only happened once though). So, not having bought a house or a car or a large purchase, I was just kind of in the dark. Don't ask, don't tell. But about a year and a half ago I hopped online, ordered and printed off my credit report.... aaaand made a few phone calls, cried most of the afternoon and threw it away. Let's just pretend that never happened!, I thought to myself.

Now I know what you all are thinking - is she serious? Could any one person be that dumb? The answer is yes. And plenty of people are that dumb. But I digress. For reasons I won't go into here (but you could do the math if you read this), the credit report was a little-too-tangible evidence of something else very wrong in my life. Something... someone?... that is much easier to ignore than deal with. Trust me - it was more than me just being too lazy to fix it. It was a thread I wasn't ready to pull. So I just let sleeping dogs lie and figured one day I would figure it all out. Credit report included.

Well, for whatever reason, today was the day. Gotta start somewhere. I remembered seeing that web site on the Today Show from a few weeks ago, and pulled it up as soon as I got to work. Credit score, here I come. Last name here, address there, social here and bam! What do you know? It's not bad. It's "excellent," in fact. Proof I was scared of nothing this whole time. I hate finding out I was scared of nothing, don't you? I moved on from that to my credit report, and do you know what? I haven't cried, I haven't made any phone calls, and I'm not going to throw it away.

Thank you, Credit Karma, for dumbing it all down for a 'fraidy cat like me. It was easy to navigate and the results easy to navigate.

So what's the point of this very unfunny, grown-up, math-centered rant? 1. Add CreditKarma.com to the list of financial web sites I stand behind (and that's a very short list); 2. In the words of Kevin McCallister, I'm not afraid anymore!

And, in the spirit of full disclosure, while we are discussing restoration and fixing situations that you're kind of afraid to tackle, you should know that I have been spending a lot of time here, and have had lunch twice in the past month with this girl:

 
Isn't springtime the greatest?