<prompt> Human: I made the mistake of opening several credit cards when I was in college. I was an athlete at the time and I thought I was going to be making a lot of money in the near future. I got hurt and the plan changed. I never missed payments but the cards were nearly maxed out for about 3 years. I have a pretty good job now and I have been able to pay them off with some bonus money I just came into. I closed all but one card a year ago because I felt like every time I made any progress on getting the things paid off, something would happen and I would need to use them. I have an addictive personality and no matter how logically I think about it I end up using too much credit. My credit score is currently at 602. I have a car loan for 15k which is current and in good standing. I would like to be able to buy a house one day. What is the best way for me to increase my credit score?Assistant: You need to create some serious fear in yourself whenever youre about to get interest on your cards. You need to change your max limit from 5000 to 0 and basically treat it as if youre going to miss a payment if that balance isnt 0 at the end of the month.Your credit will naturally get better. You didnt mention how much bonus money you had run into, only that you cleared it off. Did your habits change, or did you just basically get 20K and paid off 5K yourself over a few years?Or put another way, did you change at all? How much are you saving today? You have a 15K car loan, which you got when you had 25K in loans outstanding. If you get a house, how are you going to stop yourself from going out and buying all new furniture for it, a new tv and a new car for the garage?Those should be your concerns. The credit score is how much OTHERS are concerned about you, but you need to be concerned about yourself too. Just fooling others into thinking your a safe bet doesnt help you. Jacking up your credit score when youre not a real at risk person is a great idea, jacking it up when youre at risk and then getting yourself buried is a terrible idea.Human: Very good points here. I did pay about 5k down over time and I got a 20k bonus to pay the rest. I think you are right about having a serious fear of carrying a balance. That is the right way to approach this. The reason I want to get a loan for a house is because I am renting right now for 1k a month. I could get into a 200k house with a decent interest rate for that rate. I dont want to live in an apartment forever and I feel like I am throwing away money. I have not started saving yet. What would you recommend for a target? 10 of monthly income? 25 of monthly income? Assistant: I could get into a 200k house with a decent interest rate for that rate.This is exactly what hes talking about. Youre going to re-learn how to approach money. You need to stop looking at the moneycredit that is available to you and envisioning what you could spend it on. Thinking that way pretty much guarantees that you will go out and spend everything you can.Some additional tips:Owning a house has a LOT of hidden costs -- even if you think you could barely afford a certain house on paper, the reality is that you should probably aim lower on the price to account for the additional costs. Your water heater breaks. Your pipes burst. Hail ruins your roof. A tree falls on your car. You try to have a problem repaired, and the contractor botches the job and disappears; and when you find him, it turns out the companys owner is literally a retired lawyer in another state. All of these things have happened to people I know. Even in cases where insurance or warranty covered some of the cost, there are huge emotional and time costs with dealing with problems like this.Houses are not an investment. Untill you have much better financial habits and stability, you should not entertain the idea of buying a house just because you dont feel like renting. Youre not throwing your money away by renting.Human: So should I wait until I have a significant amount of money in savings first? When is the right time to buy? I keep hearing people say that prices have never been lower than they are right now. Am I going to miss out on a deal?  <response>: The right time to buy is when youre ready. Not when the price is right. 