by Annie Kaycora

Created on: April 10, 2009   Last Updated: April 12, 2009

Good credit is the absolute staple of being a citizen of the United States. I am completely dumbfounded as to why this hasn't become a subject in high school academics here in the US. Growing up, we have our parents say "Don't get credit cards! You'll get into trouble" an we as teenagers, likely send it to the shredder along with other disregarded advice.

Your credit score reflects your ability to be a responsible adult, level of integrity, accountability, and even provides a close look at your life decisions. In the eyes of an employer, creditor, investor, etc. good credit can paint the picture of an outstanding individual, or a nightmarish danger to trust. Moreover, with poor credit, you can count on great difficulty pulling yourself out of a bind in the future. If you suddenly were faced with hospital time, and racked up a solid medical debt. good credit can save you. Otherwise, you'd be taking a shovel out to dig yourself deeper in the financial hole.

When you find that lovely someone and begin to build a life with them, good credit will yield many great home buying opportunities, with low interest rates. Your credit has much more to do with your life than many young people realize. When you want to purchase a car, lease a car, start a small business, find a business loan, refinance your home, rent an apartment, finance some dental work, and so much more. Your credit will be taken in as the main representation of who you are. If you can't seem to honor your agreements (loans, credit cards, etc) you will send a clear message that it's very risky to trust your reliability. The extent to which you use your credit, such as loans and credit cards, can also show if you are compulsive, indulgent, and lacking control. If your credit shows you have 1% available credit on all of your lines of credit, it looks as though you can't control your spending.

Unfortunately, bad things happen to good people, too. There are plenty of cases of bad credit where the individual is actually responsible and they just ran into bad credit from large medical loans, or even being laid off from a job. Although they may be a stellar prospect to lend to, bad credit will still likely be gospel in determining a person's accountability and honor.

Credit should be a subject in school. We should be educating our youth on how to become a successful American. We can teach our teenagers how to dissect a frog but we don't offer any insight and education on how to accurately shape your future with the credit system? To conclude, credit is SO important that it should be subject in school alongside math and history. It will either be a stormy cloud or a beam of sunshine following you around for the rest of your life.

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