How many times have you heard it, heck we’ve all said it a few times ourselves. We repeat this phrase to remind ourselves not to just blindly barrel ahead like a car a demolition derby. Plan ahead. I’m the first to say that you cannot plan for everything. Life is to dynamic to even try. Not to mention to much planning results in analysis paralysis and no one likes spinning their wheels. But, those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

I bring up planning because, I really think I let myself down a bit. I started looking for my house around two and half months ago and Ive been thinking about it for around 9-10 months. So what didn’t I do, I didn’t properly check my credit. I cleaned up some mistakes on my report around 6 months ago and assumed that the report I pulled from Experian was all I needed. Never did I bother checking to make sure my credit score was all I needed. It wasn’t. My credit score is fairly meaningless. Its my FICO score I needed. (Yes my scores from the CRA do contribute to my FICO score.) There is only one place to get your true FICO score. www.myfico.com The site is run by the Fair Isaac Corporation. Currently my FICO score doesn’t even register. I have not had any revolving accounts for nearly two years now. A simple credit card 6 months ago would have solved many of my current problems. Live and learn.

I planned on getting a VA loan. I never bothered checking the VA website for all the items I needed. Again I assumed, that I would just show my DD-214 (discharge papers) to the lender and magically I would be approved for the loan. I had to withdraw a bid for my original personal property because I hadn’t read the VA requirements for what a home needs. In my case a complete kitchen. Also, my DD-214 wasn’t enough. I needed to submit my paperwork for proof of eligibility. Having obviously been in the military, I should have been ready for the 2-3 week turnaround. I have now had to extend my closing because of my assumptions. Again live and learn.

For many of us, our harshest critics are ourselves. I am no exception. This is a good thing in my mind. It goes towards my self discipline and it motivates me. I can’t prevent every mistake, nor do I want to, but I can sure work towards being better prepared.