You have many needs in life. At home, you want spend your evenings in a comfortable leather couch, watching the game on your flat panel television surround sound calibrated to your specific audio tastes. You want to show your long-term girlfriend or boyfriend that you care by giving them an elegant ring, or a tasteful bracelet---or maybe you want to give yourself an expensive birthday present. It’s finally time to junk your first car and drive a vehicle that fits your professional image. Maybe you’re stable in your career, and realize the next major financial step is buying your first home.

Financing jewelry or audio equipment, furnishing an apartment, buying a new car, or purchasing a home----what do all of these have in common? These are all transactions that can involve using personal credit, both wisely and wastefully.

But how do you know what purchases help develop and maintain good credit, and those that are potentially damaging? In the world of personal finance, it is more important how you use your credit and income as much as what you buy with it. Along with managing personal credit, creating and keeping a budget, saving and keeping income, and investments are all components of “financial health”.

Understanding credit is the focus of this series. You will first learn about the different types of credit and the ways personal credit is tracked and measured, via credit reports and credit score (a.k.a. FICO score, or credit rating). After gaining knowledge of credit types and reporting, understanding how credit can be used and its potential pitfalls will be explained. From there, you can then understand how to develop good versus bad credit, the effects of your style of credit management, and why it is important to maintain the good credit you have already developed.

But what if you are aware that you may have experienced or are experiencing difficult times financially, and may have fallen into some credit traps? Or what if you know you are in a financial crisis and need resolution so that you can start over and develop better credit history? Options for debt relief and credit redevelopment will also be discussed.

After gaining a better understanding, you can then move on to other components of personal financial health, including budgeting, saving, and investing. Eventually, all of these components will seem interconnected, and you will be fully capable to maintain your financial health.