I admit it, I am a CSI junkie.

Actually, our whole home is a veritable crime scene waiting to happen, given the laundry piles stained with various “trace” items and mountains of suspicious toxin laden dishes that stack up. There probably is a fugitive or two hiding here amidst the hair balls and clutter. I am addicted to the show, not housework, sad to say.  

So it should come as no surprise I find life lessons in these epic life events, such as 12 hour marathons of CSI.  Recently, I discovered there were credit tips to be gleaned from CSI.  (If I were doing housework, I would have missed this life altering data).

1. The Evidence Doesn’t Lie. Your credit score, alas, is evidence that no matter your alibi, will either “convict you” to a poor interest rate, inability to obtain loans, or exonerate you to fiscal freedom.  It’s a scary thought, (like being interrogated under a stark light bulb). But take time to know your credit score, and keep regular tabs on it.
2.  Clean Up Trace Evidence.  Even a small fiber of bad fiscal decision left behind should be cleaned up. In other words, after running a credit report, have old evidence of bad credit removed. If you filed for bankruptcy, it’s likely there are several items that need to be cleaned up.  In my case, I still have residual items that pop up on various credit bureaus from a 2005 bankruptcy!  Four years of debt DNA still visible at times. Ugh! Write letters and make calls to remove evidence.
3. Solutions Take a Team- Overwhelmed by debt and credit issues?  Get help if you need it in the way of credit counseling, debt relief or debt settlements if you are feeling it’s too big a crime scene.  I have used, in the past, an attorney’s advice, budgeting tips from Consumer Credit Counseling, and thrown myself on the mercy of creditors to work plans out. It often takes a team approach to solve a debt crime against your credit.  Call in the experts.
4. Use Science to Solve the Homicide- This is my theory, finance is a science. Like all science it can be predicted rather measurably, and recreated in similar conditions. My own credit issues were very complex, but not unusual.  I did stupid things and committed desperate acts. Now I have to be vigilant so I don’t recreate the same ugly credit murder again. I am convicted of massive debt crimes, but am trying to rehabilitate myself.  I killed a 720 credit rating in cold blood, I admit it. Clothing purchases once upon a time racked into the thousands, offing my credit score when I couldn’t pay the card’s interest. But like all science that is predictable and measurable, getting good credit is also a science. I now try to pattern myself after those who have good credit and amend my crimes. Study those who got their butts in credit Sing Sing, and learn what they did to get parole.
5. The Good Guys Win- I have those days where debt appears to be eluding me like a slippery villain.  It seems to take forever, working the cold case of my dead credit. But in the end, I believe in truth, liberty and the American way- and I trust I can win, if I do the right thing. If you are suffering under weight of poor credit, keep working the case, my friends.

Eight p.m.- time for more knowledge via Horatio.  Maybe CSI can teach me tips on raising teenagers tonight and that would be true enlightenment.

By the way, if you take the time to watch the endless sea of “one liners” above, you will notice a choice bit of Horatio Cain, stated, “You don’t spend a thousand dollars on clothes you are never going to wear.”

Ummm,  make that, ” I don’t spend a thousand dollars on clothes I am never going to wear, again, in this lifetime.” 

I’m reformed.