You're 18! Now what?

Happy birthday! You're officially independent! Yay! Let's take this from a financial stand point:

1. Open your first credit card

The only way for you to to have a good credit score is to prove that you're reliable. That's why you need to open a credit card.

But to open a credit card you need to have a high enough credit score. Isn't that a catch 22? There are some cards though that will take you even if you have a low credit score (which is the default). Choose a student card or bank card. Everyone gets accepted and there's no yearly fee. Here are some great student cards to get started with.

After you have this for six months and built up your score, you'll be able to move on to cards that have more benefits.

But! Please! Be careful with you're spending! Treat the credit card like cash and only spend on what you can afford. If you know you'll overspend then don't get a credit card. I promise it'll save you tons of heartache!

2. Open a Credit Karma account

Let me introduce you to Credit Karma. Credit Karma is a free app (it can be viewed in the web too) that tracks your credit score and notifies you of any changes to it. It's a great way to catch fraud too, as they'll let you know if anything new is being linked to your name or social security number.

Sign up to Credit Karma here.

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As a bonus you can read about credit scores here to make sure you're all set.

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Now that you took the first steps to being financially independent and strong, go out and party!

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