How important is a good credit score?

[Tristan Cortez]

Howdy PB,

As most of you know I'm 14 years and eager to start investing in real estate. My question today is, how old do you have to be to start building a credit score? Also how important is a good credit score when investing in real estate?

#askpb

Thanks in advance for your answers.

[Joshua Springer]

You have to be 18 to build credit. Having great credit could arguably be a top 3 factor in how successful you will be financially. If you can't manage to build credit, it's likely you won't be able to manage your financial life either.

That being said...plenty of wealthy people have terrible credit and plenty of poor people have great credit...it's how you use it that makes the difference.

Short answer; very important.

P.S. Start learning about who in your family is great at managing their finances/credit score. Start talking to them now about getting added as an authorized user on some of their credit cards once you hit 18. This will help you to get a great headstart....remember to make sure they have great credit!