When you’re trying to build a new financial life, the first thing that you will need t do is make sure that you are looking at your credit history in great detail. It’s one thing to think about the future that you want to create, but it’s a completely different story to try to create a new future for yourself. Building your credit history again after you’ve had some credit troubles isn’t going to be as hard as you think. No, what you really need to do is make sure that you are always looking at every angle that you can in order to rebuild your credit the easy way. Can you do this for free? Of course you can, but the key is to start small and work your way up.

Not sure where to get started? Instead of getting frustrated, it’s just time to look at these three credit fixes and apply them to your life as it stands:

First and foremost, you will want to get a copy of your credit report. You can’t fix anything unless you actually know where you stand. Instead of feeling bad about your credit, you should be able to stand tall and accept responsibility for the way things are. Yes, there might be some bad financial decisions that you’ve made in the past, but the reality of the matter is that you will have to face those problems in order to get solutions. There are a lot of people that will feel like they don’t have to revisit these mistakes in order to overcome their overall financial status, but that same group of people will never get out of their financial situation. Are you one of those people? Definitely not, so let’s move on, shall we?

From here, you will also need to look at your credit report and everything on it. If there are any mistakes, you will want to make sure that you prepare a formal letter to the credit reporting bureau in question stating that the debt in question is not yours. You do have certain rights that you will need to exercise in order to build your credit score again.

Finally, don’t forget to practice some of the classic debt repair tactics, such as filing for new credit lines. This is something that a lot of people are scared to do, but what would be the point of rebuilding your credit if you couldn’t actually get any credit lines? Now, keep in mind that you will need to keep things small to begin with. It’s better to get a small unsecured card than a large one that could put you right back in the same situation you just got out.

You might want to also invest in a credit monitoring service that will let you not only pull your credit report month after month, but also get your credit score. Everyone needs something to look forward to. If you’re going to last in the credit repair game, you will need to set a goal that you can look forward to fulfilling. For example, if you find that your credit score is in the low 400′s and you want to get to the high 600s, it’s good to get a monitoring service that will let you track your progress. There’s no reason to ever think that you can’t achieve your goals in the credit repair game just because you’ve had some credit problems.

One final point: your current credit lines are not something that you can overlook, either. Let’s say that you’re getting behind in your current credit lines. The biggest thing that you will want to avoid is simply ignoring the problem. Don’t try to dodge the phone calls. Don’t refuse to open the letters — this is where a lot of people go wrong, since it opens them up to the possibility of a lawsuit. You will need to actually contact your creditor and work something out. If you’re only 30 days past due, you have a lot more options than you realize — just don’t let them bully you, and don’t forget to follow the tips in this guide. It’ll be one of the best things you do all year long!