Your Top October Money Questions Answered

Each week, we answer money questions from around the web on the NerdWallet app. Here are three of the trending questions from the month of October:

Rebuilding your credit can take time, but there are ways to speed up the process.

First, check your credit report for errors that might be dragging down your score. Perhaps an account is included in error or needs to be updated.

Next, pay your bills on time each month. Missing a payment or paying late can bring down your score for up to seven years. If you’ve already missed a payment, pay it right away and ask your creditor to remove the missed payment from its report to the credit bureaus.

Watch your utilization as well. Look out for a high balance on your credit cards that’s eating up more than 30% of your total credit limit. Paying down that balance until it’s below the 30% threshold can improve your score.

Another way to rebuild credit is to call your credit card issuer and ask for your credit limit to be raised. A higher credit limit can also result in a lower credit utilization rate.

You could also ask a family member who has good credit if they’re willing to add you as an authorized user on one of their high-limit credit cards. Or consider using a secured card, where you put down a deposit up front. These last two options are best for people who don’t currently have many accounts in their credit report, perhaps because they’re just starting out.

While rebuilding credit doesn’t happen overnight, taking these steps can help improve your score over the coming months and years.

Prioritizing competing goals — like paying off debt and saving more money — is one of the trickiest parts of money management. There’s no formula that works for everybody, so the decision comes down to your specific situation.

At the top of the priority list is making sure you have an emergency fund that could cover your expenses in the event of a job loss or other unexpected financial emergency. Building up $500 is a good first step toward financial security. Then, keep growing from there.

Once you have that emergency fund set up, it’s time to take a deeper look at debt. Do you have high-interest credit card debt? Is your debt primarily low-interest rate student loan debt? What about a mortgage?

If you have high-interest debt, then paying it down might come before other goals because the interest is likely a drag on your budget. Using an online debt calculator can help you figure out just how much of a burden it is.

After you’ve taken inventory of your debt, you can choose a method to pay it off. Consider the snowball method or avalanche method, and make progress over time.

Once you’ve tackled the emergency fund and the high-interest debt, it’s time to weigh the pros and cons of other forms of saving and debt payoff. Do you want to funnel any extra funds into a high-yield savings account or long-term investments? Do you want to make an extra mortgage payment?

These are good questions to ask because it means you’ve already taken care of the essentials. You can now go the extra step on your journey toward financial security. There’s no right or wrong answers — just a decision based on your personal preferences and goals.

The end of the year brings a slew of deadlines, but there’s still time to meet them. Here are a few to mark on the calendar.

1. Consider last-minute contributions to employer-sponsored retirement accounts. If you have a 401(k), Dec. 31 is your last chance to contribute money for the year. In 2025, the contribution limit is $23,500 (or $31,000 if you’re over 50). 

3. Make any desired charitable contributions for the year. You have until Dec. 31 if you want a donation to count toward your itemized deduction for the year.

Finally, you might also want to use the last few months of the year as a self-imposed deadline for getting financial to-dos completed. Consider the following tasks: