Your credit score is only as important as you need it to be. When we are younger and trying to establish a life and some sort of financial foundation, we rely on our credit score to help us pay for college, a house, a car, and other of life’s necessities at the time. Even if we are not buying, our credit score is important for renting and for obtaining other loans. However, if none of these things concern you, your credit score is irrelevant.
For example, if you already own your home and your car(s) and have no intention or reason to take out a loan of any kind now or in the future, you credit score counts for nothing. It is important to keep in mind, however, that very few people are at this stage in their life. As such, if you do not possess mounds of cash or if you do need to take out a loan to buy a car, home, and/or to go to college, to name a few, your credit score should be properly maintained.
The media has a lot to do with inflating the importance of a credit score to people regardless of their position in life. The primary reason for this is that the company that is commercializing credit scores stands to make a profit off of them. As such, they are going to stress a credit score’s importance whether you are rich, poor, young, old, working, retired, married, single, alive or dead (not really if you are dead, I am simply making a point). Therefore, you cannot get sucked into believing that your credit score is the “be all end all” of your financial future. Think for yourself and determine when your credit score is important.
That being said, it does not make sense to ruin your credit score on purpose. Even if you have no plans on using it anytime soon, you should not make late payments, neglect your outstanding debt, or otherwise do things that lower your credit score just for the sake of doing these things. If you have the ability to maintain your credit score, you should do so. The point is, however, that you should not feel obligated to maintain your credit score based upon outside pressures if your financial situation does not allow you to maintain it.
Everybody has a different station in life and thus, you need to evaluate your own financial situation before deciding whether or not your credit score is going to be an asset to your financial present and future. Again, you should not abuse your credit score solely for the sake of doing so. But if your financial situation allows you the freedom to not concern yourself with credit, take advantage of that experience.