The impending implosion of our credit scores.

As most of you are well aware, we're about to sell a house as a short sale. That assumes the sale goes through, and I'm beginning to think it will.

I don't exactly know just how much that will hurt our credit score. But my understanding is it's a little better than a foreclosure. Emphasis on little. The only option I'm aware of to protect our credit scores was to hold on to the house until its value matched what we owe. Would that be 5 years? 7? 10? dunno. Also, to cash flow, we would have had to keep paying renters in the house.

Our biggest fear has been the furnace. It was old, and needed replacement when we bought the house nine years ago. Or some other major expense. We have grown weary of dumping more money into the house. But enough on reasons to sell the house. We decided to sell it, and it is done.

When the house is sold, and CCs are paid off, we start building a real EF. That should take care of issues like furnace breakdowns, insurance deductibles, and the like.

The only thing I would see us needing to finance in the future is vehicles.

Maybe we'll have enough in savings by the time a vehicle needs to be replaced. Maybe not. We could probably get financing somewhere, but at what rate? Leasing is always an option, but I absolutely abhor the idea of leasing.

So, we'll take it one step at a time. Sell the house. Pay off the CCs. Build the EF. Nurse the credit score along. We've done enough other "good" things with our credit that it may build back up over the course of the next two or three years. We'll see.