"Good financial decisions" are only at a very specific margin associated with credit score. If you have an underwater car loan you can't really afford comforta

"Good financial decisions" are only at a very specific margin associated with credit score. If you have an underwater car loan you can't really afford comfortably that you nonetheless make the minimums on whilst eating rice and beans, you'll have great credit after a couple years. If you strategically defaulted immediately after buying your ridiculously underwater condo in 2008 and it took them 3 years to foreclose on you, you made a great financial decision and your credit is trashed for the next six years. Credit scores specifically correlate with default risk, not some abstracted measure of financial health.