It seems that lately I have come across people that are extreme when it comes to their credit score. I’ve met several people that are obsessed with their credit score and how their financial decisions will effect it. This got me to thinking about how understanding the entire picture is important when dealing with your personal finances and not focusing on a single, specific part of personal finances. It reminded me of the Blind Men and the Elephant poem by John Godfrey Saxe:

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Each blind man assumes they know the entire elephant because they believe the whole elephant is like the specific part he experienced. They believe this despite the fact that the individual parts have little resemblance to the actual elephant itself. Although each blind man does have it partly right, they all end up getting the answer completely wrong.

I see that a lot of the same things can happen when people start to focus on specific parts of personal finances instead of stepping back and taking a look at them in their entirety. By focusing on one specific part of personal finances, it fails to take in a lot of other important parts that need to be addressed when making decisions that are best for the overall financial picture. Opening and closing credit card accounts, applying for loans and how your should pay back loans should not be based solely on how it will affect your credit score.

Don’t get me wrong. I think that a person’s credit score can have a huge impact on their finances, but I don’t think that it should be the one and only reason you make the financial decisions that you do. It’s one part of a much larger financial picture that each of us need to look at.