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Struggling each month to afford a high student loan payment can be pretty demoralizing. Having to put off big financial steps like buying a home or having a child because you can’t find room in your budget ... well, that's even worse.

In recent years, the millennial migration to America’s cities has shown no signs of slowing. From perennial magnets like the Big Apple to smaller urban destinations like Virginia Beach, cities across the country have seen their millennial populations surge.

When they want to settle down in their new homes, however, young Americans often encounter challenging housing markets.

Across the country, many millennials share a common goal: Paying down their debt as swiftly and smartly as they can. No generation has invested more heavily in its future through student loans, with millions of millennials making hefty payments each month. If you’re one of these young Americans working hard to address your debt, you’ll want the confidence of knowing you’re doing it right.

That’s where this guide’s actionable insights can help...

Your credit score can shape the future of your finances, even more so than your age or income. No single factor matters more to potential lenders, and those with poor scores can wind up shelling out hundreds more in interest payments over time. But despite the crucial nature of this three-digit number, many Americans are unsure of their score and how to obtain it.

Considering the complexity of credit reporting today, we can’t say we blame those confused about credit scores.

When it comes to personal finance, it’s hard to find a number that’s more important than your credit score. From the loans you can get to the interest rates you’ll pay, the financial implications of your score are hard to overstate.

It’s no wonder, then, that many Americans are searching for clarity about how their scores are calculated, and how they influence financial outcomes in their own lives.

Building credit can seem like the ultimate Catch-22: You need a good score to borrow money, but you need to borrow money to get a good score. This system leaves millions of Americans confused about where to start, unsure of what they can do to break this cycle of credit exclusion.

According to the latest Consumer Financial Protection Bureau numbers, 26 million adults are credit invisible, meaning credit reporting agencies have no data available for potential lenders.