This past December, my fiance and I purchased a truck and got an auto loan through Wells Fargo. It’s a 6-year loan for a little over $10,000. Before this, I had VERY limited credit and he didn’t even have a credit score. Now, we have this loan, a secured credit card each (limit of $200, used to buy gas and then paid in full each month), and an unsecured credit card each (limit of $750 and $1000, payments paid on time each month). We really want to be able to stop renting and buy a home, hopefully around the beginning of next year if possible.

**Questions**
1.) Technically, the auto loan has my name listed first with my fiance as the cosigner. Does this affect his credit the same as mine, or does it only affect his if it goes unpaid?
2.) With the amount of credit I’ve described, is it realistic to think that we may be able to get approved for a mortgage (maybe a first time homebuyer’s program) at the beginning of next year?
3.) This month, the car payment was due 2 days earlier than it was in previous months and we ended up paying it 3 days late. There was no late fee because of the grace period—will that negatively affect our credit?
4.) After my unsecured credit card is payed off (it’s for David’s Bridal – I bought my wedding dress on it) in a few months, I plan on using a Kohl’s card I recently got approved for with a limit of $300 monthly and pay it off like I do my secured card. I don’t want too many credit lines open at once, but I know just one probably isn’t sufficient for credit history. Will this be enough?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, but we’re young and have very little experience with these things. We had to fight like hell just to get approved for credit to start building it. We’d be looking for a house in the $100–150K range with something like a $5,000 down payment. We really wouldn’t want to take anything less than a 6% interest rate. And we’ll be married in less than a month, I’m not sure if that matters as far as mortgage loans go (with cosigners and all that).