I carry two roles, one as a debt consultant and the other as a marketing and social media consultant and strategist. Yesterday I wrote a post on the difference between strategic and tactical social media marketing.
It occurred to me that the same strategic and tactical thought process can go into the debt elimination process. Americans are burdened with debt across all spectrums. You would think that there would would be one simple solution to getting rid of it. The truth is that there will be different tactics for each individual family.
Where to start? Start with a Strategic Plan:
A strategic plan answers the question where do you want to go?
Obviously the overarching goal is to get out of debt. To put a proper strategic plan into place one has to dig a little deeper and answer the following questions:
1. What kind of debt do you want to get out of: Credit Card Debt?, Medical Debt,? Business Debt? Mortgage Debt? Tax Debt? Gambling Debt?
2. How much of each kind of debt do you have?
3. Are you going to eliminate all of your debt or just certain types of debt (for instance credit card debt)
4. What is your time frame? 1year, 5 years, 10 years?
5. Are you in a financial hardship and struggling to pay your debt
Once you have the overarching questoins answered you can write out a strategy statement or plan. This might read as follows:
I want to pay off my X amount of credit card debt and my mortgage of X amount of dollars within x number of years. This will allow me to (retire, vacation, relax, ect) and live my life without stress.
Now that the stragegy statement is written, it's time to go determine the tactical plan. By definiation, "Strategic" answers the question - where do I want to go. Tactic answers the question how am I going to get there?
The tactical plan will differ for each person and will depend on the type of debt, amount of debt and whether there is a financial hardship or not. Hardship based solutions include:
Bankruptcy, Credit Counseling and Debt Settlement
Non-hardship based programs include:
mortgage acceleration, refinancing, debt consolidation loans, debt roll down or snowball.
In the days to come we'll be talking about each of the options and helping to educate you on the pros and cons of each tactic!
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate - Palm Springs, CA
Vickie Jean the Palm Springs Condo Queen
I think our generation may be on the dawn of a new reality. The younger generation seems to have learned from our experiences and appear to be curtailing spending habits and justifying expenditures.
Nov 03, 2010 07:08 AM
Marketing with Kate - Redding, CA
Onlilne Marketing Mobile Marketing
San Diego, CA
A couple of years ago I helped a married couple that I know file for bankruptcy. I did all the research and completed all the papers and had them sign them. Didn’t even charge for the work since that would have meant that I would have to sign their documents, too. Anyway, two months later their debts were successfully discharged. Two months and one day later they had all sorts of offers for bank loans, new car loans, even one mortgage broker offering to help them buy a new home. However, in most bankruptcies you can keep your home as long as it’s not extravagant. Same with personal possessions. I’m happy to say that the couple are now back on their feet and doing well, and they still have their home and furnishings, but only one car.
Nov 18, 2010 01:08 PM
Rainmaker
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Kate Bourland
Onlilne Marketing Mobile Marketing
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This Blog is my voice on the political, financial and social implications of debt. My goal is to encourage my readers to think outside their own personal reality and to challenge the social and political truths we have been taught about money, finance and our "free market" economy.
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