Consumer bankruptcies peaked in July for the first time in years. Catherine Clifford at CNNMoney.com points to the dual culprits of high outstanding debt and unemployment.
Typically, articles that discuss strategies for getting out of debt focus on frugality and cutting up credit cards. These are both critical to financial health. But rarely does an article discuss the importance of employment to reducing debt because the erroneous assumption tends to be made that debt can be paid off in all cases by simply modifying one’s money management behavior, irrespective of one’s income. The truth is, though, that funds are needed to pay down any amount of debt and income is the most common source.
Rather than delve into basic career advice, it is interesting to point out that many of the strategies DebtGoal promotes for reducing and eliminating debt are applicable for securing employment. These include:
- getting and staying organized
- using checklists to get things done
- measuring performance/impact of certain behaviors and strategies on a frequent, periodic basis
- tracking progress with complex goals
- setting priorities based on sound reasoning
- preparing a contingency plan, no matter how simple
- utilizing a budget and saving for emergencies
But how exactly does this play out in the office or when looking for work? Getting organized is an oft-repeated mantra that rarely sticks. Some shy away from radical organization because of a lack of motivation or discouragement once the scope of a mess, financial or otherwise, is finally seen. But getting organized in a simple way without focusing on minute details is valuable commesurate with the effort expended. Similarly, checklists help to prepare for productive phone calls with lenders and tracking debt paydown across several months allows one to understand the debt reduction strategies that best work on an individual basis. Furthermore, setting priorities when fulfilling tasks in the workplace based on value to the organization or in deciding which jobs to apply for first is critical, and coming up with a financial emergency plan parallels the importance of having a career or even job “Plan B”. In short, employment and debt management are interrelated, and using similar strategies in both areas of one’s life can mean killing multiple birds with one stone.
Raj Patel writes for DebtGoal.com, a do-it-yourself system for getting out of debt and lowering your interest costs. DebtGoal.com incorporates all of the techniques discussed in this post and can help users understand and get visibility to and manage their debt finances.
Tags: career and debt strategies, careers and debt, debt management strategies, job hunting strategies, jobs and debt
