The 10, 10, 10 of Credit.
The iconic past CEO of GE, Jack Welch was revered - still is, as a highly gifted, intuitive manager. Suzie Welch, the past CEO of the Harvard Business Review is similarly touched. Suzie, now a best selling author, recently penned an awesome self-help book strictly dealing with individual decision making. We have applied Suzie’s 10, 10, 10 premise to the world of credit, debt analysis and overall personal financial planning. What Suzie discovered and YCC’s Blog has morphed to credit is the fundamental cause and effect reality of decision consequences. For us, the essence of the 10, 10, 10 theory is powerful in it’s simplicity and honest. At the risk of huge oversimplification, Suzie’s 10, 10, 10 proposes that people “…diligently, analytically and honestly evaluate the probable outcomes of decisions - including non-decisions when faced with every conceivable possibility in this way.” First, inspect how your choice will most likely impact your life quality in the first 10 minutes. Next, how will your decision effect your good life in 10 months. And finally - 10 years. An easily constructed decision tree is set up to take you through a bold list of what if’s. For your credit planning, try to imagine how powerfully this basic little planning tool can literally reignite your sustainable financial freedom and independence. Give this a try. First, narrow some crucial credit-debt type decisions down to a couple really big ones. Like, “…is this finally the right time to buy that new house and take on a long-term fixed mortgage…?” Next, you should apply the fundamental 5 candid qualifiers to our new home/mortgage dilemma for each one of our 10 time frames. These are our re-designed parameters - not the original ones - but for good purpose so you will plainly observe. If there is one non-negotiable rule, it is that your conscience must be 100% clear; not that your actions are always correct in hindsight, but that they are always the best choices available. Okay, so now we are ready to take a stab. Review these questions:
1) How does this decision directly impact my FICO score? 10, 10, 10?
2) How does this decision directly impact my net personal liquidity thereby providing me greater flexibility? 10, 10, 10?
3) How does this decision directly impact my desired net personal property - asset acquisition plan? 10, 10, 10?
4) How does this decision directly impact my disaster/catastrophe plans of illness, job loss, divorce, death, etc.? 10, 10, 10?
5) How does this decision directly impact my underlying personal moral and ethical code of life? 10, 10, 10?
YCC is your personal power… Did you try it? Do you see the amazing clarity and absolute truth power? What about the eye opening exercise of the 10, 10, 10 scenarios? Well if you really and truly put these 5 “how does” questions into action, the awesome pattern of short-term perceived benefits obliterating mid-range and long-term life goals is undeniable. In other words, the immediate feel good always comes at a higher cost down the road. One glaring exception? Investment/entrepreneurial credit leverage - an up coming blog topic!
August 13th, 2009 at 21:41
Good advice on the credit. It’s good to have an expert to guide you along.