How To Write A Hardship Letter

There are three golden rules for writing a hardship letter, and the first golden rule is to be honest. Tell the truth about how hard up you are and why. If you've lost all your money, you must keep your reputation.

If you want people to help you out and you give you back some of your money, or all of it, you must make them trust you and believe in you. If they suspect that there is any kind of lie or evasion in your hardship letter you're done for, you've lost them. So, be absolutely honest.

Tell, if you're writing to more than one person, tell the same honest story to both people in case they compare notes and don't make personal comments about one person to the other. Rule two: don't tell the story of your life. Nobody today has the time and the energy to reread David Copperfield, not when you're asking them to do something for you.

Get to the point quickly. How hard up you are and what made you hard up and leave it there. But offer them more information or a face-to-face meeting if they wanted.

Rule three: don't expect people to help you out just because they feel sorry for you and don't leave them with a guess as to what they can do to help you. Tell them what you want them to do to help you. If you want money from them, ask for money and make it clear whether it's going to be a loan or a gift and make it clear what you're going to do with that money.

If you need time to pay a debt, ask for that. If you need people to help you in some other way, ask for that. Do you want them to take in your kids? Do you want them to take responsibility for your pets? Ask for that.

One final tip, never, ever write a hardship letter on expensive stationary. .