Would you try to intervene if you saw your friend sinking themselves into credit card debt with reckless spending? Or would you stay out it?

If they were a good friend or family member, I would definitely say something to them. I've been down that lane before and until you hit bottom, you don't know how it feels to be there. I've claimed bankruptcy twice in my life and not proud of it.

After this last time, after I cut up all the credit cards, I didn't try to get a credit card back. That was over a year ago and I don't plan to use a credit card ever again. I have a debit card that is connected to my checking account and it has a Visa symbol on it so it will work for a credit card at motels etc.If I need it to.

If I don't have the money, I wait until I can make enough money to get it. :-) I'm not too proud to tell my friend or family about my travels so they can learn from what I did.

I would intervene, although I would do so in private. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't say anything? I sincerely believe that the best friends are the ones who tell the truth, even when that's hard.

I'm not saying to be brutally honest, but to be openly concerned when a friend is engaging in obviously destructive behavior. I actually have experience with this. A friend confided in me that she was paying for her graduate degree with a credit card.

Now, that doesn't seem like "reckless spending," but at 20 - 30% interest as opposed to a student loan somewhere under 5%, it seemed pretty reckless to me. So I decided to ask her the obvious question, "why on earth did you do that? " She explained that she had "heard" that student loans needed a co-signer and she didn't have one.So I did some basic research with her, showed her that as she was a vested employee with steady income, her loan would be approved automatically.

She applied and wiped out her credit card debt less than a month later. What I learned was that she was just and uninformed consumer. A very smart woman, but wholly uneducated in financial matters.

This is true with a lot of people. There are also many who have shopping addictions.(Don't we all feel fantastic the first day we wear a new outfit? ) As a good, true friend, you owe it to this person to find out what's going on.

Believe me, it might be hard at first, but everything will work out better in the end.

I'm not sure I'd find out in time to be honest. Also, while I like to think I would help, in reality it would probably be a lot more difficult and complicated. I'm not sure I'd speak up because I don't know what it would really accomplish.

Issues like this usually don't have easy solutions, even if the simple solution is "stop spending".

Having a financial background I help some friends out with thier money. I have one friend who just goes through it like water. Cards, refi's and loans and I tell him all the time it's the wrong way to go.

He always comes up with some one time windfall like a lawsuit to pay it all off. I keep telling him one time it's not going to work and you'll have to selll the house. I tell them but I don't hound them, once or twice is enough then they can do what they want.

I have a habit of giving my friends honest advice..even when they don't ask for it. I couldn't watch someone go down in a ball of flames without telling them their on fire. I would do so with tact, but tell them that I'm concerned with their spending habits and what could become of URL1 may be a bigger issue, that they aren't sure how to deal with.

In that case at least I open the door to try and help. If after I talk with them they continue...well then at least I tried.

If it were a friend or family member, I wouldn't hesitate to let them know what they are doing and what the long term effects will be to their life. As a friend, I think it is your duty to. They may not appreciate it at the time that you do it, but in the long wrong, they will be thankful that you said something.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.