I have a 49 yr. old nephew whose mother (my sister) lost her battle with cancer in 2001. This nephew would not speak to me from 2001 until last fall when he called me for help as they were in credit card trouble as well as being behind on their mortgage. They are in IN & I am in PA. I paid off a couple loans for them as they were paying 18% & 16% interest & set up a budget. They are making payments to me & I should be paid back by Christmas. I got involved as I felt that my sister passed the bad spending habits on to her son. I spent a great deal of time getting all the facts & putting on paper the money coming in & the expenses. However, I have not been able to get them to change their ways. Every month something is purchased that is not in the tight budget - that they just "have to have". They think "everything" is purchased as soon as you want it by a loan payment and that an emergency fund is the next paycheck. I, however, don't buy something unless I have money to pay for it. Needless to say, I will probably lose all contact with nephew & wife when I refuse to lend any more money. I have since found out that one of the high interest loans I paid off was for a racing car that they bought 4 yrs. ago. I had thought I paid off a loan on my nephews truck & did not want him to lose his truck. His wife drives over 100mi. each way to work & is driving a car with 185,000 miles on it. I'm just praying her car does not die before they get me paid back. I don't think they will ever learn to live within their means & I just don't need the stress at this point in my life.