A person was talking to me about a segment that appeared on the Oprah show that talked about how there was a lady that kept borrowing money from her family members to live on and as a result everyone was then suffering financially. I did go to the website to read a recap of it and it was definitely a precarious situation. The lady who was borrowing money decided to do things such as buying a new TV instead of using the money to pay for her rent.

I actually knew a person who did something similar as he constantly complained he was suffering financially with no money to live. Sure enough, when he was given thousands of dollars from friends and family members he decides to blow it on high tech electronic gizmos and other unnecessary things just to go back to others again to say he needed more.

From what I read in the recap, it was kind of interesting as the way they were trying to get through to the person was to make herself realize and admit that every time she didn’t pay people back or say her bills that she was simply lying her way through life. Seems like it was to a point where it was implied that how one handles money is a reflection of their character in general. Unfair assessment? Fair assessment?

One thing that I read from the recap was how some people would look at your FICO scores for more than just money loaning issues. It mentioned that it could also play a factor in a person’s employment chances. That was kind of interesting I thought as I have never personally seen an employer request for such information. I personally have a score of 800+ for the longest time, but that would still be kind of weird I think to use that information for purposes other than credit issues and such.

At the end the family members decided to stop supporting the person financially and to let her fend for herself. That’s the only way to do it based on the people I have met who consistently rely on others financially. When you think about it, there is a difference between helping a situation and encouraging it to continue.

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It felt like a déjà vu day yesterday as a similar past event occurred in regards to a person asking for money from her friends for a gambling debt. In fact, it was the exact same person that I posted about a little over a year ago in regards to lending money to people when it comes to self-inflicting gambling debts. The story was pretty similar and once again she was denied.

In my opinion, this is a classic example on how just giving people money who are bad or irresponsible with it in the first place isn’t going to solve the problem in the long run as there is a bigger aspect in their life that they need to deal with first. Speaking for myself, I’ve had my fair share of simply giving people money who say that they desperately need it as a result of doing something dumb such as spending so much on non essentials that they don’t have anything left for the true important things. I can honestly say in every case the person never got better and they simply kept pestering the people they knew for more.

I think it comes down to mostly respecting and truly appreciating what you already have and is what I try to tell people who ask for help. With that mentality you are less likely to make impulsive decisions based simply on your urges that could impact you in an extremely negative way. I guess I can use the lottery as an example, which many people participate in. If you are for the most part positive about your life then playing the lottery can be one of those why not type of things where if you win then great. However, if you played it because you think your life is the pits and that this will give you everything that you need to be happy you are just setting yourself up for failure and disappointment in more ways than one.

From my experience, aiding a person with financial difficulties in that type of way is a lot more effective in the long run as once they change their attitude they will change their outcome as well.

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