During my brother-in-law's visit it was pretty clear that neither he nor his 14 YO daughter are interested in changing their behaviors...he simply wanted our endorsement for taking out the consolidation loan to reduce the monthly minimum payment on his TEN credit cards. My wife and I tried to frame his financial crisis problems in terms of near-term and longer term issues, but he just doesn't see much of a problem. After an hour or so he let us know that he's expecting a >$30K settlement related to his estranged wife's death* later this year, and just wants a bit of relief from the CC minimums until then.
I told my wife I'd send a used copy of Ramsey's book from Amazon and figure we've done our part.
Cb
*estranged wife had quite an appetite for meth & Oxy Contin. One night at the bar she repeatedly told her friends and the bartender that she was going to throw herself in front of a car. The suggested that she not do that. A few hours later at about 1:00am, she walked out of the bar and leapt in front of an oncoming car. The guy driving the first car to hit her was drunk...hence the settlement.