“My Husband Won’t Help My Brother”

I very much appreciate his careful approach to money and support him in all these decisions, and work to keep within our budget.

Recently, though, we came head-to-head in a sticky financial decision. My younger brother, whom I am very close to, approached us and asked for a loan to help him buy a house.

My brother is a rebbi, his wife is a speech therapist, and I know it took them a long time to even save up the down payment for this. Because his income is in a low bracket, he was looking for loans to supplement the mortgage they’d take, thus avoiding higher interest payments.

I was completely on board to help out my sibling, even though it’s a substantial sum, and lending it to him would mean we’d have less than usual to put into savings for the next while. However, my husband is far more cautious, and told me he wants to refuse. He feels that my brother’s plans to repay the loans weren’t completely sustainable, and we may run into a risk of him not being able to complete payments on time.