Your brother (or sister or mother) is asking for money. Now what?

Carrington recommends a tight cap on dollar amounts. “If you get a call that so-and-so can’t make rent this month, and you have $35,000 in emergency funds and the rent is $2,000, you could draw a red line where you say, ‘I can’t get below $25,000 in emergency funds, so I can afford to help you another four months if you need it, but that’s as far as I can go,’” he said. “If you have that kind of conversation, you’re not in the position where you get a call one day and you have to abruptly say, ‘I can’t help anymore.’”