@wa3more wrote:unfortunately, he was his own financial planner. Most sucessful people think their success translates to other business ventures outside their area of expertise. But they dont realize "they dont know what they don't know". Can't go wrong with real estate right ??
He asked his dad if he wanted to be partners in some of the restaurants. His father said " I dont know anything about the restaurant business" And his father probably had a net worth of about $75 million. It should of told him something. It told me invest only in what you know.
Restaurants are notorious for being money pits and bad investments. OTOH if he had bought a McDonald's franchise or even a Chipotle in a high traffic area, he could see a nice return on investment. It's pretty expensive up front, but if you run it well and hire competent managers, those things can be money printing factories. My guess is your buddy wasn't looking to run a Mickey D's though... 
Had savings.
Family issues happened, things spiraled out of control. Savings wiped out.
Had two choices: float a few thousand dollars across a few cards or become homeless.
I made my choice. Still paying the balances down, but at least I'm not doing so while living under a bridge.
...
Agree with the OP's overall message, but sometimes, relying on just your savings to get you through a tough spot isn't feasible.
Thanks so much to everyone for sharing their stories and giving their input. What I love about this board is people can express differences in opinion without being disagreeable. I think we can all agree though that having money (savings) is better than not having money…lol! 
That being said, real life and circumstances beyond our control often rise up and kick us in the teeth. We are then forced to choose not between a good choice and bad choice, but between a series of bad choices where we then have to pick the “least bad” option.
In a real emergency, of course we all do what we have to do to survive. For example even if I had 6 months of salary saved, were I laid off for a year or more or had some type of family emergency, eventually I would have to use some of my credit (or be forced to make some other really tough choices).
The only point I was attempting to make in my original post was to address several threads I had read that seemed to promote enlarging CLI as a prudent (first line?) plan in case of ‘emergency’. It is a plan to be sure and can be used as such, but it is not a prudent long term plan. Believe me I know because I have lived it.
Once my last baddie falls off my reports next year, my plan is to spend one weekend home alone with a bottle of 14 year old single malt scotch, and go through the 4-5 shoeboxes in my attic containing all the old statements, letters, bills, and al from creditors and collection agencies during the dark days (I saved them all!). I will then sit down and calculate all the late fees, interest, penalties, collections fees, etc. I’ve paid over the years. I don’t want to do it now because I’m pretty sure I would throw up. If I had to guess, it would be in the tens of thousands...
I am living proof that counting on “credit” in a crisis situation to get by can only be used in the shortest of time frames. After that, the banks will come to collect their money (with interest). And if you don’t have it, they will make your life miserable for a long, long time.
