I concur, people should work hard to avoid being in this situation. This means working hard to maintain savings and postponing having children until you are fi

I concur, people should work hard to avoid being in this situation. This means working hard to maintain savings and postponing having children until you are financially ready, amoungst other things. With that said, there are ways that even generally well prepared people can wind up in bad situations. The obvious one is being unexpectedly hit by catastrophic medical bills. Another is being laid off and not being able to find more work for longer than your savings holds out, even if it was a reasonable amount to start with. I have had both of those happen when I was younger and but for the generosity of friends and family I would have been in bad straights even though I had set aside savings ahead of time.