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"There is no calamity that does not offer the opportunity for some persons to thrive on the misfortune of others."

You needn’t look hard today to find people in financial trouble. The problems are everywhere: a family with a home in foreclosure, a once-employed worker whose unemployment payments are about to run out, or a newly created pedestrian who just lost an auto through repossession.

Perhaps the most famous newspaper headline of all time appeared in the New York City Variety on October 30, 1929, the day following the massive sell-off in the stock market known as Black Tuesday. It read: "Wall Street Lays An Egg." A period of economic malaise followed, culminating in a worldwide depression lasting throughout the 1930s that strained the very fabric of society. That financial cataclysm shattered the confidence of a full generation of Americans in stock investment. Many never returned.

As a youngster during the Great Depression, I remember a popular complaint of the time: "When poverty comes through the door, love flies out the window." For many couples, the financial strain was more than the relationship could bear. With the nation’s economy again in similar straits, financial partnership is crucial, with each partner working together. Here are five suggestions to avoid the trauma.

1. Beware of interest. The single greatest economic threat to most Americans is payment of interest. The credit card, successfully foisted upon us by our financial institutions now has this nation by its collective neck