Some friends feel like family or even closer than family. You’ve known each other for forever and there’s nothing you wouldn’t do for each other. Yet you still can’t bring yourself to ask them to spot you some cash, even though you really really really really need it.
And you totally plan to pay it back. As soon as you get paid. The very second you get paid. With interest.
“Some people consider this to be ‘out of bounds’ from friendships but done the right way, I don’t think it should be a problem,” says Ash McAuliffe from personal wealth online portal The Asset Lab. “Aren’t our friends and family exactly the people that we should be able to turn to when we need help?”
McAuliffe recommends you acknowledge any feelings of apprehension you may be having to ensure you have the kind of friendship that can handle a request for cash. Once you decide to go ahead though, be direct. Don’t beat around the bush or drop hints.
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“We all know someone who regularly ‘forgets their wallet’ but only realises when the restaurant bill comes,” McAuliffe says.
Be ready to accept a refusal and don’t, whatever you do, hold that refusal against them. “Some people just have different feelings about lending and borrowing money.”
Top Comments
I lend money to friends all the time - but generally only lend an amount I'm fine with not getting back. I work like a dog, and have the luck to be very well compensated, and like sharing my good fortune via lunches/dinners/girlfriend spa days. I have helped a friend with her rent a few times, but she paid me back very quickly, and no discussion was ever needed. Really, if someone desperately needs help, and i can afford to help them, i'm going to do it.
I don't lend money to friends.
If they forget their wallet (once!) I will treat lunch.
If they need money to pay their rent I will gift it too them, if it is reasonable for me to do so.
It's too easy to lose friends over borrowing / lending money.
me too. I never, under any circumstances have nor would ''lend'' any significant sum of money to anyone I love. If it cannot be repaid, the friendship is OVER and I love my friends. I gift what I can and if they are later able to surprise me with money back, I am delighted and touched. But an actual loan beyond a very notional amount or in a real-life, serious and once-off emergency, no.