How to Give Money to Family Members (or Not)

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thinking twice about lending money to third party is agreeable. But to your own mother, I can't agree with that, especially when she just had stroke! Maybe its the differences in customs from different countries that also affects our decisions..

t-luck 3:56AM December 02, 2008

I had a similar experience several years to the one in the article- I lent $5,000 to a friend so they could fix their car and retire some high interest credit card debt. About $3,000 into repayment the friend sort of lost interest in making the payments. Now whenever I see this person our conversations are very terse.
The learning from the story was to document the loan and keep track of balances. Recently I lent money to another friend of mine, but this time, we drew up formal loan documents (from the site www.loanback.com) and everything has gone smoothly.

Jim of TX 2:38PM December 01, 2008

Don't do it. If you are in a position to "give a gift" of their need, feel free., but write it off just in case.
If the loan becomes bigger than the relationship, it will crush it.

wood.smoke of AR 1:16AM December 01, 2008

A few years back I lent my brother several sums to buy books for college. First of all, I went with him and paid for them myself, so that's exactly where the money went. Secondly, I kept a running tally in my palm of what he owed. He'd occasionally pay me back some of it and I would write that in. The way I got most of it back though was to say, "Hey, if you buy me this, I'll take $x off your tab." Worked surprisingly well.

Slinky of WI 7:07PM November 26, 2008

You can try and make it a contractually binding loan just as if they were borrowing it from a lending institution, but know that it is more likely than not to turn into a gift. Be sure that you can afford to get along if and when it is not paid back.

HillbillyBill of TN 6:51AM November 26, 2008

You can try and make it a contractually binding loan just as if they were borrowing it from a lending institution, but know that it is more likely than not to turn into a gift. Be sure that you can afford to get along if and when it is not paid back.

HillbillyBill of TN 6:51AM November 26, 2008