Never Lend Money to Friends

I should have known better but I didn't, unfortunately...

Neither a borrower nor a lender be for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. – William Shakespeare 

I should have heeded old Willy's advise, then life would not be so annoying for me right now. See, I have this friend who asked for a loan and swore she would pay me back within a month just as soon as her father gets money from some lending company and/or just as soon as her clinic gets enough patients.

I always try to accommodate my friends if I can at times like these, so even if this particular friend still had a $600 outstanding loan from the previous year, since she needed the money badly and I wanted to help her get started, I lent her another $1100... well, that turned out to be a really stupid decision.

Fast forward six months later and she'd been avoiding my texts and calls like the plague. If that's not enough aggravation, she's been telling common friends that she hasn't forgotten her loan and she'd pay me but I'm making life difficult for her by pressuring her with my (sporadic, unanswered) calls and (very polite) messages.

How would I know she still intends to pay me back when she's been ignoring all my attempts at communication? Shouldn't I expect my money back when she tells me she'd pay at least $200/week because according to her, her dental practice is now doing really well? The nerve of this woman, huh?

To make matters worse, I let her charge her expensive sandals on my credit card and I've had to pay that monthly for the past six months. Talking of being reminded regularly of my utter stupidity! That's the saltiest salt in the wound, I tell you.

I must admit this situation has happened to me before, so I know how it is to be used and discarded by so-called "friends". But this is by far the most painful for me because this one was my friend for more than 15 years, while we were still in school. We've been through so much together, I never thought a stupid thing like a loan would come between us, but it did.

So dear friends, heed William Shakespeare's (and your mom's) advise. Keep your money, save it, give it to charity, help your family in need... just don't lend it to friends because 99% of the time you will end up losing that friend and your money too. And don't trust them just because you've been friends with them for ages, read the bible and goes to the same church as you, okay?