re: Besides your kids, have you ever loaned money to someone and not been paid back?

I would like some money if anyone is willing to donate.

I’ve loaned my brother money and it was really a gift so I wasn’t looking for it to be paid back. Or I looked at it as a gift so he wasn’t required to pay it back.

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if you loan somebody 20 bucks and never see them again, you got a good deal"- my Dad.

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This. If someone asks me, which has not happened very often at all, if I do, it won’t be a large amount and I won’t associate with them any more. I will tell them I’m giving it and they don’t want it to be a loan.

This is harsh, but it’s who you associate with.

Family you can’t help and I would rather give to because loaning out would cause all kinds of problems because I would heavily pursue getting paid back.

I am in a position where I have money to loan and folks know this so from time to time generally younger folks in my family will ask me to loan them money.

I always gladly say “yes, but it’s conditional.” They have to give me collateral. I tell them, “this works better if everyone has something to lose”. Mostly, they don’t take the offer.

The first time I did this was with my niece. She and her husband split up and she moved in with me and my wife briefly. She came to me and asked for a few thousand dollars to get on her feet and get her life going. She was someone that went to Starbucks every day and the nail salon and so on.
I told her that I would gladly loan her all the money she asked for and I could give her cash, that day. I then let her know, “this works better if everyone has something to lose, so I’ll be hanging on to your wedding ring until you pay me back. Your marriage is over so you really aren’t going to wear it anymore anyway”.

We ended the conversation and she never asked for the money again. She had no intention of ever even thinking about paying me back, which I suspected to begin with.

That may be a jerk move but if they aren’t planning on taking advantage of you and they are in serious need, they’ll jump on the offer.

I gave money to my best friend to pay bills. He couldn't pay it back so I said forget about it. It was around a thousand dollars when I was in college so that was a shite ton of money to give away.

No, typically I don't expect it back in those cases.

No, cause I'm not stupid.

Had a cousin who asked if he could barrow 5K, he already barrowed 10K from our grandmother, who he didn't pay back. I told him to pound sand...

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I have a former friend that still owes me $200

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Same and same number amount.

I consider it a blessing to let me know where I stand in their life and cut my losses.

I don’t loan money to anybody. That’s what banks are for. If a family member needs money I give it to them as a gift. That way there can never be any bad blood.