Lending money without breaking the relationship
Practical guides on loans between people who know each other: how to agree on them, how to keep track, and how to get repaid without it getting awkward.
What actually happens when you lend money to friends
Seven in ten adults have done it. Just under half lost money. The surveys agree with each other more than you would expect — and the pattern they show is not about trust.
How to record a loan that started months ago
Most loans get written down long after the money moved. You do not have to start from today: enter the original date and what already happened, and the history rebuilds itself.
Interest that sits apart vs. interest that joins the principal
One switch, and after a year the difference is larger than most people expect. What each option actually does, with a twelve-month example.
Should you charge interest on a family loan? (And what the IRS thinks)
Only about one in ten private borrowers is charged interest. But above $10,000 the IRS may treat your zero-interest loan as if you charged it anyway.
Getting repaid without ruining the friendship
The problem is not asking. It is that asking sounds like an accusation. How to turn it into a shared errand instead.
Why the spreadsheet always ends badly
Not for lack of formulas. Because interest accrues every day and you open the file once a month — and because audited spreadsheets fail at a rate that should worry you.
They paid you back part of it. Does that reduce the principal?
Both answers are defensible and they produce very different totals. Which is why it needs deciding before the first partial payment, not after.
Splitwise is great. It is also not a loan tracker — by its own admission
People try to force loans into expense-splitting apps and it does not fit. That is not a bug: Splitwise considered lending and interest and formally declined both.
Do you need it in writing? Less than you think — and more than you have
Oral loans are generally enforceable, and a text message legally counts as a writing. Which means the bar is low. Most informal loans still fall under it.
What tracking a loan properly actually costs you
Nobody has credibly measured the hours. But the real cost was never the hours — it is the checking, the doubting, and the loans you quietly stopped tracking.