would you give a friend 200K if it would save his life?

[teddieriley]

A real friend in debt not due to life threatening situations (i.e. medical care, mafia) would not ask a rich friend for money. And shouldn't, ever.

 

[philosophe]

Originally Posted by gdl203

I don't understand all these statements... I've helped friends who needed money before and I was always very happy to help them. I give money to charity to help people I never met, so why couldn't I loan money to someone who is dear to me? As far as I'm concerned, whenever I've lent money to close friends, I've always considered it as a quasi-gift/charitable donation - i.e. if the money comes back, even better, but I don't count on it or stress about it. Of course, the amount is important, one should help within one's means, i.e. not with sums that would strain your own financial situation

This makes a lot of sense to me. I "lend" only what I can afford to give. I'd go farther in genuine cases of medical necessity.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by teddieriley

A real friend in debt not due to life threatening situations (i.e. medical care, mafia) would not ask a rich friend for money. And shouldn't, ever.

This is true. I could never bring myself to ask a friend for money because I screwed up in a major way.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

This is true. I could never bring myself to ask a friend for money because I screwed up in a major way.

well, the origional thread (in another forum) was actually started by a woman who wanted her husband to go ask a childhood friend, and he didn't want to.

but I would have to say that it is really hard to know how one would act in this situation - effectivly this guy screwed up, but his family is going to pay for his screwing up, and he is going to pay a pretty big price for his screwing up.


a few years ago, somebody close to me lost his job. I didn't have really anything to give, but I went there and gave him about $1000 in cash, and bought winter clothes and boots for his kids and maybe 2 months worth of groceries and put all of that on my credit card. I didn't write it down, I considered it a gift. he paid me back as few years later.

2 years ago, when I was out of a job, the same person lent me some money, and it made all the difference in pulling through.

in our case, we were family, but I would have done the same for a handful of friends. and, of course, we weren't talking about a lot of money.