In my opinion, family and money generally shouldn’t mix.  I have a policy of not loaning money to family members.  In the rare event that I do, it’s never over $100 as I expect that I won’t be repaid. 

Last night, I finally got around to listening to messages on our answering machine and there was a message from a family member.  I had been expecting her to call in regard to helping her file a past-due tax return.  However, her message said nothing about taxes but she gave a semi-sob story about needing to borrow $1700, to be repaid at the rate of $100/month.  I don’t think so!

I don’t have $1700 to waste, especially in this economy.  And even if I did, I definitely wouldn’t have loaned it to this family member.  She said she needed the money to buy a car to get to a new job.  However, she has had at least one car, that I know of, repossessed and has had other family members cosign car loans for her (as recently as a few months ago).  She is the last person I would ever believe would pay me back.  So, I will let her know today that I will not be loaning her any money.  What would you do?