Offer your insights or judgment on the input financial query or topic using your financial expertise. Reply as normal question answering

What are the pitfalls of loaning money to friends or family? Is there a right way to do it?
I recently lent some money to my sister.  While I generally agree with Phillip that lending to family and friends should be avoided, I felt I needed to make an exception.  She really needed the cash, and my husband and I agreed that we would be ok without it.  Here are some guidelines I used that may be helpful to others: In the end, I think lending to family and friends should be avoided, and certainly should not be done lightly, but by communicating clearly and directly, and keeping careful records, I think you can help someone out and still avoid the lingering awkwardness at future Thanksgivings when one person is convinced that the other owes one more payment, and the other swears it was paid in full.