I was at work one evening, during the pandemic, a friend walked into my office, and laid a complaint. He said he had borrowed money from a loan app, and the payment was due in the next few hours.
When I asked him what he borrowed the money for, he said, he needed it, as at then, to fix himself up. Why didn't you make provision to repay on time? I asked he responded that things didn't go as planned.
He was particularly lucky, because it was the 2nd day of the month, and my boss usually sent in our paycheck by the close of work, on this day.
So I told him I will send him the money before 12midnight. This was supposed to give me enough time to receive my salary, plan where the funds go, and finally give him some.
He was surprised and very happy at the same time. He thanked me 100 times, and I was beginning to feel shy and uncomfortable. I asked him to stop and go home before my boss returns. He did, and on his way, he sent his account details to my inbox. I confirmed I had seen it.
Once my boss paid us, I went home, had my bath, and dinner; dived into my phone, worked on my to-do list, then send him the money. He paid the loan app and promised to return the money with 10% interest.
I hoped he would, but, I wasn't banking on it. If he returns it, fine, if he doesn't, fine, that was my thoughts. I didn't want to put my hopes into it, so I don't get disappointed.
Did he return the money? Yes, if I remember vividly, he returned everything except the 10% interest, I didn't mind, he had done more than I expected.
I remember another friend who requested money from one of my colleagues. He complained that his mum was ill, and needed medical attention, my colleagues didn't have money, so this friend had no other choice than to go to my boss.
When he told my boss about the health status of his mum, my boss handed him the money, which he promised to return by month-end.
That evening, we saw his supposedly sick mum, and she wasn't looking ill at all. My colleague and I smiled at ourselves because we already knew this guy has a track record for deception and lies.
I knew he won't return the money to my boss, but I kept it to myself.
Once it was month-end, he never showed up in the office again. This was someone who comes as early as 7:15 am every day to set up his computer for work before returning home to wash up and come back by 10 am.
As the date for the refund drew near, he reduced his presence in the office. It was rather too obvious in his case because everyone knew he was avoiding my boss.
The funny thing is that during that period, my boss was barely in the office too, he was out most of the time trying to gain new clients and prospects.
Did he return the money? Don't ask me, I don't know, but, I can bet he didn't
It can be difficult to borrow money from someone and return it. It is not that you wouldn't love to return it, it's just that, I don't know why, but, there is always this influence that comes with having money, and knowing that it's not truly yours, as a result of the accumulated debt.
The money may be there but when you look a the problems you have to solve at hand with cash, the possibility of returning a borrowed money is slim. It takes a whole lot of discipline to get out of debt, especially, if it's a debt that the owner may not necessarily sue you for.
It is difficult to keep money that you borrow from loan apps, they will take legal actions on you. I think they do something called reporting you and all of your banking details to the credit bureau so you can never get loans from other entities.
They usually go as far as sending messages to your families and friends telling them you are a fraud and dent your image and reputation.
However, if you borrow money from a friend, the least they can do is shout, curse, regret trusting you, and severe your relationship with them.
The thing is, when we borrow money, we are always basked in the ideology that we will be able to pay them back. This is often in our imaginations.
Most people barely make concrete plans on how to pay up loans. They usually feel the money will come out of somewhere (*I don't know why we think like this, though*). They imagine the future to be bright without any iota of effort to make it so.
When we borrow money from someone, the best thing we can do to avoid the drama of debt is to make concrete plans on how to pay it up.
We could save a percentage(%) of the money that comes into our hands for this purpose, *I know what you are thinking*. Yes, you can save it up, but giving the money back to the owner always seems like a daunting task right?
If you just thought of this, that means, getting out of money debt for you requires discipline. You ought to discipline yourself because if you don't you will be a slave to debt for a long time. It's a poverty-stricken lifestyle and mindset. Debts make us debtors, the tag of a debtor isn't nice, one should find ways to get out of the shackles of debt.
You will never truly enjoy the sweat of your labor if all the money you make goes into paying loans. You will be living from paycheck to paycheck. You will be making your money and putting it into a bag with holes.
So go ahead, discipline yourself, and pay a tiny amount that you can afford, until you clear everything up.
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I remembered borrowing my friend some money and he agreed to pay at a stipulated time which I was hoping she would pay that day. The day came and didn't pay up. It got to an extent that she started avoiding me. It took long before she could pay up. Thank God we didn't fight.
Since then, I don't like borrowing People money. I can only let go of money that I know isn't much to me. Money can ruin friendship and so, I am always careful of that.