I never liked to take loans, even from friends and family. Not because I am bad with money, but because my mind would not be at rest until the loan is fully repaid.
For a long time, I struggled alone to do things that required a lot of money. Rather than asking for loan to complete the tasks, I would rather miss out on it, however, at some point, I realized that I don’t want to continue to miss out on opportunities because I didn’t want to take loans, so I tried to ask some friends for help.
If there’s anything, I hate that I have a history of a relationship that turned sour because of money. So, I’m very careful when it comes to dealing with people’s money. Instead of flexing with the little I have, I make sure I try to pay back the loan before I can be comfortable to do some other things because my mind would not just rest until it’s done.
How did I end up asking friends for loan?
I registered for a financial management class, and it was there I learned about good and bad loans.
Bad loans are the ones you take to buy a sports car with no particular investment to do where you’ll get the money back. Good loans on the other end are the ones you collect to buy a truck or a ride for bolt where you know that in a specific period, you’ll be able to pay the money back.
Last year, I borrowed some amount of money to buy a phone. My phone suddenly broke down and wouldn’t come up. I didn’t want to get it fixed anymore because I had done that multiple times before. I knew it was almost time to buy another one, but I didn’t have the cash yet, so I embarked on the savings journey. However, when my phone finally crashed, I had to find a way out, because first and most importantly, my phone is my office, and that’s where I make money from. So, there was no way I could be without my phone for even one day.
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I called my friend for a loan of over a hundred thousand naira and she was shocked. It has never happened. It was the first time I would ask for a loan from someone, but I was certain that it was a good loan. I wasn’t going to change device for fancy, I was going to buy a more efficient device that would serve me for long and carry out all the tasks I needed to do without lagging. More so, I asked for the loan because my savings was not ripe enough to be withdrawn.
Even though she was shocked, she sent the money in less two hours. I got the phone, configured it for use, and one week later when my savings was mature to be withdrawn, I sent her money back in full.
I remember her calling me to thank me profusely for sending her money back. I was shocked because I was the one that should be thankful. Then, she said, there’s someone she borrowed some huge amount but hasn’t pay back. In the debtor’s defense, she said, my friend had more than enough to support her, and if she didn’t pay back, she won’t feel it.
Oh well, I was not surprised though because the money was used to celebrate the debtor’s daughter’s first birthday. Pssst. How’s she supposed to pay the money back? The birthday party wasn’t an investment in any way. So, it was a bad loan.