Money Wrecks Friendship

“She used to be my friend, not anymore.”

“He was my guy, but he’s cold towards me these days. Stone cold bro.”

We have an idea what caused the fall-out, but don’t want to admit it to a third person. Unfortunately, this thing called friendship is sustained by compromise. Weaker friends compromise a lot, especially to the pal-bully. There’s always a pal-bully that decides where the group goes, where and when, how it dresses and treats family.

That compromise also includes giving a friend a loan, instead of directing him to the nearest bank or loan shark. Money. It can poison one-on-one friendship. We still borrow money from friends despite the abundance of credit cards and generous banks that want to give us overdraft facilities we didn’t ask for. Be careful, banks always have a hidden agenda. I guess we still borrow money from friends because they don’t charge interest like banks. You gave me $500. I will return it after two years with no attachments. It will still be $500.

That is the problem. Trust. It was broken because I ignored friendly phone calls and text messages about the loan. I had no intention of paying you back obviously. Two years! Ironically, the guilty always turn nasty. Friends that want to rob you will turn the tables and accuse you of being ‘nasty.’

The best strategy is to play billionaire and write it off as a bad debt. Ignore the robber. She’ll pay because there’s nothing painful like being ignored, erased from someone’s memory, because the rest of the crew notices.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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