I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me • Hacker News Board

Re: I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me

#121

Post by wakamoleguy » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 5:56 PM UTC

hayd wrote: post #64

okasaki wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're struggling, and get $1000 from someone who made $100M on crypto, would you be in a hurry to pay them back, or even care at all?

> get $1000 from someone It's not "get" if it's a loan. The IRS might also be interested if you treat this a taxable gift rather than a loan... (unlikely they'd care for $1000).

(I'm not a tax advisor... just reading the IRS website.) The annual limit for gifts from one individual to another is $17,000 for 2023. Even so, nothing kicks in until you cumulatively gift enough to cover the "Basic Exclusion Amount" is reached, which is currently north of $10 million.

Further, that tax is payed by the donor, not the recipient.

In other words, the IRS won't care if you can't pay rent and somebody gifts you $1000.

Re: I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me

#122

Post by gamegoblin » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 5:57 PM UTC

neogodless wrote: post #45

adql wrote: post #7

Well it took me borrowing one video game to learn that lesson. "No, you must've borrowed it to someone else" when I asked. First game I bought for my own pocket money, which at time, in Poland, was a lot for a kid as it was full price title, Baldur's Gate 1 in nice box with manual and a map, and dubbed gloriously with then-radio/TV stars, hell, the narrator voice was better than original. Needless to say I was pretty…

Only for your edification, as your English is 1/0 (infinitely) better than my Polish. I believe you meant "lending / lent" in place of "borrowing / borrowed." We separate the words, so "to borrow" is to temporarily take the item, "to lend" is to temporarily give the item.

In Spanish they are the same word also -- "alquilar" -- "to rent" and "to rent out".

Do any linguistics geeks reading have a word I can google for this phenomenon? That is, a word that means something like "a word or phrase that is bidirectional in one language but part of a unidirectional pair in another"

Re: I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me

#123

Post by Aaronstotle » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 5:57 PM UTC

monero-xmr wrote: post #2

I loan money to people and never expect to be repaid. If someone asks for $2k I give them $5k. $400 give them $1k. Sometimes I get paid back. Usually not. It’s because people are aware I have money so various people ask. The goal isn’t to get paid back. Often these acquaintances cut off all contact. The goal is to never be asked for money again and slowly bled out by frequent sob stories. If they know they are alread…

Could you loan me 5 XMR?

Re: I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me

#124

Post by gernb » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 5:57 PM UTC

ars wrote: post #112

gernb wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very generous of you. I'd like to point out my experience of taking the loan and never repaying it. I felt guilty for decades and more distant from the loaner. They never brought it up but my guilty mind did. So I'm not 100% sure it was a net positive for our relationship. If I was to do loan money and they didn't pay back in some reasonable amount of time I think I'd tell them explicitly it was a gift. Though I…

It's not too late to repay them. You'll feel better, and so will they. Adjust for inflation if it's really been decades.

they are no longer alive.

Re: I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me

#125

Post by positr0n » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 5:57 PM UTC

FpUser wrote: post #83

hayd wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> get $1000 from someone It's not "get" if it's a loan. The IRS might also be interested if you treat this a taxable gift rather than a loan... (unlikely they'd care for $1000).

Why the heck private gifts are taxable and it is tolerated?

Private gifts are not taxed until it is over $12 million dollars (the estate tax limit).

The IRS does require you to report it if it goes over $16k from one individual to another. This is solely to keep track of that $12M lifetime gift limit.

Totally reasonable IMO unless you don't believe in inheritance taxes at all.

so you could do $48k from a couple to their child and child's spouse.

Re: I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me

#126

Post by gernb » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

cypress66 wrote: post #51

gernb wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very generous of you. I'd like to point out my experience of taking the loan and never repaying it. I felt guilty for decades and more distant from the loaner. They never brought it up but my guilty mind did. So I'm not 100% sure it was a net positive for our relationship. If I was to do loan money and they didn't pay back in some reasonable amount of time I think I'd tell them explicitly it was a gift. Though I…

Why didn't you repay them?

never felt in a position to repay while they were alive.

Re: I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me

#127

Post by BlueTemplar » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

wheels wrote: post #29

It almost always makes more sense to just give money (or frame it as a "payment" for something) than to loan friends / family money. The usual thing I ask is that people do it for someone else later in life if they can. It just makes everything less icky if there's no nominal expectation of repayment. Occasionally I've had things repaid anyway.

Usually, yes.

I do have one weird (?) friend that is not a friend any more because she felt she still owed me and kept feeling bad about it.

Re: I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me

#128

Post by kubb » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

adql wrote: post #7

Well it took me borrowing one video game to learn that lesson. "No, you must've borrowed it to someone else" when I asked. First game I bought for my own pocket money, which at time, in Poland, was a lot for a kid as it was full price title, Baldur's Gate 1 in nice box with manual and a map, and dubbed gloriously with then-radio/TV stars, hell, the narrator voice was better than original. Needless to say I was pretty…

I lent about $25 to someone when I was in college. It was a lot of money for me at the time, you could buy 5 day's worth of food with it or pay 1/5th of the rent for my room (yeah, some places in Europe were really cheap in the aughts). He promised that he would pay me back.

After a while he asked me for some more money, about $5 and swore he'd pay back really soon. I was so shocked that I broke all contact with that guy and never saw him again.

Re: I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me

#129

Post by strken » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

winphone1974 wrote: post #67

postalrat wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you often consider friends and family as rich saps or marks?

You shouldn't loan money to those people though, just give it without expectation of repayment.

Why not? I've borrowed thousands of dollars from family at times, lent thousands of dollars to them at others, and we've always repaid each other eventually.

It's normal to forgive a loan to family if circumstances change, or to give money no-strings-attached if they need it, but it's equally normal to loan money to help with cash flow problems and then expect repayment eventually.

Re: I went through a period where I loaned money to anyone that asked me

#130

Post by citizenpaul » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

The reality is that the world is full of shitty people. There is an easy way to find the majority of them. They ask/want to borrow money from non official lenders.

Think about it. Most people on HN how many paths would you have to go down first before you would borrow money from an individual? I'm guessing several options would be tried first.

The reason those people are shitty is they already burnt all those options and have now moved onto individuals to grift in small ways.

The number of people that truly need help from a single person in the form of money is exceedingly rare. This is not limited to any specific place.

Yes I'm aware people can be in different/difficult places in life that make such need more likely, I'm just speaking as a general rule. Usually people that really need help are hesitant to even ask.