[TorqueDog]

I am not a fan of lending money to people, but I have done it and here are my most recent experiences:

First example, we were walking to go to a meeting and a guy I work with spilled coffee on his shirt and needed to pick up a new one. As luck would have it, he left his wallet in our office tower which was now on evac./lock-down because of a leak from the air conditioner unit in the mechanical room. I spotted him $130 for it. He had the money back to me within 24 hours. He makes over $140k a year.

Another time, a good friend of mine wanted to buy my old HDTV for $300. He gave me ~$100 up front and said he'd get me the rest later. It took me pretending to be in a dire financial situation to get the money back. I had to lie and say that I had accidentally added too many zeros to paying my Rogers bill online and paid them $800 and needed the cash. In reality, I was just getting tired of waiting and not getting the money I was owed and knew that putting him in a situation to "help" me would make him more inclined to fork over the cash. He makes 'okay' money, but at the time tended to spend it on getting hammered with the rest of us.

And the most recent time, we were all going out to a bar and one of my buddies (who really talks a big game but not surprisingly has nothing to show for it) asked to borrow $60. This was in August. I still don't have the money despite he himself mentioning it a few times. I'm not expecting to get it back. I have no idea what he ACTUALLY does for work, but he seems to be able to dress rather sharp for someone who has so much trouble paying money back.

Moral? Be aware of the sort of person you're lending money to and their capacity to pay it back - when in doubt, don't.

And borrowing a couple thousand to go on a VACATION? I'd tell him I don't have RBC stamped on my forehead, go to a bank.