My dad always taught me to consider any money given to a friend to always be a gift, never a loan. The one time I did give a significant (at the time) amount of money as a loan, I was never repaid. Instead, I had to endure the recipient posting on social media about getting a major promotion at work, about her travels, and her purchases. In our conversations, she never brought up paying me back, in spite of the fact she had promised to pay me back when I gave the money. As soon as I sent a private message asking when I might be repaid the money I was owed, she blocked me on social media and stopped answering when I called. It’s been almost a decade and I haven’t seen or heard from her since. It’s almost as if I had done her wrong by politely asking for repayment of money she had promised to repay.