When you’re wealthy, you can have a lot of different pressures coming at you financially. From wanting to take care of yourself to helping those in your family and community, you might start to find it hard to know where to spend your money and where not to. Especially when it comes to friends and loved ones asking for money from you, knowing where to draw the line can be a real challenge.
To help you in figuring all of this out, here are three tips for creating financial boundaries with your friends and loved ones.
Think About What You’re Comfortable With
Before you even get into a situation where someone is asking you for money, you should think about what you’re comfortable helping people with. If you’re not willing to just give someone money whenever they ask for it, think about what you would be willing to help with and what you don’t want to give your money away for.
For many people, helping with unforeseen circumstances can be something they want to give their money to. For example, if someone needs to move into an assisted living facility or has some kind of accident. On the other hand, many people don’t feel that they want to enable bad spending habits by giving money to people to pay off credit card debt that could have been avoided. So if you’re wanting to have stronger boundaries around your money, think about what you do and don’t want your finances to go toward.
Be Clear About Why You’re Establishing These Boundaries
Once you have your boundaries in place, you might want to think about why you have those boundaries and how you might want to explain your reasoning for these boundaries to your friends and family.
If you don’t want to give money to people because you worry that it might taint your relationship, make this known to them. Additionally, if you don’t believe that it will ultimately be healthy or helpful for you to cover someone else’s costs, share this with them as well. This can help make conversations go much smoother.
Consider Having Alternatives Ready
For times when a friend or family member asks you for money that you’re not comfortable giving or aren’t ready to give in the way that they want, you might want to think about how you could help in an alternative way. So if you don’t want to give the full amount someone is asking for or if you’re willing to help make things easier in a way that doesn’t involve giving cash, keep these things in mind when you’re having these tough financial conversations.
If you’ve had problems with creating financial boundaries between yourself and your loved ones in the past, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you overcome these issues.