If you have family members in trouble financially, you may want to help them, but giving them cash may not feel right. If you\u2019re worried your family members will just squander away the money you give them, here are 5 non-cash ways to help family members with financial troubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re uncomfortable handing over cash, consider paying your loved one\u2019s bills directly. This way you aren\u2019t giving them cash, but you\u2019re making sure their most important things are paid for such as electricity, gas, water, or their mortgage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gift cards to a specific store or for a specific purpose ensure your family members use the money as intended. They can\u2019t get cash for the gift cards, so they\u2019ll use them how you wanted, such as buying groceries or necessary clothing for the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if you don\u2019t own a business, there are ways you can hire your family members so you\u2019re paying them for work rather than just giving a handout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think about things you need done around the house, such as mowing the lawn, painting, or handy work. If your family member is good with his\/her hands or has a special skill, make them feel useful by hiring them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can be a lender rather than just handing money over to your loved ones. This can be a little risky, so make sure they can afford it before doing this. If they default, you could end up losing money and\/or ruining your relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you decide to loan money, put the terms in writing, be clear about the payments, the interest you\u2019ll charge, and any action you\u2019ll take if they don\u2019t keep up with the payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you don\u2019t have the money (or don\u2019t want to lend the money), consider being a cosigner for a personal loan or another type of loan that might help your family member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before you cosign, though, make sure it\u2019s a loan they can afford. When you cosign, you become legally responsible for the payments if the primary borrower doesn\u2019t make them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you decide to do it, ask the lender yourself how you\u2019ll be notified of the loan\u2019s status and make sure you have a plan to deal with it, so it doesn\u2019t ruin your credit. If no one makes the payments, it will hurt your credit as much as it hurts the borrower\u2019s credit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Helping your family when they\u2019re in a financial bind can feel right, but make sure you weigh all your options. Just handing over cash might not feel great because you don\u2019t know what they\u2019ll do with it, but other options can have consequences too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before helping, think about how it might affect your financial status, credit, or even your relationship with your loved ones. Finding non-cash ways to help can be the balance you need to help your loved ones and protect yourself financially.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you have family members in trouble financially, you may want to help them, but giving them cash may not feel right. If you\u2019re worried your family members will just squander away the money you give them, here are 5 non-cash ways to help family members with financial troubles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,9,10,12],"tags":[45,107,153,161,309,312],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1375,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370\/revisions\/1375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditaid.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}