Free Financial Today

Question: Is there anything wrong with asking a good friend to secure the loan I’m giving him with the title to his car? Tom really needs the money, but he can be pretty irresponsible, and I don’t want my $2,500 to become a gift.

Answer: In a word, No. And in two words, Absolutely Not.

Lending a flakey friend that kind of dough is a very generous thing to do, and MORE

Q: My parents were always careful with money. But since Mom died, Dad has taken up with a much wealthier widow and is blowing through his savings entertaining her. Isn’t she wrong to let him undermine his financial security like that?

A: Maybe. The key question: Is your dad’s lady friend in the dark as to his resources or is she just uncaring? If your father has been pretending to MORE

Question: A friend gave me a subscription to a magazine I don’t care for. When I canceled after one issue, the magazine sent the refund to Gretchen. I don’t want to seem small, but especially since I’d given her a nice present, shouldn’t Gretchen have given that money —- or another gift —- to me?

Answer: Call us unsentimental, but gift-giving is a transaction as well as a pleasure. And, usually, MORE

Question: My boyfriend lent me $12,000, saying to repay him when I could. Six months later, when I broke up with him and didn’t pay the loan back right away, he e-mailed my friends, family and new boyfriend revealing secrets I’d told only to him. He also e-mailed prospective clients of my new business saying I was unreliable and untrustworthy. Especially since I lost customers because of Adam, am I MORE

Question: Karen, my otherwise good financial adviser, often e-mails me articles on Obama’s handling of the economy. These pieces are politically one-sided, and it’s not my side. Should I complain?

Answer: Very irritating, these folks with an ax to grind who relentlessly forward “interesting” e-mails to everyone they know.

Of course you can ask Karen to stop with the clipping service. But there’s another issue here. We presume that her financial MORE