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There is an old saying that one should never a borrower or a lender be. However, when it comes to making the most out of your money or using what you have the most efficiently, sometimes it can be beneficial to be both a borrower and a lender. When you borrow, you can make your money stretch its absolute furthest, and when you lend to others you can make a good return on your money.
There are ways to lend to other people that are not nearly as risky as the folks on the bus who always seem to want to borrow a dollar. In these cases, you can investigate the person’s income, their monthly expenses, as well as why they want to take out a loan in the first place. For a lot of people, one setback in their past has been all it took to seriously ding their credit without sufficient cause to make them a bad borrower. A lot of these people end up being great borrowers, and you make a great rate of return from them.
In the same vein, when you’re a borrower you want to get the best rate you can. Naturally, this is the reverse of being a lender in that you want your rate to be as low as is humanly possible. But the principle is the same, pardon the pun. When your interest rate is low, you look good for the people who ask how you did, and your payments are a lot more affordable. If you have to borrow, you have to do your research and find the best possible rate.
