Sooner or later it’s bound to happen: A friend or family member falls on hard times and needs to cop a loan.

Just for a week or two, they say, vowing to repay.

As the economy continues to tank and more workers lose their jobs, the likelihood of being hit up for a personal loan grows exponentially.

“Family lending is typically done out of a sense of duty or obligation,” Stacey Tisdale, a veteran on-air financial journalist, says on Theroot.com. “These transactions are as much emotional as they are financial, and they rarely end well.”

So what should we do when friends or relations come calling for cash?

Tisdale, who authored the book, “The True Cost of Happiness: The Real Story Behind Managing Your Money,” offers five tips.

We also want to hear from you, our Qcity readers.

Do you routinely lend money to family or friends? What rules do you impose? Do you expect to be repaid, or do you write it off in your mind as a gift that you will never see again?

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