Shutterstock
(As Relayed To Lauren R.D. Fox)
My friends from high school want to celebrate our 10-year friendship.
In order to do so, we decided to do something different by traveling together—something we’ve never done before.
We thought it would be a good idea to take a trip to Amsterdam since we’d heard such wild great things about it. And although our decision to go to was unanimous and a no-brainer, I am very hesitant to actually plan this trip with my friends.
You see, most of them manage their finances poorly. Very poorly. Now and then, one of them will ask me to borrow money. To be fair, I don’t mind helping my friends out; my career path has allowed me to have expendable income. However, I am not sure I can trust them with certain tasks, like booking the hotel, flights or particular excursions.
For example, when watching other people plan trips with their friends, they designate one person to (initially) pay for the hotel room. The selected person would put the entire amount on his or her bank card, and once it was booked, the other people in the party would pay that person back by transferring their portion of the fee into that person’s account. However, my fear is that my friends may wait to have all the money in their account, and we won’t be able to book our travel plans in a timely fashion. Or worse yet, if someone does step up to initially book a flight or hotel room, they may never be paid back. My friends have a tendency not to pay back loans on time.
To make matters worse, I fear my friends may not even bring enough spending money to Amsterdam, and therefore, I may have to contribute financially throughout the trip for it to be enjoyable. This trip is starting to sound anything but fun.
So what should I do? Should I still venture off to Amsterdam with my friends? Should I tell them about my concerns? Or should I back out?
