Actress Jada Pinkett Smiths’ rule of thumb when helping family financially is to “only give money I am willing to give – as a gift.”
On the actress’s latest episode of “Red Table Talk,” Pinkett Smith explains just how and why she is so guarded about who she lends money to. During the episode, she gave fans advice about topics such as how to deal with awkward conversations or lend money to family and friends.
When answering one question from a viewer named Samantha about how to go about lending money to family and only doing it out of a feeling of obligation, Pinkett Smith’s first response was, “don’t feel guilty.”
She explained how, based on her experience, feeling guilty for so many years only made it so that she felt as if she owed everyone something – because Pinkett Smith knew just what it felt like to grow up without much. She went on to say, “So I came up with a few rules for myself. First of all, I don’t lend money. I only give money that I’m willing to give away – like, this is a gift.”
Usually, when the situation comes up, she prefers not to lend money because of the underlying expectation of paying that money back or any other problems that might cause rifts in a relationship. She emphasizes, “Especially not people who are really close to me cause I’m not trying to have fallouts over money.”
However, when someone asks Pinkett Smith to help, the actress notes that she looks at whether or not that person is actually ready to use that help when she does lend money. “So it’s like – somebody’s like, ‘I want a new house,’ but they don’t have a job to support the house they’re trying to buy.”
In Pinkett Smith’s explanation, the actress specified how it was important for her to see if the person asking for help would responsibly use it, instead of simply asking for money for a house or a car on a whim without putting thought into actually doing the work to keep it. “So I’ve also learned to help people with resources, with education,” she also added.
In the end, Pinkett Smith concluded, “You don’t owe nobody nothing.”
In the rest of the episode, viewers also asked questions about not offending family members when they ask for money. Another fan asked how to get her younger sibling to take her seriously, and Willow Smith also opened up about her embarrassing first date.
Written by Brielle R. Buford
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
ET Online: Jada Pinkett Smith Shares Her Rules for Giving Money to Family and Friends on ‘Red Table Talk’; by Latifah Muhammad
AllHipHop: Jada Pinkett Smith Refuses To Lend Money To Loved Ones
Yahoo!: Jada Pinkett Smith says she does not lend money to loved ones: ‘I only give money that I’m willing to give away’; by Megan Smith
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Inset Image Courtesy of prince lang’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
