Ultimately though, its all about what works best. Friendships and family is great only when the relationships are open-minded, non-judgemental, share understanding and such. It is much easier for me to express my happiness and frustrations to my friends than to my mother. But I do have friends who will talk to their parents every day and that seems to work fine for them.

Personally, I don't think it is inherently bad that this happens. Relying exclusively on familial and patrimonial ties for socializing is incredibly limiting.

I know my friends and I (in the US) all have buffers of at minimum a few months of expenses. I guess it's not inconceivable that someone might have an emergency that requires more, but that would end up being a rather substantial of money. In my friend circle, I've never heard of someone borrowing money.

Key Quote: "47 percent of respondents said that either they would cover the expense by borrowing or selling something, or they would not be able to come up with the $400 at all."

On the other hand in India it would be very obvious to borrow money considering around 80% of population live on couple of dollars a day.

1. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secr...

It is a smart thing to try and have though.

[1] https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-annual-salary-in-I...

Whether someone saves money prior to an emergency and then spends their savings, or they borrow for the emergency and slowly pay it back over time, the person still earns and spends identical amounts of money. The difference is the ordering of events. No matter how poor the person, if he or she is capable of repaying loans after the fact, then he or she is capable of saving money before the fact.

I've of course read the statistics that 30-50% of Americans couldn't handle an unexpected expense of some moderate magnitude, but I admit I don't really understand the psychology behind it. You're going to get to spend all the money you earn in your life either way. Why not time it to maximize happiness and/or reduce stress?

Some other commenters have correctly guessed that my income is higher than the median and for some reason think that this is a reason why I can't or shouldn't have an opinion on the matter. But this wasn't always the case. All through my twenties I was poor, but even still I always strived to have 6 months of expenses in a savings account. The only times I didn't have 6 months of expenses in cash were the times I had emergencies or a couple times I bought a cheap used car with cash.

(edited typo)

Or maybe you live a very frugal life, kudos to you, not everybody can do it (I'm myself in the frugal camp, but I don't think it's for everybody out there).

It's this one.

Just out of curiousity. If you call these countries Central Europe, what's Eastern Europe for you? (I'm aware that there's more than one truth to most of these vague terms)

This "central Europe" thing is very funny indeed. I've lived in the Netherlands - they think of themselves as "Western Europe". In the UK everyone knows Europe is split into West and East by the Iron curtain.

For me as a Czech, Eastern Europe is everything East of Slovakia - Ukraine, Romania, Belarus. But try asking a Romanian - they'll tell you Romania is Central Europe! When you ask them what is Eastern Europe then, you'll learn it's Ukraine and Russia.

You could maybe consider them the Central Europe of Western Europe, if you want to stretch some definitions :)

Central Europe is basically Germany, Poland and the former Habsburg Empire.

(Europe != European Union)

I've only had a few friends come to me for $500+ loans. All had already hit their family up for as much money as they could, maxed out their credit cards and overdraft, and were behind on their rent. Needless to say, I didn't think they would pay me back - or that my money would fix their financial troubles.

There are a lot of 'mates' that I wouldn't lend a penny to though.