How can I stay alert to financial and lending risks?

In financial dealings, do not rush to believe promised outcomes that sound excellent. After investing considerably, reluctance to lose what is already spent can make repeated additional payments easier to accept. Then it is especially important to examine whether the other person's account is true.

The international investment fraud I encountered worked through successive hurdles. First came claims of large profits, then handling fees and payments to smooth connections, then a claim that only someone's stamp was missing. Each time required another transfer. The person thought that with so much already paid, this final amount might bring the money back, and kept paying. Yet whether someone had been arrested or how the process really worked remained unclear. When that client reported it, police directly warned that it was fraud and not to believe it.

When lending to relatives or friends, consider what happens to the relationship if money cannot be recovered. Many clients have described losing not only money but friendship or family harmony after lending. In discussing New Year customs, I also reminded business owners to arrange cash needs early where possible, rather than borrowing at the New Year and beginning it with that pressure.

I lent money to a friend with cancer to help with medical expenses, chiefly discussing twenty-five thousand at the time. The friend said the children were working and repayment would follow, but later contact was lost and the money never returned. However, I also mishandled changing phones and updating LINE then, losing many contacts. I later did not know whether that friend was still alive.

Before lending, I knew I needed to be prepared not to recover money lent to friends. Still, compassion led me to help, though it was a meaningful amount to me. Later I reflected that compassion also requires wisdom, and I did not want the debt to create future entanglement for the friend. Even siblings need clear accounts, and friends need careful thought too. My remark that friends often end up breaking repayment promises reminds us not to assume friendship makes deception impossible.

When discussing the red elephant's qualities in our tradition's Chinese chess divination, we also address a soft heart. For people easily agreeing out of sympathy, I emphasize caution with lending. Compassion alone should not decide whether money is lent.

Folk belief also speaks of lending good fortune along with money. I have heard clients say that after lending to a struggling friend, their own circumstances worsened. From the perspective of religious energy, I understand energy as flowing from higher to lower with a balancing influence. As with attending weddings to share joyful energy or hoping to shake hands or pose with someone famous, I am discussing inner states and the energy formed by others' projected intentions.

Faith also strongly supported me under financial pressure. While in debt with monthly income and expenses only just balancing, I could be unexpectedly calm despite a payment due the next day and insufficient cash. Initially I wondered whether such help from Master Ji Gong was coincidence if it happened only once. Similar calm happened several more times, and disciples noticed I was different. Their reminders gradually helped me understand it as steadiness brought by Master Ji Gong. Even with a settled mind, work remained necessary, and income and debt still required solutions.

Discussing stocks, Master Ji Gong also used investment and speculation to invite examination of the heart. Compensation for time, labor, and expertise is reasonable. But pursuing a desire for quick money cannot immediately become charity by saying the profits will later build a temple. First see what you are actually doing now and why.

I also contrasted setting aside five or ten thousand monthly from income of a hundred thousand for investment with staking ninety thousand to seek a sudden turnaround. The point is whether the amount remains reasonable for you and whether your heart follows numbers up and down daily, repeatedly thinking about gains and losses. These observations help us understand greed and attachment rather than letting quick-profit desires continually lead us.

Dao Shun shared that when a long-uncontacted friend suddenly requested a substantial loan, family and mortgage obligations prompted first asking why it was needed. Learning that someone owed gambling debts led to declining; work or business difficulties would involve different considerations. This was Dao Shun's experience and reminds us to understand the situation and our capacity before helping.

After lending, willingness to speak clearly also affects relationships. Miao Yuan recounted a friend lending five hundred thousand. Later the friend expressed discomfort, the borrower acknowledged poor handling, and repayment was completed while friendship remained. This was an outcome she heard from a friend, not a guarantee for every loan. It does show that consideration need not mean being unable to voice concerns.