'Are you sure you can afford it?' — the hardest money question to ask your friends
03 AUG 2026
The Straits Times' Head Start on Record podcast – Friendships may be priceless, but money talk often crops up among friends - who owes who money, choosing dinner locations, trying to budget for travel together. But how can we talk openly about money without breaking friendships? Hosts Sue-Ann and Kai Wen discuss how money impacts friendships, the conversation covers sharing salaries, managing split bills, holiday budgets, and handling unpaid debts among friends
MoneyOwl's Marketing Lead, Vivienne Ong, talks about how you can navigate conversations with friends, by understanding financial concepts so that you can take the emotions out of conversations around finances with your friends.
This includes automating your savings so that you can spend the rest of your money guilt-free and having more buffer to spend with your friends, knowing that you have already gotten your savings and/or investing covered.
Ong also cautions against blindly following friends' stock tips and emphasizes looking out for friends' financial well-being logically without judgment , while acknowledging that differing core money values can be difficult to navigate.