Friendships can feel wonderfully uncomplicated when everyone is building careers, raising families, and stretching similar-sized paychecks. By midlife, however, financial lives can split in dramatically different directions, quietly changing where friends travel, eat, shop, and even how often they see one another. One woman may finally have disposable income while another is paying college tuition, supporting an aging parent, rebuilding after divorce, or trying to catch up on retirement savings. The difference can become large enough that two longtime friends are suddenly living with completely different definitions of an “affordable” night out. Money does not necessarily end the friendship, but it can change what maintaining that friendship requires.
