A financial favor can need limits without making the affection behind it smaller.

Money between people who love each other gets tangled with meaning fast. Saying how much, or until when, feels like measuring the relationship, so people avoid saying it and the arrangement drifts into something neither of them chose. The unspoken version is not more generous. It just moves the discomfort into the future.

If you are helping someone, say the shape of it out loud at the start: the amount, the end, whether it is a gift or a loan. Say plainly that the limit is about money and not about them. And if you are the one being helped, ask for the terms.