This woman is currently married, and she claims that her in-laws are really horrible when it comes to managing their money. Apparently, they have multiple mortgages on their home and absolutely no savings in the bank. So, her in-laws have regularly asked to borrow money from her and her husband.
Yet, despite frequently leaning on family for funds, her in-laws constantly spend whatever money they do have on irresponsible purchases– such as costly remodels, new cars, trips to the casino, and random items on Amazon.
“Together, my in-laws make around $140,000 and live in a very low cost of living area. There’s no reason– a medical issue, hardship, or otherwise– that they should not be financially more secure at this stage in their lives,” she explained.
Still, she realizes that how her in-laws spend their money is none of her business. After all, they’re adults, and whenever her in-laws borrow money, they always pay her and her husband back.
Recently, though, her father-in-law has begun making some comments that cause her to feel a bit uneasy.
More specifically, her father-in-law started claiming that he wanted to withdraw money from his 401K to either go on a vacation or buy a new item.
This doesn’t make sense to her, either, since her father-in-law works in construction, and her mother-in-law is a teacher. So, they both only plan to work for another five or 10 years, and her mother-in-law still owes over $100,000 in student loans. On top of that, she has a ton of credit card debt to pay off, too.
That’s why, after her father-in-law brought up the idea of withdrawing from his 401K again the other night, she decided to make it clear that she and her husband would not bankroll her in-laws if they ran out of money.
“Just understand that if you blow through your retirement, you aren’t living with us!” she responded to her father-in-law.
Now, she claimed that her father-in-law is a big jokester, so her comment was interpreted as more of a tease than anything– even though she wanted to subtly make it known that she and her husband couldn’t support her in-laws in the event of anything.
Everyone laughed off her comment, too, and no one seemed to be offended. In fact, the night went fine after night.
Still, ever since making that remark, she’s started to feel a bit guilty and isn’t sure if she was too harsh.
“I just look at how hard my husband and I are working now to put aside savings and retirement at 30 and wonder what the [heck] their plan is,” she reasoned.
“I genuinely don’t think we can support them if they go broke after retirement, and frankly, I don’t want to. I will have my own kids and aging parents to worry about.”
Nonetheless, she can’t help but wonder if telling her in-laws that she wouldn’t take them in if they blew through all their money was really a jerky thing to do.
Can you understand why her in-laws’ lack of financial responsibility makes her nervous? Did she have a right to make that comment to her in-laws or not? How would you have reacted in her shoes?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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By Katharina Buczek
Katharina Buczek graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Digital Arts. Specializing in... More about Katharina Buczek
