My mom does really poorly with financial decision-making. She is VERY deep in debt to a close friend of hers who has lent her money for a very long time.
The last two times I have come to visit my mom she has pretended as if she thought she had enough money to pay for something, and in the end acts surprised when her card gets declined and I have to pay. These aren’t exactly small purchases either: $250 for groceries, and $240 to renew her subscription on her shared work-space.
Part of the reason she is in such financial trouble is because she owns her own business. Her income is inconsistent.
I’ve offered to help figure out her situation so she can get out of debt. I’ve asked what she needs to be successful and she keeps making excuses why the solutions I’m offering up won’t work (cat-sitting or dog-sitting through services like Wag or Rover, helping people with their gardening, other small things that she can use to make a couple hundred bucks a month). I offered to send her free online classes about financial literacy or books she can read to help herself. She simply got offended that I was “talking down to her.”
My girlfriend and I budget together since we live together, and she isn’t happy with me lending money to my mother, which I totally understand and I agree with her. This isn’t something I should be doing. I feel like I’m enabling poor financial behavior, but also that I’m being taken advantage of.
To round out the situation: I’m pretty deep in student loan debt (which my mom initially offered to pay for and then backed out of when she had no money).
What can I do to help my mom out even though she doesn’t want to be helped?
And how can I avoid being in a situation where I all of the sudden have to pour out hundreds of dollars at the drop of a hat to my mother, because she is not financially responsible? I have a feeling these won’t be the only 2 Times this happens.
Submitted November 07, 2017 at 05:20PM by bmerry1 http://ift.tt/2zFjsfM
