About three hours ago, my family had an argument in which my dad revealed to my sister and I that him and my mom are $62,000 in debt. This struck me hard as I was unaware since we just came back from a vacation today. Never before have I felt guilty eating the sushi in front of me. Unsurprisingly, the car ride home was quiet and my mom knew we felt bad, in which she told us to not worry as we cannot do anything and they will resolve it on their own.
However, I know they will not do much about it and I am afraid it will only cause them to dig a deeper hole for themselves. The entire car ride home I researched what they could do and how I could help. Being that I am 18 and was never educated on anything finance related, I have only recently (last 1.5 years) been self-teaching.
I read up on others' stories about how their parents accumulated debt and ways to resolve it. Now, my question here is, what information must I gather from my parents first in order to help them. I know I must figure out some things like their monthly expenses, mortgage, loan debt(?), medical bills (they take medication), credit score, interest stuff, etc, but would like a list of what I should know in order to receive accurate help and to help them myself.
Some information I can provide now is this: my sister went to UCLA for 3 years and is now at grad school. I currently attend UC Santa Cruz (but will drop out to attend Community College for 1 year and then transfer to another UC for the last 2 years). My parents combined income is around $150,000, they have paid off both their cars and I know they will not do anything like throw their debt onto my sister and I.
Whether or not this is a result of their bad spending habits, I refuse to let them make it worse and want to help them. I appreciate the information.
Submitted March 29, 2024 at 12:25AM by qinterturning https://ift.tt/TJod9zU
