As in the title, my mom is not in a great financial position. She was talked out of finishing her degree by my dad when they first got married. He was in the military and she was going to stay home to take care of my older sister and myself. They were only married for a few years before getting divorce at a young age (26 I think). She has worked for several places doing everything from apartment management, shipping dispatching, shipping department of a furniture manufacturer, and now clerical work for the front office of a school in north Florida. She only makes about $11 an hour and essentially lives paycheck to paycheck (she's happy if she has $20 left over after paying bills). My little brothers still live with her (1 is 17 and will be leaving for college hopefully next year, although he has suicidal thoughts, and my youngest brother who is in 8th grade now). She is working for a school district about an hour away from home and works part time at a second job managing a local ice cream parlor. Since my brother is been having issues with depression and severe acne recently, she has asked to cut back her hours to be home more often.
She has been in a downward spiral since her divorce and can't seem to catch a break because she always puts her kids needs before her own. She's a saint in that manner of thinking, but she can barely. Take care of herself. My 17 year old brother's child support (~400 a month) will leave with him next year and she's worried about being able to pay the basic bills. They don't eat out hardly ever and are very good about living off of very little, but it gets really fucking expensive to be poor (late fees, bad credit, higher interest, etc.). I want to help as much as possible, but I'm the only person in my family that seems to be living a somewhat normal life. I graduated from Texas A&M in 2015 and now work for a small company doing network & systems admin work. I'm only in my second year (I'm 24), so I'm still learning a lot and I'm not paid a ton (~35k a year before taxes). I'm married, but our combined income is only about $55k.
I want to help as much as I can, but also realize that I'll be of no help if I go broke myself (plus I want to provide a good life for my lovely wife). We recently bought a cheaper house and paying about 250 less per month than what we were paying for rent. I've thought about asking her to come live with us rent free so that she can focus on finishing her degree (she's about 2 years shy being a full time student). I don't want to put any unnecessary strain on my wife or make her uncomfortable is why I haven't. My mom would like to teach or be a nurse, but she's getting older and we aren't sure how beneficial it would be to just get a bachelors degree at age 55.
Since I was in high school she has "joking" said that me becoming successful was the only hope she had of not being homeless eventually. I don't like the pressure, but I'm also the type of person who tends to put others needs before my own. I'm starting to feel this is a very real reality and I'm not sure I can do enough to be able to provide for everyone.
Any advice for steps we can take to make my mom more financially independent in the next few years would be greatly appreciated.
Submitted November 13, 2017 at 11:09AM by BossFTW http://ift.tt/2mo0GDE
