Helping out a family member when they’re having financial problems is a really noble thing, but it can also come with a lot of emotional baggage. 

One woman recently had to tell her mother-in-law that she and her Husband would not be helping her with mortgage payments on her second house, and now she’s wondering if she’s being too harsh.

She and her husband are in their 30s. Around five years ago, they decided to move away from their home state and begin their lives together. After working hard for about a year, they were able to purchase their first home. 

They haven’t had kids yet, so they can focus on their finances. They want to stay on track with their mortgage payment and continue to pay off some student loans. It’s really important to them to stay financially savvy, so they’ve been careful not to spend money on anything that’s not completely necessary.

For instance, she’s been driving the same old car that struggles to run for years to avoid purchasing a new one.

She and her husband recently found out that her mother-in-law would like to buy a second home in their new state. However, it would only be like a vacation home, as she’d only stay there whenever she visited them, typically around 4-5 times a year. 

She found this odd, as her mother-in-law could easily get to them by a six-hour car ride or a one-hour flight. 

During her last visit with them, her mother-in-law asked her husband if they could help her with the mortgage payments on her new house. After crunching the numbers, she realized that she couldn’t afford it all on her own. 

“I told him I would not be agreeing to any of this until we take a good hard look at our finances,” she explained.

Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox.

After looking at their finances and what they still owed in student loans, she realized that they could not afford to help her. That is unless her husband wanted to work extra hours. 

“I told him that if his mom wants another house, then she needs to purchase one she can afford on her own,” she recalled.

“We cannot afford this additional payment because we both work six to seven days a week as it is, and I would prefer more quality time together versus him working more to make the payment for an extra house.”

She also expects that her mother-in-law’s house will need year-round maintenance even if she doesn’t stay there all the time, and she fears that her husband will get stuck having to take care of it. 

All in all, she thinks helping her mother-in-law with her mortgage payments is a bad idea. Once her mother-in-law found out how she felt, she started giving her the cold shoulder. 

“She cannot seriously think this is a good financial idea considering we said we might start trying to have a child next year,” she said.

Do you think she’s making a good decision by not giving money to her mother-in-law?

You can read the original post on Reddit here. 

If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe

In 2014, This Virginia Woman Mysteriously Vanished After Getting Into A “Minor” Argument With Her Husband: Two Days Later, Her Abandoned Car Was Found Nearly 20 Miles Away

His Wife Started Crying After She Asked Him If He Thought She Looked Skinny In A Dress She Tried On, And He Said No

She Decided To Step Down As Her Sister’s Maid Of Honor After She Found Out That The Family Of Her Sister’s Husband Doesn’t Approve Of Her Being Divorced

New Research Finds That Individuals May Reap “Substantial Health Benefits” And Lower Mortality Risk By Walking 8,000 Steps Or More Just One To Two Days A Week

Two Boys Are Being Called Heroes After Launching A School Club Aimed At Providing Food For The Homeless In Their Community

While She Was Showing A House To A Man, Her Sixth Sense Kicked In, And She Realized He Was Trying To Lure Her Into A Dangerous Situation