A worried mother recently took to Reddit to ask for opinions about her money moves, which included using her teenage daughter’s college fund to pay the mortgage. This is the full story.
Her Husband Left Her a Seven-Figure Fortune
The OP is a 50-year-old mother of a 16-year-old daughter. Her husband died four years ago, and she has been struggling with decisions ever since.
He was a doctor for 20 years and made some good investments. When he died, he left her a seven-figure fortune that should have lasted a long time.
His dying wish was that she just trust his lawyer when it came to handling the money.
A year after her husband died, the OP put the house they had lived in for 12 years up for sale. She received a huge offer and sold the place.
She Was Awash in Cash. Loaded!
With the money from selling the house added to the dividends from the money her husband left, she was awash in cash. So she decided to spend it.
She and her daughter had always dreamed of living in Malibu, but her husband said no way. He thought the houses out there on the coastline were money pits.
But he was gone, and the OP could do what she wanted.
So she found the perfect home by the sea. It came with a huge sticker price and plenty of hidden costs that started to pop up as she moved toward closing.
She Went Against His Dying Wishes
But her daughter was super excited, and so was the OP. So she pressed forward with buying the house, even though her husband’s lawyer advised against it.
Not long after they moved into the new place, the OP cut out the lawyer completely. She hired a money manager who assured her he could keep the dough rolling in.
In fact, he promised she’d make 90 percent of a surgeon’s salary without lifting a finger.
The financial planner’s crystal ball turned out to need some work, as his investments tanked hard. The OP started to panic and made another decision that crunched her finances even harder.
Her and Her Money Man Made ‘Shrewd’ Investments
She took the little bit of money that was left from what her husband left behind and started making investments on her own. That turned out to be an even worse idea than hiring the money man in the first place.
By the time she took to Reddit, the OP had about $35K in available funds thanks to all her “shrewd” money moves.
That would cover her living expenses for about a month. Her husband had been right about Malibu houses being money pits.
The OP had also run up huge credit card bills in the years since her husband died. She wasn’t able to pay on those, either, and they were about to get shut down.
Then She Started a Business
In the meantime, the OP had started a business and thought it would eventually provide some decent money. But it would take her a few months to build up the client base she needed.
She wanted to stay in her dream home, so she came up with a plan to pay the house bills until the business took off. She would be able to keep her credit cards active, too.
She liquidated the college fund that her husband had built for their daughter.
To the OP’s surprise, her daughter was furious when she told her the money was gone. Holding onto the house for a few more months was small consolation at best.
And Raided Her Daughter’s College Fund
Redditors seem overwhelmingly opposed to just about every action the OP took from the time her husband died right up until she raided her daughter’s college fund.
They point out that if she’d just honored her husband’s last wish and let the lawyer take care of the money, she’d probably have been fine.
Even those who throw a little sympathy her way have some harsh words for her decisions.
So what do you think of this story? Did the OP make the wrong decision at every turn? Or were some of her choices justified?
And what do you think is the best path forward for her now?
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The post She Was Inheritance-Loaded but Stupidly Lost It All and Cashed In Her Daughter’s College Fund first appeared on The Net Worth Of.
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Source: Reddit