A WOMAN was left begging for financial advice after her mother-in-law, in her 80s, ran through nearly $1 million in just days.
Her concerning spending habits pushed the woman to call for help from financial pros on The Ramsey Show, who shared the devastating reality of the situation.
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Stacey from Atlanta, Georgia, called into The Ramsey Show worried about the financial health of her in-laws, laying out the details of their situation in an episode earlier this month.
She explained that her in-laws, both in their mid 80s, had been married for 60 years and were financially well off, with zero debt and a nest egg worth roughly $3.5 to $4 million.
Her father-in-law was always the one to handle the bills, while her mother-in-law “has never been responsible with money.”
However, Stacey’s father-in-law, who had cancer and a number of other health concerns, wound up in the hospital around a year ago and gave his wife access to her retirement account.
The 80-year-old woman, who was in great health, ended up “draining” the $750,000 in the account within a week, sending the money willingly to an online scammer.
The caller and her husband found out that the mother-in-law had been getting scammed for years and cheating on her husband, attributing some of her behavior to mental illness.
“She’s involved in a one-way romantic relationship with this person she’s never met,” said Stacey, sharing that they had found several of the elderly woman’s Facebook profiles, which she used to send money to men across the country.
“She has been visited by the FBI and the police and she still believes that what she’s doing is on the up and up with this guy that she’s never met,” continued the caller.
Stacey’s mother-in-law had asked her son for money to help pay for bills she didn’t have, and even reverse mortgaged the car her husband paid off to fund her online scammer.
The elderly woman had also run up her credit card debt and had no money left in her name, just cash in joint accounts.
Stacey pointed out that her mother-in-law would certainly refuse to be evaluated for mental illness so that another person could be appointed as her financial power of attorney.
“She thinks she’s saner than all of us,” said Stacey.
HELP ME
Stacey turned to the financial experts on The Ramsey Show out of fear that the woman would blow through all of her in-laws savings, leaving Stacey and her husband financially responsible for her.
Stacey, in her late 40s, and her husband, in his mid 50s, were not in a situation to financially provide for her mother-in-law for the rest of her life, however long she had left.
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The young couple were working to be debt free within the next two years and feared her spending habits would wreak havoc on their progress.
“We’ve worked aggressively to get to that point, and I don’t want to go into debt to take care of somebody else,” said Stacey.
EXPERT OPINION
The Ramsey Show experts acknowledged that Stacey and her husband were in a tough situation and offered their two cents.
“You have to understand that there’s not a lot that you personally can do, and that’s heartbreaking,” said Dr. John Delony.
On the other hand, explained John, Stacey’s husband could step in to help save his mother from herself.
The expert suggested that Stacey’s husband petition a court for conservatorship and prove that his mom was “a harm to herself” so the court could order psychological testing and legally assign her finances to someone else.
Stacey, however, expressed fear that her father-in-law would resist seeking a conservatorship, under the impression that he was embarrassed over the situation.
Stacey and her husband had only recently found out about the scamming and cheating behavior, even though it had been going on to a certain degree for 60 years.
John explained that the young couple only had two feasible options, both of which were tough.
The first option was that the young couple could threaten the husband’s father, saying that they would make the matter public by taking it to court in an attempt to get a conservatorship over the 80-year-old’s money.
The second option was that the husband’s father would have to sign over all of his personal finances to them so that they could stop the woman from “burning the house down.”
Others in financially tricky situations have called into The Ramsey Show in search of advice.
One woman called because her husband put them in $1 million worth of debt and lied about it.
Plus, a 19-year-old with $115,000 in loans called in and was also told their “story” would be a help in getting their finances back in order.
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