R
Rosa D
Guest
My mom grew up very poor, and was used to living with very little. She managed to find a decent job upon graduating from university (uni was paid by the government where she came from) and started making more money. After moving to Canada, she and my dad made enough to buy a house and start a family.
Fast forward 19 years later. Dad's out of the picture, paying 300 a month and not a penny more. Mom's still working and my sister and I live with her. We have middle-class life, but the problem is...my mom doesn't know how to deal with money. Being poor growing up means that she never learned money management skills, and now we are 20,000 dollars in debt. Our bills are completely scattered around the apartment, some paid, some not. She has a little bit of a short term memory problem after a car accident we had two years ago, so she's constantly forgetting to pay bills. We're getting mail from our phone company threatening to shut of our service, simply because she forgets to pay. I could go on but you get the idea.
I want to help. I'm 19, and moving out next year, but I can't leave her in this mess. Everytime I suggest getting a financial adviser or accountant to help put our finances in order, she says we don't have the money to pay for that and we simply need to sit down and do it ourselves. But how?? When?? She's always working. What I do to get ourselves out of this hole? How can I convince her that we need help without hurting her feelings? I love my mom, and I know she's doing the best she can, but something needs to be done.
Fast forward 19 years later. Dad's out of the picture, paying 300 a month and not a penny more. Mom's still working and my sister and I live with her. We have middle-class life, but the problem is...my mom doesn't know how to deal with money. Being poor growing up means that she never learned money management skills, and now we are 20,000 dollars in debt. Our bills are completely scattered around the apartment, some paid, some not. She has a little bit of a short term memory problem after a car accident we had two years ago, so she's constantly forgetting to pay bills. We're getting mail from our phone company threatening to shut of our service, simply because she forgets to pay. I could go on but you get the idea.
I want to help. I'm 19, and moving out next year, but I can't leave her in this mess. Everytime I suggest getting a financial adviser or accountant to help put our finances in order, she says we don't have the money to pay for that and we simply need to sit down and do it ourselves. But how?? When?? She's always working. What I do to get ourselves out of this hole? How can I convince her that we need help without hurting her feelings? I love my mom, and I know she's doing the best she can, but something needs to be done.