Dear Cheapskate: I read stories about parents with grown children who constantly need bailouts. What do you do when it’s your 62-year-old mother who has the money problem? My mom has a job and makes enough money to support herself. In 2003, she bought a house for $95,000. She had little debt at the time. Since then, she’s refinanced her home multiple times and now owes $227,000 on top of extensive credit card debt.
Recently, she called me saying she was $3,000 in the red. My husband and I sent her the money. This isn’t the first time we’ve bailed her out. My brother and I are at our wits’ ends. She is hanging on by a thread. I can’t make her get a roommate or a second job, or take away her checkbook. What do you do with a person who cannot make good financial decisions? We don’t want her to be homeless and live in her car, but we don’t want her to move in with us, either. Please help! —Anonymous, Idaho
