Can you guys help me figure out how to help my mom?
She received $350,000 in inheritance from her parents, and she's been living off that for the past 9 years. She's been very smart about it, she doesn't spend a lot and tries to make every dollar count, but between food and rent and transportation and other miscellaneous living expenses, she's down to her last $50,000.
She has a medical condition that makes it almost impossible for her to find work. When she is working, her jobs all tend to be minimum wage since she has no real experience in the workforce. However, she's not eligible for any kind of welfare because she has so much money in the bank, and she's not eligible for unemployment or disability because she hasn't worked long enough. She'll be eligible for social security next year, but she'd only be getting $300 per month because she's worked so little and a lot of her jobs were off the books.
She's getting really worried about her money running out, and it's making her increasingly depressed and emotionally unstable, which just makes it even harder for her to find work. I'm really worried about her too. I'm a broke grad student and I can barely afford to support myself right now, I can't support her too. I feel like there has to be a smarter way to use the money she has to secure her future, maybe through investments or something, but I don't know what. Can anyone with experience managing a big but constantly dwindling pile of money help me out?
>>1101919
>I feel like there has to be a smarter way to use the money she has to secure her future, maybe through investments or something,
should have been doing that from the beginning, not with the last 50k
>>1101921
I tried to tell her that years ago, but I couldn't offer any specific ideas. She did briefly try to invest in stocks, and managed to make a few thousand over the course of several years, but had to cash out her investments once she started getting desperate for money. I still don't know what she should've done, even back when she had several hundred thousand.
Is she basically just fucked now?
>>1101932
pls help ;_;
>>1101965
Complete nub here. Any family friend who could vouch for her? Does she have any education?
Maybe she could work from home if she made a good enough impression
>>1101969
She has no education beyond high school and no experience beyond local minimum wage jobs. She doesn't have any particular skills that would be useful for a career, so her only option is entry level work.
>>1101975
If her only option is entry level work she will most likely be paid minimum wage. No way around that really.
Maybe you should take care of her like a good child?
>>1101977
I can't afford to take care of her at all. I'm already struggling to make ends meet just to pay my own rent.
So there's basically nothing someone in her situation can do to avoid running out of money?
>>1101975
Minimum wage is better than nothing. Or, you could take care of your mother instead of being a selfish dick.
>>1101985
Nothing I can suggest. But I'm not an expert or anything. If someone could make 50k last forever that would be really crazy. She should get a minimum wage job and try to work her way up the ladder.
>>1101985
You couldn't share an apartment/utilities/etc... with her? If not, why?
>>1102002
I mean... if there was some obscure knowledge that could make all the difference, why do people spend years getting an mba? There are tools out there but there is no "secret", that's a marketing gimmick. Set your expectations, then set hers. Work at getting her to a place where she has more hope than her son finding some secret on the internet.
There's nothing significant she can do really in terms of investments at this point unfortunately. even if you got a great return it would only buy her 4-6mos and you liklely wouldn't get that. It's really too bad because with 300K invested in 2009 you could have easily a million by today.
The only real option is to significantly cut her burn rate. going through that amount of money in that time is about 33k a year which is pretty high for just her, I could see her reducing that as much as 60% especially if she was willing to get a part time office job on the side. Also have her try to come up with some small thing she could do to earn some money even if it's not a job. One of my mom's friends does custom knitted goods like scarves and shit that she sells to people online and makes probably 12-15k a year. If you did both those things I could see her having as much as 6 years of money left and you could make maybe another year off investments during that time realistically.
Basically she needs to make major cost reductions and find some source of income
>>1102024
alright, thanks... not what I was hoping for, but it's something
your mums a fucking idiot spending quarter of a million pounds in 9 years. she could have started any business she wanted. instead she was a stupid woman. I hope she dies quickly.
I figured it out.
move into a trailer and start sucking dick
>>1102052
money goes quickly when you don't have any income, jackass
one other thing. if you do end up investing you will need to invest a lot of the money and you'll want to wait a bit, don't do it now, it's very likely they will be a recession or at least a large correction in the near term, so you'll want to wait at least until that happens and get in at the bottom not the top
>>1102057
She has 250 thousand pounds. She could have bought any running small business out.
Was she a retard? She obviously doesnt deserve money
>>1102071
Its pointless this retarded woman will spend every last cent
>>1101919
Kill mom, take money, buy ether.
You know it's the right thing OP.
>>1102071
She has 50K left. There is no way she is going to generate a livable investment income with that. She needs to quit whining and get a job. Or, you need to withdraw from school and help your mother. She brought you into the world and you can never repay that debt. Or, both. Or, you could rent that trailer and both of you can suck dick. She/you really should have figured this out before now.
>>1101919
>she doesn't spend much
>literally spending the equivalent of someone with an income of 50K/year without even having a job
KEK
>>1101919
>she's down to her last $50,000.
It's too late brah. 50k isn't going to make much impact, even with serious investment skills.
Best she can do with no skills is to transfer the money asap to you unnoticed, qualify for welfare and still get at least around $2000 interest payments per year and have a little reserve.
In the stock market the asset appreciation would have been around 33% from 2007 till today (Dow Jones) + 9 years of dividend payments,
Without compounding interest this would equal around 115.000 +110.000 + principal = 575k$.
But of course her living expenses (would) have eaten a lot of it.
>She has 250 thousand pounds. She could have bought any running small business out.
If she has no business skills or ambition this would have likely faild, but at least she would have been able to force her way into working a decent position. Also with 350k she would habe been creditworthy enugh to get financing on buying that business out and for 600-900k$ one already gets decent businesses.
Bottom line: Our economy is still very efficient after all, so that large amounts of money only stay with people who show themselves worthy.
>>1102134
>Best she can do with no skills is to transfer the money asap to you unnoticed, qualify for welfare and still get at least around $2000 interest payments per year and have a little reserve.
She planned on doing that, with the caveat that the money wouldn't really be mine. Basically she'd be collecting welfare and I'd send her back some money each month to help her pay for rent, bills, groceries, etc. But I was worried that might technically count as a form of welfare fraud so I didn't agree to it. Was that a mistake? Was I just being too paranoid?
>>1102134
In the US she might qualify for disability income payments of about $1100/mo from what you've said. Also, not sure of your father's status but she can claim SS income from her earlier marriage/arrangement to him (they had you). That would boost her SS income to about 900/mo.
$2k/mo is not bad for the situation and then you can help out after you get your grad degree.
She/you need to talk to a social worker/financial planner to plan these things. Good luck.
>>1102140
>But I was worried that might technically count as a form of welfare fraud so I didn't agree to it. Was that a mistake? Was I just being too paranoid?
It's a form of welfare fraud, but there is no risk involved if you do everything(!) in cash and she doesn't withdraw everything at once, one month before asking for welfare.
Anyway, your mother is financially fucked but I think she never had a real chance on coming out well on this.
>>1102146
I'm not him.
>>1102148
Sorry. Just woke up.
OP still hasn't told us additional facts: her other relatives, family members and her housing info. Compared to Warren Buffet she might be fucked. Compared to a homeless person she's in pretty good shape.
>>1102156
She has a large extended family but she's only stayed in touch with a few of her relatives. Most of them are comfortably upper middle class types, but they're not rich and there's only so much they can/will do to help. She's divorced and still on good terms with my dad, but he has a new wife and other kids so he can't afford to take care of her either.
She lives in a one-bedroom apartment for $1100/month, spends about $100 on bills, $150 on food, and $50 on gas and other expenses, so that comes to about $1400 a month total. (She used to be living in a much larger two-bedroom, that's why her money was going so much quicker before. Also worth noting that we live in the greater NYC area, the cost of living is very high around here.)
>>1102134
Why doesn't he just sell the ladders and pay the toll to cross the wall through the door?
>>1102215
I already told you, she used to be spending a lot more. The rent in her last apartment was $2200, and I'm pretty sure the bills were a lot higher there too. Also, while she was never a huge spender, she wasn't always as frugal as she is now. For instance, she used to spend about $300 a month on groceries, now she's only spending about half that much.
>>1101919
she should've seen this coming years ago, she put herself in this position.
>>1102173
i would move to a place of much lower cost of living and start working whatever shitty job that she is able to do. She should save up and keep looking for different opportunities to make money, maybe start a small business or something down the line. She has to know something useful to others.
>>1101919
Get her to get a job. Invest the rest with Edward jones. 50k should make ou roughly 400-500 a month on growth.
>>1102173
>Paying rent when you have that much money to buy the apartment.
>not dumping 80% in a bank and letting it grow over the years
>not using the internet for free money through kickstarter, fandoms, stupid shit.
>asking /biz/ of all places. The idiots who live on minimum wage and can't do anything but yell "hurr durr buy auctions, buy auctions xD hurr reddid masterrace"
>300,000 spent in 9 years
>avg. $2,777 a month
for one person? does she live in a mansion?
I lived on $9,600 a year for 4 years during college. At that rate $350k would have lasted me 36 years!
>>1102377
He mentioned that they live in Jew York, which is absolutely nuts because if you're going to be unemployed living off a lumpsum, doing so in one of the most expensive places in America is so beyond any definition of the word stupid.
OP she's absolutely fucked. You'll either have to suck it up and get a job to take care of her, or let her become homeless and eventually kill herself. Wouldn't blame you for either route, but those are really your only options. Should've addressed the situation MUUUUUCH sooner.
she a crack addict
>>1102173
>She's divorced and still on good terms with my dad
She should call Social Security's local office and explain her situation related to her time with your father. When she applies for SS they will take his income and adjust her's to his. My father just took SS and my mom got a 300/mo boost on top of hers because he started taking his. It won't affect your father's status with SS.
Also, move to Florida.
>>1101919
OP why didn't she just buy a 50k house and work some min wage job and live frugally, investing the 250-300k leftover? Seriously man what the fuck.
OP I am sorry to hear that, but little things can be done now. She should have contracted a financial advisor from the beginning. But even so, 350k isn't enough to live all your life with rent.
She should have invested them in some fixed interest return derivate and then work for a minimum wage. Minimum wage + the fixed interest should have been enough, instead of just using the money.
Just go to the bank and ask for an advisor and try to make these last 50k last as much as possible till you can financially help her.
Good luck.
>>1102385
>>1102479
She was thinking about moving to Florida a few years back since it'd be cheaper there, but the process of moving would've cost her around $2000 and she figured that was a waste of money. I tried to explain she'd be saving more in the long run, but she didn't want to listen.
I'll talk to her about applying for my dad's social security, he makes a decent amount of money so it should be more than the $300/month she'd be getting now. Thanks for the advice, it's probably the best suggestion in this thread.
>>1102506
>>1102604
I mean, I'd have used the money differently if I was in her shoes, but hindsight doesn't really help now. I'm more concerned with how she can avoid being homeless or having to move into some shitty public housing apartment.
