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AIBU?

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Friend with money, AIBU?

86 replies

xcurlyluciex · 16/10/2024 15:58

To cut a long story short, a friend has come into some money following the death of her husband recently. This friend isn't very good with money, she's a spender, rather than a saver IYSWIM.
She's going to pay her mortgage off, so will then be debt free. This'll still leave her with around £150k, I think.
Now, this is where the problem start. She's planning on buying a new car and wants to take us all (friends) on a big holiday. I refused her invitation, because a) it doesn't include kids and she wants to go during term time and b) I don't want her wasting her money on taking us on holiday. I want her to use this money to secure her future financially, not blow it on clothes and holidays, which I think is what she is going to do.
She's now not happy with me because I refused the holiday invite. I feel awful, but I don't want her paying for a holiday for 10+ people to some luxury resort that would cost £££££. AIBU?

OP posts:
yeaitsmeagain · 16/10/2024 16:16

Octavia64 · 16/10/2024 16:10

Paying off her mortgage and buying a new car is very sensible.

A lot of advice for people who inherit/get a large sum of money is to spend at least some of it on fun things.

A holiday for friends and family sounds like a lovely thing to do. You refusing be sure you think she'll be waste the rest of it is pretty unpleasant.

lol buying a new car isn't sensible at all.

Octavia64 · 16/10/2024 16:10

Paying off her mortgage and buying a new car is very sensible.

A lot of advice for people who inherit/get a large sum of money is to spend at least some of it on fun things.

A holiday for friends and family sounds like a lovely thing to do. You refusing be sure you think she'll be waste the rest of it is pretty unpleasant.

Hopelesslydevoted2Gu · 16/10/2024 16:09

Unfortunately people don't change their financial behaviour easily. It might be that she needs to experience the consequences of her actions - eg run up debt and not have anyone to bail her out - to change her behaviour.

It is good that she is paying off her mortgage at least. It might be helpful to suggest some other sensible things she can do with some of her money, like paying some into a pension, so it doesn't all get spent. It's surprising how quickly people can spend money once they get started.

Undisclosedlocation · 16/10/2024 16:07

xcurlyluciex · 16/10/2024 16:03

I know. I just know what she's like from past experiences. As soon as she has money it goes, and her husband used to bail her out when she ran up debts. Now he's gone, what's she going to do if she gets herself into that situation again.

Sadly, what she is going to do is finally learn from her mistakes. Nothing else is going to change her behaviour and however kindly it was meant, her husband did her a great disservice bailing her out like that

offyoujollywelltrot · 16/10/2024 16:07

How she uses the money is none of your business.

DecafGreen · 16/10/2024 16:07

You are being unreasonable to think you should have any say in what she does with her money but you are not unreasonable to turn down the invitation for any reason.

CreationNat1on · 16/10/2024 16:06

Not your problem.

She'll downsize and burn through that money too.

ThinWomansBrain · 16/10/2024 16:06

well at least she is doing the sensible thing and paying off the mortgage.
she's an adult, it's her money, not a lot you can do.

If you have school age children, presumably she is a similar age to you and either still working, or able to when the cash runs out.

xcurlyluciex · 16/10/2024 16:03

I know. I just know what she's like from past experiences. As soon as she has money it goes, and her husband used to bail her out when she ran up debts. Now he's gone, what's she going to do if she gets herself into that situation again.

OP posts:
ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 16/10/2024 16:00

Then there will be nothing you can do ultimately anyway. People sometimes need to go through it a few times to handle this

Bananalanacake · 16/10/2024 16:00

You can refuse on the grounds that it's during term time and you don't have other child care.

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