A Problem Like Maria

We all have our crosses to bear, mine is named Maria.

My wife is a lovely, intelligent, emotionally balanced, funny, kind woman, her older sister is a train-wreck. Since their parents are both deceased, Maria has become my wife’s problem and therefore my problem.

Maria chose to divorce her husband because [insert no good reasons here].

She also blew through her entire inheritance from 2008 in about 3 years with nothing to show for it besides a lot of framed artwork involving cats. She traded in a perfectly good paid off PT Cruiser for a 1983 Jaguar that broke down immediately and had to be shit canned less than a year after acquisition.

She forgot to pay all of her bills and would call my wife complaining of all the things THAT WERE HAPPENING TO HER. She stayed with us for about six months until it became obvious that either she moving out or I was moving out. For example, Grendel would refuse to identify anything she wanted for herself from the grocery store and simply emerge from her crypt to consume everything in the dead of night. We had to let her move into the empty parents house (rather than sell it).

She proceeded to not do anything all day everyday while the house fell down around her and she sunk further into debt.

Maria does have income, she gets $1100 of your money every month because her various ailments, both perceived and actual, prevent her from working. Now before you swear under your breath, let me share with how I feel about SSI/Disability.

It is a SMALL price to pay for having these people removed from the workforce. Think about how much you do not like your job. Now imagine the very same workplace crawling with Marias. The trade off seems to simply be a another type of tax and  well worth the money as far as I am concerned.

I am not allowed to confront Maria about any of her life choices because I make her feel bad about herself. I would actually be OK with helping if I were allowed to also vent, but that is not the path the Royal We have chosen. Enough ranting, I have a point here that involves the conscious financial steps we have taken to bring this train-wreck into the station and prevent future derailments.

Kind, Clear, and Firm. I realized that part of what was lacking in Maria’s life was her Pater Familias.

Her Mom and Dad had always helped guide her decisions and she was somewhat adrift after their loss. So we learned not to give her money in lumps, she lacked the impulse control to budget. Much like with drug addicts and gamblers, do not give her money to pay a bill, tell her to send you the bill to pay. We paid off her backs debts and set up a clear highway to partial responsibility. I created a joint account and set up a direct deposit from her bank to this one so that she could contribute a share of expenses at the house where she was living. I covered the rest. She agreed to consult us on any ‘big’ money decisions to be made.

From the eventual sale of the inherited house she was occupying , we all agreed we would not release her half to her in the form of a big check. We decided instead to give her a personal annuity. Every month we would add to her SSI check a stable amount so she can budget in bite sized chunks. She gets stability and I get to use all the proceeds up front. Should she wish to make a large purchase, I will pay her and simply subtract the dollar amount from her amortized balance. Lessons learned;

1. Kind, Clear, and Firm in your dealings, they want/need your resolve.
2. Take care of the Problem, don’t pay the Person, pay the Obligation directly.
3. A simple series of interconnected bank accounts and direct deposits works well.
4. I suspect that Maria is a lifelong obligation, but nowadays it is more about preventative maintenance than damage control. What are you going to do, it’s FAMILY right?