Woman Shocked Husband Gave Their 'Life Savings' to His Parents

A man on Reddit is feeling remorse after he loaned his parents his and his wife's entire savings, only for his parents to then declare bankruptcy.

The man explained he and his wife netted "close to $250,000" a few years ago when they sold their house.

"For us it's a lot of money. Neither of us is from a rich family and definitely were not given a kick start to life like some others. We worked hard to save for the first house deposit years ago and were really lucky that the housing market made us so much money in the end. It was a true life changer that opened us a lot of possibilities in the future. Or so was the plan," he wrote.

After his dad got turned down for a loan to expand his business last year, however, the man agreed to loan him the $250,000.

"I offered him the money as a loan for a year or until we needed it. He was a little reluctant at first but eventually agreed, and offered us some interest even and all looked rosy," he shared.

"Fast forward about half a year. Mid-January my mom called me in tears that they had to file for bankruptcy because they had no more money. Like at all. Their business was going south for a while apparently, they're owing money left, right and center and even had to remortgage their house, but all that only prolonged the inevitable," the man recalled.

The man's heart "sank" when he realized he would never get the money he loaned them back.

"Of course we're not even registered creditors, we didn't have a formal loan document, that's not what you'd do in a family, right? And even if we were proper creditors I doubt there'd be much left after everything else is paid," he wrote, adding that looking back he could see all the "red flags."

"Money was never a welcome topic for discussion in our family, let alone money issues! But I should have seen that they were more stressed than they used to be, they made a few remarks about their business being slow (but drew it to Covid and post-Covid economy), and even mentioned something about potentially selling their house," he shared.

The man's wife is now furious with him.

"I robbed my family of a brighter future. We could have had a much easier life with so many opportunities and instead we're back to where we were 10+ years ago," he concluded.

In the comments, Reddit users blasted the man for carelessly throwing away so much money.

"You openly admit that neither you nor your spouse come from a wealthy background, yet you’d give someone a quarter of a million dollars just... because? Not only were you financially irresponsible, you did so knowing full well that family finances were a communicative black hole for your family," one person wrote.

"All the flags were there waving in the wind. There was a reason the banks would not let them take out a small business loan. Because the banks asked the right questions and looked at everything and they decided there is no investment in a failing business," another commented.

"You should never, ever lend money with the expectation of getting it back. Never lend more than you can afford to lose. If the bank turned them down, you know they were not a good prospect. Your wife has good reason to be angry," someone else weighed in.