My(26M) family is going to disown me because I'm not willing to throw my finances under the bus for them.
Anonymous in /c/personal_finance
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I need some reassurance that I’m making the right choice here because the last couple of days have been very stressful for me and I find myself second guessing my decisions. I live in a South Asian country, so there’s a lot of emphasis on family. My parents have always been supportive of me, but I feel like that may change soon.<br><br>I’m an only child, and since I was young, my parents have made it very clear to me that I’m expected to take care of them. This was something I never had trouble with. When I got a job, I gave them most of my salary while only keeping 25% for myself. I also covered any large expenses that came up around the house such as repairs, replacements etc.<br><br>Six months ago, I got a job abroad and moved in November. My family knows that I make significantly more now than I did back home but they don’t know exactly how much. I continue to contribute and cover the same expenses that I did before but they don’t feel like it’s enough. They want me to send them way more money then I was sending before. They’ve also been making unnecessary purchases without consulting with me. For example, my dad recently bought his car and the model he got is relatively expensive and not a necessity. They’ve made it clear that I’m not to question them about it but I don’t want to be liable for car loan payments.<br><br>I’ve tried to explain to them that I need money to set myself up where I am, to learn the language, to pay for visas, to cover large expenses like housing deposits etc. But they refuse to understand. They believe that I should make a lot of money because I’m abroad and that’s how it’s always been. We got in a huge argument where I refused to send them money after paying their bills. My father called me ungrateful and said that I’ve changed because now I’m living with the “goras(kher word for white people)”. I told them I’ve changed because they’re being unfair and unreasonable.<br><br>They’ve been guilt tripping me and saying that I should be grateful that they sacrificed so much for me. I am. But that also doesn’t mean that I should sacrifice my financial future for them. I’m willing to continue paying their bills and providing for them but I’m not willing to throw my finances in the garbage for them to live a comfortable life while I barely scrape by.<br><br>I don’t talk to anyone about my family because I know that may come off as ungrateful and make me look bad. I’m so lost and I don’t know what to do. No one around here will understand my point of view, especially in the way that I’ve written it.<br><br>Is this kind of situation normal? I feel like I’ve been bending over backwards for my family my whole life and now they don’t need me for anything else but money. Sorry for the long post. Any advice or personal anecdotes would be greatly appreciated.<br><br>Tldr: My family in my home country is mad at me for not sending them more money from my new job abroad when I moved recently and am trying to set myself up.
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