Cool. I love happy endings!
I would be to, if someone had just given me $5,000.
You’re so evil - but I like you.
Ca3799, I’m sorry to have to say this, but it sounds like your sister is caught up in a scam. The first thing she needs to do is to stop investing any more money into this stock (or indeed any stocks). It appears to be a classic example of someone dazzled by the prospect of huge returns being blind to the reality that these returns are never likely to materialise. It is only one step removed from sending a bank transfer for several thousand dollars to a Nigerian account.
There is a lot of good advice in this thread already. I hope your sister takes it. Please stop throwing good money after bad.
I’ll revise Dead Cat’s summary.
Ca3799, the first thing you need to do is stop giving your sister any more money for stocks, paying bills, ANYTHING. There is a lot of good advice in this thread already as to why. I hope you take it under consideration. Good luck.
Yeah, she’s cut off. She is not interested in stopping and I’m not interested in helping her continue.
Too bad you didn’t come to that conclusion before yesterday evening, when you and your brother made your latest advance.
:facepalm:
What’s the matter, she couldn’t find any Nigerian princes to invest in so she had to go with something risky?
Your sister is screwed. Kiss off any money you’ve loaned her, and start preparing for how/if you’re going to help her when she loses her house. Sorry.
Perfect.
My brother and I talked about how solving January’s problem will most likely lead to February’s crisis, but of course my sister’s cash crisis yesterday ‘needed’ to be resolved yesterday.
We are better prepared and it helped a lot to bounce the ideas around here. I also have a much clearer idea of what she has been doing now, so that helps, too.
I’m prepared to let her lose her house and car if it comes to that. Yesterday, I thought that those were the worst things that could happen to her, but today I think helping her avoid reality and continue to get ripped off with internet get-rich schemes is worse.
Heh.
So, not much has changed- except whatever get-rich-quick stock she has found lately. After the medical devices, there was some load of iron ore being shipped to China, some kind of new (?) battery technology, and I don’t know what else. She said she is down to about $600.00 in her investments accounts and if she only had about $2000.00 invested, all would be OK.
We have only “loaned” her about 40 bucks for gas and taken her on one grocery shopping excursion since January. She’s hocked and I believe lost most things of value, and listed her prized piano on Craigslist. Last month she needed 4 bucks to pay the pawnshop, which I did not provide.
Yesterday, she asked for 80 bucks to pay utilities (denied) and is complaining of severe anxiety. I gave her the phone numbers to the food banks in her area and told her they also will help pay her bills up to three times. She doesn’t want to call them and said she will call an old friend for a loan instead. She did manage to earn a few hundred bucks on a side job, but the lady didn’t pay right away, so all her current problems are the fault of this lady.
She has called another “We Buy Ugly Houses” guy out for a quote although she can’t understand why these folks won’t offer her top dollar for her long-neglected house just to help her out. The last guy offered her 80K and said the house needed 40K worth of work. She thinks its worth 160K as is. She is wrong about that. It’s in poor shape and she owes about 100K.
She said she wants to sell the house, and/or file for bankruptcy, pocket 25K (not sure where that is coming from) and use the money to move in with a friend in another state, then she will have no bills and can make proper investments!
She seems very confused.
It’s hard to watch this slo-mo trainwreck, and then she sent me a strange note asking me to not talk about her. …which I’m doing… LOL. The note said :
"Just gotta ask - as I go through these challenges, I would prefer that you respect my privacy and not discuss my personal business with others or in front of the kids. I think it would just be stressful for them to be exposed to it.
Ultimately, things will work out and I will land on my feet with the freedom that I am seeking. But the perception that gets created between now and then can become like a bug in amber, preserved forever at an unfortunate point in time.
Please allow me the freedom to go through life changes without being the subject of gossip, labeling or judgment. "
…and it really made me angry, but I’m not sure why, so I’m just not going to respond.
[QUOTE=Ca3799 's sis]
…
Ultimately, things will work out and I will land on my feet with the freedom that I am seeking…
[/QUOTE]
This sounds cultish. Your sister needs help.
It made ME angry reading it. Her denial runs right to her core, and her kids are going to be helpless victims of it. If you could talk with them about it, you could explain to them that mommy has a gambling problem, but your sister doesn’t want them to know the truth about her and the mess she’s made of her life, apparently.
Is there an Al-Anon type group for gambling addicts, too? That should probably be your next move - find some support from people who are going through the same thing you are. They might be able to give you some ideas on how to actually help her and her kids without enabling her.
Oh, it’s my teenagers she’s referring to. Also, her stock trading “is nothing like gambling at all”, according to her. I didn’t think about a gambling anon for me. That’s a good idea. Watching her lose everything and all the excuses she’s making about why she’s doing the things she is doing is painful and depressing to me. Talking to folks who have been through this would be a help.
You’re not supposed to talk about her with YOUR kids? Okay, I think I’m seeing why it’s making you angry - she doesn’t get to tell you what you talk about or with whom. I think my response to that would be, “I can understand your wanting privacy about your serious gambling problem, but I talk with my kids about all the important things going on in my life, and your problems are affecting our family, too.” If she wanted to open that door, you’re free to go through it.
Bingo!
Thanks.
How old is she?
Yeah. Stocks are basically gambling. They may not fall into the legal definition of gambling, but it is gambling. I made some money on stocks this year (one of my investments increased over 2x in value), but I don’t invest money that I can’t afford to lose, as I understand that I could lose it all.
- Not married, no kids. She has a PhD in Adult Education and has worked as an independent consultant (and she was good at that), but says there is no market for her skills right now and no one will hire her (not that she’s tried) for a regular M-F, 9-5 type job. She believes she can support herself trading stocks for the rest of her life.
A PHD??? Consider my mind completely blown. Wow.