My Mom Lied About Paying Off My Student Loans (I Owe $65,000)

If your private student loans are in default, you're not out of options. Go to whyrefi.com slash Ramsey. I'm 26, and I make about $100,000 a year, $100,000 a year in my salary. And I had an education loan worth $65,000. My mom originally promised that she would pay for my education, so I went through school expecting that support. But now I'm left with the student debt, and she hasn't followed through yet. I'm sort of struggling with how to handle both the financial side and the emotional side of it. I want to move forward responsibly, but I also feel hurt and honestly misled. What would you do in my situation? Do you have any advice for me? Well, I mean, if you sat down with her over a cup of coffee and said, I feel hurt and misled, what would she say? She gets really emotional, and then she says, oh, I did so much for you, and you know, this small thing is bothering you. You make so much money. I don't think a $1,000 employment should hurt you that much. And we just usually end up getting in an argument, and then I kind of start feeling bad. Okay, so this is settled then. This is settled. She's not going to pay it, and she doesn't care if it hurts your feelings. That's the facts. Those are facts. Those are data points. She doesn't care if it hurts your feelings. She's not going to pay it. Now then, you've got to decide what you're going to do, okay? I'm not going to give her access to my feelings anymore, so I'm not going to talk about it with her ever again. She's not going to pay it. You are. Okay. Now the next step's easy. Let's attack this debt with our great $100,000 income. How fast could you pay it off on your own? Well, so I've got about $20,000 in savings. I've got $20,000 invested. Good. I live in New York, so I mean, my monthly expenditure is about $4,000. Yeah, great. So you pay off the 40, and you've got 60 to go, and you just lean in and knock it out, and you know that your mom is your mom, so we can't be too mad at her, but we can be mad enough at her to go. She's not reliable, and if she promises me something ever again, I'm going to laugh and wink and not believe it because she doesn't care if it hurts your feelings. Right, and then I had this conversation that if she wanted me to pay it off, and she said, just send me, just pay it off for this year, just me, $10,000, and then you won't have to worry about it from like Jan 2027. So now I... She's not going to pay it, Ash. You're wishing for something that's not going to happen, okay? Dogs can't climb trees. She's a dog. She ain't going to climb a tree, dude. Squirrels climb trees, okay? She can't climb a tree. She's not going to do it, and every answer she gives you is telling you she's not going to do it, and that it's on you, and so the faster you just go, you know, I hate that I have to say this about my mother, but she's an unreliable person and is not concerned about the fact that she lied to me, and that just breaks my heart, and I have a bill to pay now, and you go pay it as fast as you can, Ash, and the sooner you get it paid off, and then please don't ever believe anything else she says. So any plan she comes to you with is false. The plan should have a check attached to it for $65,000 if I'm going to believe forever again, and it can't bounce, so that's the only way you go, okay, we're going to rebuild trust here. Yeah, but she's not going to do it. I mean, there's no chance. She probably doesn't have it, either, by the way. It was probably wishful thinking, and it sounded like a nice thing to say that I'll cover your education when, you know. I believe in you, Ash. I got your back, you know, but yeah, I mean, this happens a lot. We hear this way too often of parents that don't want to follow through on the promise of what they were going to do with their kids' education costs, and so it's yet one more reason for those of you out there that are considering taking out a student loan based on the promise of a parent to pay it. That would be a dumb idea. It puts a strain on the relationship even if they do follow through. YREFI refinances defaulted private student loans for struggling borrowers. Learn more at YREFI.com.