People Share How They Got Hold Of Large Amounts Of Money, And Their Family And Friends Turned On Them

It turns out that money creates more problems than it solves

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• February 5, 2020

Money is great; It makes your life more comfortable, you can go to places, buy things. It solves problems, right? Well, not according to the people on subreddit r/AskReddit. User u/REDxSAM asked a question: “Redditors who suddenly came into a lot of money, what was your horror story of people begging for money?”

It turns out that suddenly getting your hands on a large amount of money causes more harm than good, and friends and family start viewing you as a bank, and everyone wants something (money) from you. You will get to see who your real friends are and who really cares about you, and you should be prepared for some big disappointments.

1.

1. Poker winnings.

"I once took second in a poker tournament and won $150k. There was an audience of about 200 people when it finished. Common practice was ppl ask winners for a “lucky chip”. I was almost mobbed by people begging for lucky chips as I left the casino. Had to be escorted by security and paid a friend $300 to follow me in their car and we drove all over town for two hours to make sure nobody was following me home" - TLKim

2.

"My buddy is a poker player and once witnessed a guy who won a bunch of money come screaming back into the casino a half hour after he had left with his winnings.

Apparently someone rear-ended him as he was driving home and when he got out of his car to check the damage the driver who hit him mugged him. He obviously saw the guy win, followed him out and rear ended him so he would stop driving.

Casino basically shrugged and said they couldn’t do anything….obviously." —Well_thatwas_random

3. She didn’t deserve it.

"So I wouldn’t consider it “a lot” of money but I won $5000 on a scratch off that was given to me on my birthday by my aunt. It was just a $2 scratcher and obviously nobody thought I would win that much. I scratched it in front of everyone and they were all super excited for me except my aunt who demanded the ticket back because she paid for it. I even offered to split half with her.

Long story short, she took me to small claims where the judge pretty much laughed and she didn’t get shit. Haven’t talked to her since "—marinekid09264

4. Great boyfriend.

"I unexpectedly inherited about four years worth of take-home pay. Before I knew how much it would be, I told my best friend I’d be getting a few thousand dollars. She immediately asked me to take her on a trip to Europe. That was the biggest thing she asked for but she made other small requests as well.

When the money came through and it was a lot more than I’d anticipated, I did not tell my friend. Instead, I started distancing myself from her. I also did not tell any of my other friends.

I did tell my boyfriend. He did not ask for anything. I took him on a trip to Europe." —PopcornSurgeon

5.

"My Grandma died a week before Christmas, and she left her house and 1/4 of her small fortune to me (the rest of the money went to my brother and my two cousins). My uncles and aunts have been a pain in my back ever since. Claiming that the money/house are theirs,etc. And I’ve also been approached by people who I haven’t seen or talked in a while. Even my Ex who dumped me for some douchebag rugby player, started talking to me again and inviting me to places, and she’s still dating the same guy. Anyway, I’m not naive enough to lend those people money or befriend even. Luckily I have good friends and my brother as advisors." —DannyMorrow29

6. Accidental death inheritance.

"My money came in the form of accidental death inheritance after my dad died in a motorcycle crash. His girlfriend at the time was furious that he left everything to me. She tried to convince me to give her money and when I refused she took everything, and I mean everything from his house overnight. She rented two U-Hauls and her and her brother raided the place. Furniture, household supplies, food, clothes, everything was gone. By the time I got there there only things left were a few t-shirts she left on the floor and a couple empty cans of soda on the kitchen counter. She even took things that held no monetary value, like a calendar I made my dad for father’s day one year. It was just colorful card board and pictures of us I had glued together. She took it all. She started selling what she could on Facebook, mostly his woodworking tools and fishing gear, and she fled to somewhere in the next state over. We tried to get help from the police but they didn’t do much. She did a lot of other things that were bigger legal issues I guess (for instance she ran a fake gofundme claiming the funds were going to his funeral and managed to get over 10 grand from his coworkers, but I’m the one who paid for the services.) Last I heard they finally found her in some woodsy town but I don’t know what happened. It’s honestly too emotional to deal with, and I’ve accepted the fact that she most likely destroyed or sold everything already anyway, it’s been two years since this all happened. It’s horribly sad, though." —Mor-Rioghan

7.

"So a few years out of college my girlfriend and I were living in a sort of large communal apartment with 5 other people (2 bedrooms, 2 couches in the common area). I had just gotten a significant promotion at my job and that situation was exceptionally below my means, but my GF was convinced that these were her people and they were all going to become great philosophy writers and poets by living together and sharing experiences. They were all unemployed or underemployed, and experienced moochers, so I was very careful not to let them know I was saving large sums of money with the intent of moving out soon and taking my GF with me (or not…)

One day the other couple had an argument about rent and to try and keep them from coming to blows my GF promised them that I’d cover it for them and showed them one of my paystubs which I guess they showed everyone else. I got home from work and walked right into an “apartment meeting” ambush, where everyone else informed me that they wanted me to contribute “more meaningfully” and they’d put it to a vote before I got back. I told them that I was already paying for their food that they kept guilting my GF into buying for them, topping up the apartment emergency fund instead of stealing from it like the rest of them, and many other things and that I wasn’t going to cover other people’s rent as well.

The next day when I was at work, someone went into my room and destroyed my laptop, which was the only thing of value I owned at the time. I collected the few things I wanted to take, told my GF I was breaking up with her, and walked out.

Edit: I just realized I’m effectively the bad guy from Rent. Well, Rent sucks". —ThadisJones

8. What a mom.

"My mom has this ugly football themed van. Every since I was 10 we would go around in circles about how “it will be mine one day” but I told her from the start I’ll pass I hate vans… And football. Bought a different car and the van broke down after she put over 300k miles on it. I get my first income tax which was almost 3k and she tries to sell me the van for 2k…i tell her NO and she drops it to 1,000 since I can “easily afford it” I still refuse and less than an hour later she sends me a picture of a 1,200.00 dog for sale with “this is what I want for my birthday. He’s in Kentucky I’ll send you the address”

She wanted to use MY money to get a dog and was hoping to be sneaky and trick me into buying a broken ugly van to fund her multi state trip to pick up her “dream dog”… She didn’t speak to me for months after and still tries to sell me that POS for more than it was worth when it ran." —Mephistopheles_Cania

9.

"I inherited my beloved Grandma’s house alongside with some other properties. As the house and the properties are near a very rapidly developing city, prices have skyrocketed and lead to me inheriting about $1.5m in value. That may sound awesome at first, but it truly isn’t. The house is a very old brick house, built in the late 1700s, and the properties are so small and widely distributed i can’t really sell them for a good price. As the house is a listed historical building, every little repair has to be done by state approved professionals for restoration and conservation of old buildings, which basically doubles if not even triples the costs. I rented it out, but the rent i get is barely enough to cover the costs of repairs, insurance etc… I am lucky if i get even by the end of the year. But as this house is where my family used to live for the last 4 generations before my dad bought the ranch and moved there with my mum, i want to keep it in the family as long as possible.

Now, somehow, word has spread that i inherited a lot of money. I did my best to stop these rumors, but it didn’t work out. I’ve never had many friends, but the ones i have are true quality friends. They will do everything for me and i will do everything for them. After i got the house and the rumors spread, i got invitations to dinner in some really fancy restaurants, i was invited to sport events (i don’t even like sports) and some other very costly activities. All these came from people who claimed to be my “friends”. Needless to say, they expected me to pay for everything. “You’ve got so much money, what do these $500 matter to you.” – “I’ll pay you back sometimes.” etc… were the common phrases i got to hear. The best one were: “You are way to young (28 btw.) to have this kind of money, so just give it to us!”; “You don’t deserve to have so much money! You have never worked a day in your life!” (Been working at the power plant since i was an apprentice at 18, worked my way up to deputy manager/shift supervisor, while the guy this came from was unemployed as long as i can remember and lived from welfare).

I have now learned who to trust and to spot telltale signs of vultures” —gustavotherecliner

10. Parents are gold.

!Got a 7k settlement from a car accident. I accidentally left the check on the corner table in the living room. My dad walks into my bedroom and asks if I can lend my mom any money. I work minimum wage retail and ask him how much does she need. He says how about half of that 7k check.

It has been almost 8 years. I haven’t seen any of that money back." —ftmech

11.

"About 10 years ago or so, my grandfather called my mother one day exclaiming that he’d finally netted in excess of 1 million pounds worth of property, a big deal for my family, of course he wasnt doing anything with it, he was always a frugal man and remained that way until the day he died. As the years went on, his health deteriorated in more ways than one progressing to the point where he needed to have full time care and ultimately ended up being put in a home. Now we currently live in Australia, my family is mostly still in the UK, my aunt who still lives there was responsible for sorting out all of his needs. Time went on and sadly he ended up passing away. As all of this was happening, she was looking into his financial details and his will and whatnot. What was peculiar was that in his state of dementia, he had apparently at some point closed all of his bank accounts and withdrawn any money in cash. How, i dont know, but as a result of that, what with all of the costs of supplying care to him in his home and whatnot, the banks believed that we had hidden the money somewhere and refused to help.

What seems to have actually happened is that someone, possibly even himself, who knows, influenced him to withdraw all the money, bought things he didnt need, that then didnt even turn up anyway, had repairs done on the house that either didnt need to be done or didnt actually get done anyway yet were still paid for, then variously distributed in other ways until it was all gone. The only shred of a paper trail that we have is that we got word that his gardeners no longer live in the UK, seemingly up and left around the same time this all happened and now live in the Canary Islands…"—ThePommyHuntsman

13. Inheritance

"Friend of mine lost both parent in the span of about four months. They were pretty old so it wasn’t completely unexpected but it still sucked for her. Anyway, when the first parent died I went to the funeral to offer support. It’s a small affair, few dozen people and most of them friends instead of family, and it’s also where I found out that my friend’s parents have been on minimal contact with their families because neither side approved of the marriage.

Then the second parent dies four months later and I go to funeral again but this time there are well over a hundred people there. It seemed like every aunt, uncle, nephew, and niece suddenly showed up. After the funeral I’m waiting in the reception area before my friend and her brother come out to thank everybody for coming and I overhear multiple people talking about how much they’re hoping to get in the inheritance.

My friend’s parents didn’t leave a will so the entire inheritance automatically gets split 50/50 between her and her brother. I didn’t see the drama first hand but I’ve heard stories from her much later about the whole ordeal. A few people were decent about it, but most of the family were absolutely horrid. They tried sucking up at first, when that didn’t work they got angry, one aunt apparently threatened to not let my friend see her nephew even though she had seen that nephew maybe twice in ten years. "—SodWorkLetsReddit

13. Split everything three ways.

"When my grandmother died, her will stipulated that everything was to be split 3 ways. A third to my mother, a third to my uncle, and a third to be split evenly between my sister and I.

My uncle wanted to sell my grandmother’s house immediately to get more money out of it, but I wanted to keep it for sentimental reasons. My parents gave me a bit of money, and I used all my inheritance to buy out my uncle’s share of the house. I paid my parents back over the next few years, but the property became much more valuable. Over the following 10 years while I lived in the house, property values in my city exploded. The house that I bought was also in a very desirable neighbourhood and was worth well over double what I paid for it. It has continued to climb. When I paid out my uncle’s share, the estimated value was around $300,000. Last year the neighbour’s house (almost identical) sold for 945,000.

Needless to say, my uncle has said multiple times that when I sell the house, he is legally entitled to more money out of it. That is Bullshit, he is not getting another penny from me. I plan to live here for many more years. He will be long dead by the time I sell." —smoffatt34920

14.

"When I was young, like 10, I won $100 on a Nevada pull tab ticket at the local country fair. It was in a curling rink where vendors had hand made crafts. When I cashed it a lady who was selling knitted teapot cozies was like “oh where are you going to spend all that?” Then she asked me to spend $15 on one of her cozies. I told her thanks but I’m going to save it for a video game console (original Nintendo). She then called me a fucking selfish little ass and said her teapot cozy was much more valuable than a stupid video game. I was so nervous I just bought one. I gave it to my mom and she thought it was the most wonderful gesture and it turned out that lady was right. The love I got from that cozy was much more valuable because my mom paid the difference for the Nintendo the next week." —thatiswhathappened

15. Injury settlements.

"People weren’t begging but we felt like they were jealous and envious and did not approve of our decision.

Basically my husband came into money because he had a number of severe permanant injuries from his prior job. So he got paid out a large sum and decided to stop working for a while. This was because we had been through some very serious illness (I was ill) and personal circumstances which fucked us both up mentally so we wanted to take the time to recover our mental health. And secondly he needed to study to change careers because he was unable to work in his former career due to injuries.

Many people, even our parents disagree with him having even a few months off work to recuperate. This really shits me up the wall. And there have been so many people that don’t think we ‘deserve’ the money and are envious of the house we were able to buy with it." —ayayay4444

16. A lotto winner.

"My uncle would have been classified as working poor. A job, a wife, a kid, an apartment, but living paycheck to paycheck. They won the little lotto, and with another winner, my uncle got like 200K. They walked away from the apartment, bought the largest house in the poorest neighborhood and their friends always seemed to need something. I remember as a kid, they often had friends living in the guest room. They bought 2 new cheap cars, and then come property tax time, they were broke, and once again working poor." —somedude456

17.

"I received fourteen properties when my last parent died, and the amount of people who crawled out of the woodwork to ask for a ”loan” were unreal. It’s really unfortunate that many of them were in a state that publicly publishes details of an estate when probate is granted.

Cut contact with every single one of them. I never asked them for money, why would they think it acceptable to ask me?" —Aggressive-Regret

18. Grandmother died.

"My long term ex got, in total over the space of a year, almost £60,000 in inheritance. His grandmother died and left each child and grandchild exactly £40,000 and then his mother died and she left around £16/17,000 to him (and £2000 to me and £50 each grandchild including my son).

He didn’t tell many people but the people he did tell were scum – one asked for drug debt to be paid off which was a few thousand, another asked to borrow money to take his family on holiday despite having an insanely well paid job and the best one was somebody asked him to put a deposit down on a house for them and exclaimed they will pay it back over 10 years!

So, he bought motorbike lessons/tests then an actual motorbike (newer bandit), a quad bike (raptor 660) and then he put a deposit on a house (£40,000) and our mortgage repayments were £340 p/m because of that. He gave me and my son and his two sons a life." —ImAGirlPants

19. Kind of funny.

"Not exactly a horror story, but kinda funny anyway…

I got front ended in a car in 2016 and it messed me up pretty bad. My lawyer fucked up the case and by the time it settled, the medical costs were paid, and the lawyers took most of it (for being shit at their jobs) I had a high 5 figures in my bank account.

My estranged mother just SMELLED that I had money somehow and started asking for loans and if I wanted to go on vacations with her and things. Seriously, no one in my family would ever talk to her or tell her I had cash but she had some sort of sixth sense where she figured it out and suddenly wanted to “reconnect” with me.

Fucking amazing.

What sucks is I let her swindle me for a bit of it, she gambled with it and won two thousand dollars at a casino. But hey, she bought me lunch that day so.. I guess my mother has technically gotten me SOMETHING in the last two decades.."—JackJustice1919

20. Sad but true.

"My sister in law heard that her estranged father, to whom she hadn’t spoken to in over a decade, had come into some money. She took her kid, abandoned her house and drove across Canada to go and reconnect with Daddy. My brother was overseas, serving in the military. She basically moved in with daddy and love bombed him until she found out that – no he does not actually have money at all. He told her to go to hell when he found out that the only reason she wanted to reconnect with him was because she thought he was a millionaire.

I with I had made that up. But it’s true." —douchebagfukboi

21. Some parents.

"I was a stupidly well-paid contractor in Iraq just after the invasion in 2003. Moving money was harder then, especially from over there, so I had my parents set up an ’emergency account’ (it wasn’t just in case I was kidnapped, but it was in the back of my mind). There was about 60k in there- most of my net worth, and this included savings from before I went overseas. I didn’t yet have the account details- my parents didn’t want to send account numbers via email, blah blah bitty blah.

After only a week they asked to borrow ‘some’. My mom wasn’t working and they needed to pay for health insurance. Not a problem, but there goes… 10k? Wow. Oka-ay…. I didn’t say anything.

I didn’t say anything when she asked for ‘a little’ because she needed to replace her car- this was about a month later. I agreed. 3-4K for a decent used car wasn’t a big deal, but my spidey-sense was tingling. It turns out she dropped 10K on a down payment for a new car.

By the time I was able to arrange for transfer to a new account that they did not have access to, I was sweating. I wrote and asked them to move the other 40K (I was very specific on that number). I gave them the transfer details. I waited.

Nothing. Nothing for wa-ay too long. I called a bunch. They never picked up (they always picked up). I told them when I was going to call and I called when I knew they’d be home. Silence. This went on until I said ‘fuck’ on the answering machine and they picked up immediately, because how dare I use that language with them?

They’ve been busy (being so retired/ unemployed) and they’ll get to ‘my thing when they get to it’, and pretended not to hear me when I asked three fucking times how much was fucking left. She sounded nervous when she whispered, “Over 20… I think”. They had set up this account less than 6-7 weeks before.

I don’t remember exactly what was said, but at one point that my panicking mother tried to tell me that a chunk of this last ‘bit’ (that they must have forgotten to ask for before they took it), was for health insurance (that they had asked for six weeks ago).

The deposit they finally made- later that day- was for 30K, so they managed to replace a chunk of what they outright stole from their son in less than 24 hours. I ignored lots of emails asking for help making car payments on mom’s new car.

We barely speak now. I figure it cost me 30K to buy my way out of my family. I’dve paid double." —bobbyjihad

22. Not a horror story.

"Friend of mine won over a million dollars. Winnings are not taxed here btw so that’s proper 1,000,000 winnings.

She bought a home and upgraded her car (to like a 2 year old corolla).

She was cunning enough to know that people (acquaintances, annoying family) would figure out she won or came into money.

So she lied. Said she won about $20,000 that she was able to put towards a deposit and that she was helped out by her parents to get the full deposit.

Nah. She paid her house in full but for all those nosy people know, she has a mortgage and is just careful with her money.

It helps that she isnt really a flashy big spender. She didnt start flashing cash around.

Oh so that’s a non-horror story!" —sjp1980

Damjan