TL;DR: MIL hasn’t returned funds borrowed over 2 months ago, advice please!
Hi guys!
I’m in a bit of a pickle and I need some advice.
This is gonna be a long post.
A LITTLE BACK STORY FOR CONTEXT
My in-laws moved from Tokyo about 5 years ago before covid to downgrade and relax in the countryside for the rest of their years.
My MIL sold their Tokyo house to their 2nd son, with the agreement at the time that he deposit a certain amount every month in their account. FIL was against selling it to him and wanted to go with another prospective buyer, but that land was in FIL’s family for quite a while and MIL was feeling sentimental and wanted to keep the land in the family. Cool.
For the first year, the money was deposited, but after that, it stopped. That BIL had a son from a previous marriage, got married to a lady with 2 kids last year, then had another baby this year. 4 kids in total.
I don’t know the state of their finances, but it has to be dire since they have all those kids, the wife isn’t working because they have to wait for next year to get the kid in.
Since its been well over a year since they received money from that BIL, MIL had to take up 2 part time jobs to make ends meet and basically survive. Plus this year, FIL had a few very serious health issues, and honestly if anything requiring hospitalisation occurred they would not be able to afford it.
MiL and FIL have been doing absolutely nothing to try and get the money back, which led them to turn to us. Plus, BIL was audacious enough to depand they gjve him their copy of the key for the house, and were even silly enough to give it to him!!!!?!?!?!?
BACK TO THE MAIN ISSUE
For the past 4 months, every month my MIL has been borrowing a large sum of money from us and paying us back afterwards, I guess when her pension cheque comes in, but hasn’t returned the funds she borrowed two months ago.
I know when lending money with family/friends, you should only lend what you can afford to lose, but I gave her the large sum she needed because she promised to pay me back.
But next year, I have to travel back to my home country on the other side of the planet with my kid and I’ve been trying to save for that. Since I switched jobs from English teaching to web development, my current salary is lower than what it was before, which means it’ll tale me longer to save for things.
I cannot afford to lose that money. We have house to that I’m hoping to have some repairs done to next year (we live separately), plus the flight fares and spending money for when we return to my home country.
I would love some advice on how to broach this subject with my in-laws, because honestly I’m annoyed that they’re doing nothing to get their money back and relying on us, when we’re barely surviving as well, and I’m absolutely anxious that I’m not going to see that cash again.
Thanks in advance for any advice.