Inherit Trouble

When my grandmother died, someone told my mother if she ever wanted to see what true trouble was then just wait until she inherited something. And that proved to be correct because despite my grandmother having a will which clearly stated her wishes, my mother had a very difficult time getting what was promised to her. It doesn't really matter what a person leaves you; if someone disagrees or thinks it unfair you probably won't get your inheritance.

I've known lots of people to die, I've seen everything from verbal agreements to legal documents and I have NEVER once seen a family do exactly what was asked of them without complaint. This has been my situation. I was supposed to get my father's truck. My mother won't let me have it. I'm tired of fighting about it. My father also left me some money. She has no problems with me having the money which I do not understand at all because when you look at the two side by side, the truck is the least valuable.

I knew Dad left me money, I just didn't know how much. I knew it was in the form of a cd. What I did not know was he left me TWO cd's.

The money immediately made me feel like I will be a bad parent because my father had the foresight and resources to provide for me. I thought I will never be able to provide for my daughter this way. Then I questioned whether I could ever raise her right or give her a good life. So the first thing I did was take a portion of my inheritance and put it in a cd for my baby. I will never have another opportunity to do this again. And I think Dad would approve. That makes me happy.

But I'm sad because I have money, not my father.

But I'm also happy that now my husband and I will have an easier life.

We have decided to buy a new trailer. We had already decided that, we were going to do it anyway, but now we can pay cash and not worry about monthly payments. Even though we made a decision, we are carefully considering all options so yesterday we went to a contractor just to see how expensive it would be to BUILD a house. And actually, it wasn't that bad. We could do it. But it would take nearly every penny of my inheritance, and while we need a place to live, we also need to make repairs to our cars, we need to pay off our debt, and we need money for the future. So thinking about all this, I divided the money into three things- money for a trailer, money for my baby, and money in an IRA because I know perfectly well we do not want to be working past retirement age.

It is driving my in-laws crazy not knowing how much I got.

Mind you, Will's grandfather died in 1996 and left them just under half a million. Will doesn't know where all that money went. Neither he nor his sisters got any of it. Their house is still not paid for. There is no savings. They struggle to make ends meet on their pensions.

And for some reason, they seem to think I will pay off their house. I won't. It is not my responsibility. My goal is to take care of my child first. I am not worried about anyone else. We are all adults and we all have to deal with our own problems. Being envious will not pay for anything. Trying to be coy and prying into my business doesn't net a check either.

Resentment rises. It may be that certain members of Will's family will stop associating with us. But given some of their recent behavior, that might be a good thing.