My best friend is in trouble, as usual

[SkinnyMe]

But this time, its really serious. My friend is sza bipolar type and is prone to hypomanic spending sprees so she always has a lot of debt and chronically lives above her means.

She also has really bad negative symptoms and depression with amotivation and apathy so she doesn’t like to check her mail and this always gets her into trouble.

For instance, these last several months she didn’t check her mail and a letter from her former employer came in the mail about her employer sponsored disability payments. She didn’t answer the letter so, they cancelled her disability payments effective immediately. Now, she has to go through the whole application process over again.

Now, she bought a house about 7 years ago when times were relatively good. Over the years her debt kept mounting until she got to the point, last month, where she felt she had to refinance her house to make ends meet. After this, her mortgage went from $885 to $1200 a month. And she refinanced for the maximum value of the house. I told her not to do it. I told her to try and squeak by. But, she hates being told what to do. Now, she can’t sell her house for any kind of profit. In fact, she’ll probably have to go into debt to get out from under her house.

Now, we plan on getting rid of my cat and her dog, waiting for my tenants to move out of my rental house, and waiting for my apartment lease to come due. Then we can move in together.

My house is all paid for so only taxes and insurance and we could split both that and utilities and groceries. Talk about super cheap living.

If you took the time to read this, thanks for reading.

[rogueone]

Always tough when your a good with money and others in your life aren’t. My ex really was irresponsible with money. Truly she’s probably lower end of bipolar and it’s probably impossible to make your friend see the sense in money management. Can become a deal breaker with relationships but if your prepared to deal with those boundaries I guess you just try to manage what you can. Hope you can get to some sort of rational outcome.

[SkinnyMe]

Update: I don’t want to lose the income on my rental property and my friend can’t afford to pay me the difference. So, we have decided to go with a 2 bed, 2 bath apartment that takes dogs and cats, has washer/dryer hookup, garage, indoor pool, gym, clubhouse, balcony and deck. And we’ll split all costs.

By doing this, she’ll save $600 a mo. And I’ll save $125 a mo.

[rogueone]

Sounds a good compromise. Hope it all goes well an be proactive with helping your friend budget if able. It sounds a solid plan.

[SkinnyMe]

Update: My friend talked to her former employer on the phone and explained the situation and they are getting on it right away. They told her they have approved her checks to resume as before. So, all is well again. That is great because that means I don’t have to move in with her. (The last we talked, we decided that I would move into her house with her.) We don’t get along very well when we are together long term so that was a scary proposition for me. Anyway, I’m glad this all worked out.