The story of how two generations of a family fell into a debt trap is going viral on Reddit. Despite father-son earning close to Rs 1 lakh per month, the family is struggling with managing the debt. The son, trying to help with his family's expenses, has ended up with lakhs of debt of his own, falling into a similar trouble that his father had years ago.
The viral Reddit post was shared by a friend of the son, who revealed that his friend earns Rs 37,000 per month but has more than Rs 22 lakh debt.
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“My friend (28M) earns around Rs 37,000 per month and I genuinely don't know whether he's being a good son or slowly destroying himself financially. His father (57) is a government employee earning around Rs 60,000/month. Years ago, his father lost his job for a few years, took loans at high interest, and the family never fully recovered financially. He eventually got the job back, but with reduced salary and benefits. Most of his father's income still goes toward servicing old debts, and he contributes only around Rs 10,000 to household expenses…,” the post read.
My friend earns ₹37k/month but is carrying ₹22L+ debt while supporting his family. At what point does helping become self-destruction?
by u/RamaRao143 in Frugal_Ind
With father only being able to spare Rs 10,000 for household expenses, the remaining burden has fallen onto the son, according to the post.
“My friend got his first job in 2022. Since then, he has been paying most household expenses: rent (~Rs 10k), electricity, internet, phone bills, groceries, petrol, and various family expenses. He also gives around Rs 30,000/month to his father. Whenever there isn't enough money, he uses credit cards and rent-payment apps to rotate money between accounts….,” the post read, adding that the son has ended up with Rs 15.6 lakh loan balances due to EMIs and roughly Rs 7 lakh in rotating credit card debt.
Despite an income of Rs 37,000, the son has monthly EMI bills of up to Rs 50,000, while he is also re-paying his education loan. Other expenses funded by the son also include his sister's education.
“When he keeps arranging money, everyone is fine. When he says he cannot afford something, he is called irresponsible. Recently, he told his father he couldn't continue supporting the family at the current level because he's drowning in debt. His father verbally abused him and threatened to throw him out of the house. His mother stayed silent….,” the post added, adding that the man is now mentally exhausted.
“What strikes me is that between the father (₹60k/month) and my friend (₹37k/month), the household income is already close to ₹1 lakh/month. Add a sister earning ₹45k/month and a financially comfortable brother-in-law, yet the person carrying the biggest financial burden is the one earning the least,” the post read.
Reacting to the post, many fellow Redditors suggested that the son needed to set financial boundaries with his family.
“My now husband, then boyfriend, went through something similar. Please ask him to take a step back which doesn't mean to stop supporting his family. But to also support himself. He has to actively try to upskill himself to increase his income and not disclose his actual earnings to his family ever since they'll always be cashing out on him,” a comment read.
Others also echoed similar sentiments, with some users sharing their own similar personal experiences.
Sharing a similar account, another comment read: “Started tracking each and every penny spent, started calling my family out on their mistakes, most of the time it led to a quarrel, where I was told I was an ungrateful daughter, and how I am trying to dominate them just because I've started earning, I did not shrink back, I did not shut down, I fought. The moment I implemented a system, and put strong governance over expenditure. Things started looking up”.
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