So, step-FIL had a mini-stroke in January. Nothing too serious and he is fine now. MIL almost refused to let him see a doctor for treatment because she said that they had the "machines" that could heal him. They brought 5-6 people into the hospital with all of their "machines" to work on him. Needless to say, that didn't work too well. But, again, he is just fine now.
However, the doctor said it was probably stress related, so the ILs made the decision for him to stop working. Remember he's a marriage counselor. So they began to transfer most of his clients to MIL (who is also a counselor, but a child counselor). MIL is already retired from the school system where she was a teacher before going back to school to get her counseling degree. She was basically working part-time seeing clients and then working on her healing business and her children's books.
So now they're both basically unemployed. Step-FIL is doing absolutely nothing because he might get stressed out if he even breaths wrong. MIL is just as stressed out as she can be. Busy, busy, busy. She's working on her healing business, going to more seminars and the like. She's decided to start her 2nd business, (remember, the first one was the website and selling her books) which deals with healing. As I mentioned in my previous post, she's getting away from the "machines" for the most part and going straight to the hand healing. So she's been busy setting up PO boxes (why?), getting new checks (why?), and working with attorneys to get everything set up. This makes no sense to me, but whatever.
So, the bottom line is, they're supposedly out of money. They are getting ready to file for bankruptcy. They let their mortgage go into default because they were so busy buying $25k machines and going to all of these healing seminars that they didn't have the money to pay for other things, like, say, um, their house payment. So now they are going to lose the home that their son (my husband) designed for them and move into an apartment. MIL says her attorney told her that bankruptcy was OK and that after 1 year of renting, they could look into buying a house again as a first time homebuyer. I'm not sure that's the case. Step-FIL says that bankruptcy is the best way to show people that no one owns them and that no one can make them pay for anything they don't want to.
My husband and I got into a fight about this last night because I, with my business background, don't believe that bankruptcy is the best option for them. I think that should be a last resort, as I realize that it will totally ruin their credit. But, I also do not feel sorry for them because they have made choices that have put them in this position. I know that many people lose their homes through things that couldn't help, but I do not feel like this is the case with my ILs. I feel like they have their head in the clouds and were very unrealistic in their choices of how they spent their money and the return they would get. They knew that step-FIL was getting older and about to retire, but they still chose to build a 3,000+ sq.ft. house with a pool & hot tub. They chose for MIL for quit her job at the school so she could focus on her website. They've chosen a lot of things that weren't really all that smart. So I just feel like they are seeing the consequences of their choices. But, naturally, my husband feels sorry for them and he is mad at me that I don't have any "compassion" for them. He says it's not their fault and I should feel bad for them.
So, I guess that's not all of the drama, but surely that's enough to keep everyone entertained for now. Sorry for taking so long to post more updates to my IL saga. It is definitely never-ending, but because of that, I don't have the time to just repeatedly post updates every day. I would never get anything done at work or at home!
What do you think? Is bankruptcy the best choice? Should I have more compassion for my ILs financial situation?
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