Happy Monday radicals. Let's kick off our week with a little discussion of money and in-laws. Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge,

skills, insight and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now while

building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.

My name is Joshua and I am your host today we tackle the subject of money and relatives.

Is there a more thorny challenging subject where so much good can come out but also so much bad? Tim writes into the show and he says, Joshua, I'm curious to hear your thoughts

about the interaction between money and family. Obviously this is a

broad topic and can go in many different ways but

here's a little bit about my situation. My wife's mother is a high-powered lawyer.

We were planning to buy a house and she offered us a down payment gift of

$100,000 to help with the occasion. I am very independent and consider it

my duty as a husband to provide for my family. This makes me ambivalent about accepting things like this from my mother-in-law.

On the other hand, she is clear that this is part of my wife's inheritance and continuing a tradition.

Her parents gave her a gift to help with her first house etc. Now I could refuse the gift

and do everything myself but I think this would cause friction in the family.

I've also heard it said that accepting money gracefully is the price you pay for marrying into wealth.

My in-laws are very traditional non-moustachean types, so they are sometimes baffled by our

frugality.

We only have one car, for example, but they are not domineering and this gift is not manipulative, just generous.

So if I accept, how can I accept with grace and still equip myself well as a man?

That's just my situation, but I think listeners would love a radical take on the topic of money and family.

How do I handle spendy family members?

What about parents who refuse to let us pay our away for dinners?

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