A recent call to “The Ramsey Show” took a personal and unexpected turn when a listener shared a troubling story about a so-called gift from his grandmother.
“About a year back, my grandma gave my wife and I a gift of $9,000 for a home. We were grateful and we offered to pay her back, but she told us, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ She was so happy to help us out,” the caller said.
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‘She Wants All The Money Back Plus Interest’
Things took a turn when the grandmother recently reached out, not with a friendly check-in, but with a demand.
“She wrote us a letter in the mail saying that she wants all the money back, plus interest, and in the letter never mentioned that it was a gift to us,” the caller explained. The total amount she now says she's owed? $12,000.
The couple still has paperwork showing the money was filed as a gift for tax purposes. When host Dave Ramsey asked the caller about their income, he shared that they bring in about $70,000 after taxes.
Ramsey called it like he saw it. “Okay, is she mentally ill or is she just a liar?” he asked. The caller replied, “She’s a liar. She’s been diagnosed as a narcissist and a liar.”
“You do not morally owe her a dime,” he said and instructed him to tell her over the phone, “We have paperwork that shows that it’s a gift. I love you but I don’t love this behavior and I’m not going to pay you because I don’t owe you.”
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Still, Ramsey acknowledged the emotional fallout likely to follow: “She’s going to be Mount Vesuvius because she likes to pull people’s strings and when they don’t dance at the end of her string she has a little fit.”
The caller confirmed this had been a lifelong pattern. “This is 100% what this woman is,” he said. Ramsey added, “I kind of think when you give her 12 grand, you’re probably going to get a letter that goes ‘Oh yeah, I forgot about the other thousand you still owe.'”
He went on to say, “I don’t know if you’re ever going to make her happy. So I’m not sure paying her is going to work. I am sure not paying her is going to piss her off.”
The caller agreed, adding, “Absolutely.”
Ramsey's final word of advice? Confront her with the facts and set boundaries. “It’s a lie. And you told me this, and I’m going with what you told me, and we’re not going to pay you.”
While legal obligations may be absent, the emotional toll of standing firm against family pressure can be heavy.
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