After their dad got scammed multiple times, S’porean now wants to take over his finances

SINGAPORE: With obvious frustration after their father had been repeatedly scammed, a local Reddit user said they were considering taking over his money matters.

In a recent post on r/askSingapore, u/Kedeweth heartbreakingly wrote: “Today I found out that my dad had been scammed again for a high four-figure sum.”

They went on to say that their father had made bad financial decisions in the past, including signing up for credit cards (which, with his limited income, he might not have been able to pay), debts that required deposits to a number of people, as well as scams, including one where a temple staff supposedly “bought toto for him and won but he need to pay commission to get the money”.

However, the most recent scam cost the post author’s father almost all his savings.

This has led u/Kedeweth to think about taking over their father’s finances and access to all his funds. At present, their dad is still working, although he receives a salary of just over S$2,000 a month. He also “smokes, buys toto and 4d,” the post author added.

“It isn’t out of line to micromanage, right? I wonder if anybody has had any experience dealing with situations like this,” they wrote.

A commenter who has been in the same situation wrote, “Nope, you do what you gotta do. You are averting a potential financial disaster here. Take over whatever control he is willing to surrender and negotiate the rest. Get him hospital insurance too, or his medical bills will be a burden in the future.”

The commenter’s father had gambled away their family’s money to the point of conning their mother and other relatives, and the savings from their first job went to paying their father’s debts.

“He is retired now with less than 2K in his account. Basically depends on us to keep him alive. He still buys Toto regularly. We can’t stop him from going, but it’s better for him to risk a small token sum than six figures,” the commenter added.

“Better to micromanage now than to suffer the consequences later. Limit his money so he will not be tempted to do anything silly,” advised another.

“I think you have to have a good chat with your dad, continuously. Forcing him to accept you as the financial manager is not going to be easy and pleasant — unless both of you have an awesome relationship,” wrote a Reddit user.

In a comment, the post author wrote that they had taken the plunge.

“He hasn’t been the provider of the family (if anything, my mum is the breadwinner). I talked to him after writing the post, he just went along and agreed with the plan,” u/Kedeweth wrote. /TISG

Read also: Wife discovers husband secretly spent S$80k on in-game purchases, plunging family into debt