Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.
Parents can’t help wanting to fix things for their kids. That instinct is what led a Cincinnati mom to call “The Ramsey Show” with a plan she thought would finally end a long-running financial entanglement.
She explained that sixteen years ago, she and her then-husband bought a house for their only son and his wife because the couple’s credit “wasn’t good at the time.” The deal was clear: they’d live there, make the payments, and refinance the mortgage into their own names within five years. That never happened.
Don’t Miss:
Now, at 65 and remarried, she still co-owns the home with her ex-husband, who is in poor health. The balance on the loan is about $30,000, and her daughter-in-law recently raised a new concern — if her ex needed nursing-home care, what would happen to the property still held in his name? The caller wanted to pay off the mortgage using retirement funds and sign the deed over to her son, but she hoped to do it without triggering a gift-tax bill.
That’s the question she brought to Dave Ramsey: could she use a quitclaim deed and avoid taxes?
Ramsey didn’t hesitate. He said there was a legal way to do it, but it wouldn’t make the situation any healthier.
“Your son is a complete parasite,” he told her. “He’s done a horrible job managing his life and honoring his mother.”
Trending: Arrived Home’s Private Credit Fund’s has historically paid an annualized dividend yield of 8.1%*, which provides access to a pool of short-term loans backed by residential real estate with just a $100 minimum.
He explained that she could pay off the balance, execute quitclaim deeds from both owners, and file what’s called the unified estate-tax credit. That filing, he said, would keep the IRS from treating the transfer as a taxable gift. But even with the right paperwork, Ramsey made clear he thought the idea was wrong.
“The whole deal was a bad idea from the start,” he said. “Your son deserves a mess because he is a mess.”
The caller stayed composed and kept returning to the task at hand — getting the house out of her name and gifting it to her son without the tax burden. Ramsey warned that even if the transaction cleaned up the paperwork, it wouldn’t fix the problem behind it.
“If your kid has bad credit and can’t hold down a job, they’re not going to get better by you buying them a house,” he said. “That’s not help. That’s participating in the problem.”
After the call, Ramsey and co-host George Kamel reflected on why these situations repeat themselves. Ramsey said that some of “the nicest people anywhere” are enablers — people who are so kind they avoid necessary conflict. “They’re genuinely sweet,” he said, emphasizing he wasn’t being sarcastic. “But that kind of kindness hurts more than it helps.”
See Also: The ‘ChatGPT of Marketing’ Just Opened a $0.81/Share Round — 10,000+ Investors Are Already In
Kamel agreed, saying what feels like compassion can quietly turn into harm. “Short-term help can lead to long-term harm,” he said, adding that many callers think they’re helping a family member who “can’t do it on their own,” only to discover it creates years of financial and emotional fallout.
Ramsey closed the discussion with his usual brand of tough love. He told listeners that love and money don’t mix well when one person continually rescues another. “You may think paying off that house is cleaning up a mess,” he said, “but what you’re really doing is keeping him from ever learning how to live without your money.”
While the caller’s mind seemed made up, she at least left with her answer: how to handle the gift-tax issue and the quitclaim process. Whether she followed Ramsey’s advice is another story.
For anyone facing a similar decision, financial experts recommend consulting a certified financial planner or estate attorney before transferring property or large gifts. Parenting — especially when money is involved — rarely follows a single rulebook. Some children give more than they take; others drain their parents’ resources for years. Ramsey’s opinion was based on what he heard: a son with bad credit, unpaid debts, and a house that never left his parents’ names. What happens next, as always, depends on the family.
Read Next: Backed by $300M+ in Assets and Microsoft’s Climate Fund, Farmland LP Opens Vital Farmland III to Accredited Investors
Image: Shutterstock
This article ‘Your Son Is A Parasite,’ Dave Ramsey Tells 65-Year-Old After Hearing She Plans To Sign A House Over To Him. ‘He’s Done A Horrible Job Honoring His Mother’ originally appeared on Benzinga.com
