16 Stories That Prove Money Can Change Everything

Hundreds of books have been written about the problems connected with money. It’s believed to spoil people. Here are a few stories that don’t necessarily confirm this belief, but will certainly make you think about these things.

• A tiler I know told me this story: “I met a classmate, we got to talking. He built his own house, was engaged in finishing. But he wasn’t good with tiles. I offered my help.
  I tiled the bathroom in a day. I didn’t ask for money, he’s a classmate, after all. I thought he’d at least offer me tea. So, I keep silent and keep on working. In the evening, I got really hungry.
  I asked, ’Will you at least give me some tea?’ We went into the kitchen, and his wife was cooking soup. So, I thought that I’d finally have some food.
  But my classmate gave me just tea, barely warm. In the evening, I told him he was a greedy bastard. And he took offense, saying that he didn’t have to feed me. And his wife would have to clean the floor after me.” © Victor Sumrak / Dzen
• My ex-mother-in-law gave me a blanket for my daughter at the discharge from the maternity hospital. A year later, when my sister-in-law gave birth, our blanket was taken away. I didn’t argue. There were other stories.
  My ex-husband was a correspondence student in the university, asked his mother to pay for part of his tuition, promised to come back from his fly-in fly-out job and return the debt. His mother gave him the money. Then there was some kind of family get-together. The mother boasted about her son and spent half the evening saying that there was no need to return anything, it was her gift to her son, from her, a supermum.
  He passed the session, returned to his fly-in fly-out job for 3 months. I lived alone with my daughter. And suddenly my ex-mother-in-law showed up and asked me when I was going to give her money back. For some reason, I was the one who was supposed to give it back.
  She literally shouted that her son studies in my interests, because when he gets a higher education, he will start bringing a larger salary to my family. The fact that I had higher education myself and earned a decent income without them didn’t seem to matter. © Margarita S-Behemoth / Dzen
• After 10 years together, we decided to break up. We had bought a car together. I mentioned that I wanted my half, so he sat down and counted how much he spent on gas for me. He gave me 1/4 of the amount that he had sold it for. But life is trickier.
  When I was taking the plants to move them to my new place, the cat dropped a bag on me from the top shelf, and there was money for the car in it. I thought such things can’t happen. They can. But I didn’t take anything extra, I don’t need it. © Lenka Belka / Dzen

• A very beautiful friend of mine married a rich man. They had a daughter. Eventually, my friend filed for divorce. He left the apartment they lived in, but he demanded his share. He also took the furniture that he bought, and removed the faucets.
  And when the judge asked, “How can you let such a woman go?” He replied, “I still love her.” By the way, the furniture that he took away when they divorced, just rotted away at his mother’s place in the shed — he had no place for it. © Alina V / Dzen
• A co-worker went on a business trip, and her parents took the children to their summer cottage. Her ex-husband took everything out of the flat except what was in the nursery. Her clothes, children’s things that were in the wardrobes, and books were lying on the floor in a pile. He wrote on the wall, “But you still have the flat.”
  In the kitchen, he left only the sink, the tap and the stove. In the bathroom, there was only a bathtub and a tap left, he dismantled the sink, but left the toilet. The flat belonged to her parents, but they built a country house and moved there permanently. © Svetlana S / Dzen
• We came to visit my cousin, 6 hours on the road. My mum asked her for tea, and she said there was no tea. We ate our own sandwiches and drove on.
  We never came to them empty-handed. We brought gifts for her son. But there was no tea for us. She knew we were coming.
  And my mother-in-law boiled 2 sausages for 6 people and some spaghetti for dinner. My son didn’t get any spaghetti, and he’s her grandson. After dinner, I saw a pack of sausages in the fridge, sealed. These sausages stayed there for a week. © Irina / Dzen

• My immediate family (sister, brothers) are jealous of me. I would never even think of it. 3 years ago, I bought a country house. My older brother asked everyone, “Where did she get the money?”
  My younger brother, too, because I stopped helping him. Before that, I paid all his expenses. I am within walking distance of everyone, nobody visits me, as if I am not here. © Sara Manzani / Dzen
• My friend and I graduated from the same college in our hometown. She got a job as a lawyer at an oil refinery, the salary was excellent. I worked as a lawyer in an ordinary company and received pennies. She always sympathized with me, saying, “Don’t worry, not everyone is lucky, maybe you will find a good job.”
  Then I gave up everything and moved to the capital, where I became an attorney. My friend’s factory was closed, and now she works as a lawyer in a small vet clinic. She stopped talking to me, and we used to be thick as thieves. © S "N “M / Dzen
• We have 3 units in our block, all of them have decent doors, but we had a metal one. My daughter nagged me, “Mum, change the door.” So, I went, chose a beautiful, quite expensive door. We installed it.
  The neighbor says, “Are you showing off or what?” And the door does look nice. A month later, he installed a door even more beautiful than mine. How I laughed at him at home. © Lyubov Unarokova / Dzen

• My ex-best mate inherited 400K, quit his job, blew 120K of that money on a car, pissed the rest away on eating out and now complains the world is against him. Man’s a clown. © PrincePascha / Reddit
• When I signed a massive, massive deal at the company I owed (and I assume my mom told a bunch of people), suddenly friends and family I hadn’t heard from in years wanted to spend time together. Same when my mom passed away, in both cases I wanted to think it was for altruistic reasons, but the timing was just too convenient. The interaction between my existing friend group who also knew about these events didn’t change. © DaveLLD / Reddit
• My old coworker recently won about $300,000 in the lotto. She started posting life updates — finally she has a bed for herself, since she had been sharing with her 8-year-old. She bought a car and can drive her kid around town. She can now host sleepovers since food security isn’t an issue. Just the most wholesome pics of her and her very happy kid.
  Then she shared how she was overwhelmed by the hundreds of private messages from people coming out of the woodwork looking for handouts. She didn’t even win that much, just enough to make her life comfortable. But people felt entitled to it. © joyfall / Reddit

• In 2017, my sister had no permanent residence, bouncing from couch to couch. She was working for minimum wage, just keeping herself afloat. Something happened and my nephew (son of a different sister) was taken into protective custody, and she and I took on the responsibility together.
  I moved them into my house, which was really small, so they had to share the living room. She worked really hard and saved to get a tiny apartment for them, struggled to furnish it and pay the bills, but she did it. Then in 2019, her estranged biological father died, and the trust fund that her biological grandfather set up was passed down to his only living relative — my sister.
  Literally overnight, she became a very well off person. She owns a really nice house now, has a new car, her backyard is like a paradise for my nephew and the 2 other foster kids she took in, and she never has to work again. They want for absolutely nothing. No one deserved it more than her. © treremay / Reddit
• My husband and I make a pretty good income. We have friends whose incomes are much lower than ours. We often pay for them at cafes, buy groceries if we come to visit and are going to cook something. It was like that for about 5 years.
  And then all of a sudden their business took off, they became not exactly rich, but at least not poor. Not that we were waiting, but we thought we’d get some kind of payback for all those years. Turns out we were wrong. We still pay for all the dinners, but now my friend has an expensive phone and a holiday at the sea.

• We have been living with my boyfriend for 5 years, we were in love, but he was in no hurry to propose to me, always laughed it off. There were no money issues — our salaries are the same, we live in my apartment, and rent out his place.
  Recently I received a good inheritance: an apartment, a house and money. So after a couple of months, my boyfriend proposed to me with a beautiful ring. I can’t get rid of the feeling that when I was poorer, he was in no hurry to marry me, but now he can’t wait. © Admin / Y-story
• I found out that my husband had had a savings account for a long time, and now I’m thinking about divorcing him. I shared it with my sister. She didn’t support me. She says that this can’t be a reason for divorce. If he was spending all that money, then it would be.
  However, I think she’s wrong: for 3 years, we have never once had a normal holiday, saved on everything, worked 2 jobs, bought groceries on sale. My husband constantly complained that there was no money, but regularly topped up his account.
  We often quarreled, he accused me of excessive spending. For example, he was indignant when I bought salmon for Christmas dinner. I don’t want to have children with this man. © Admin / Y-story

And here’s a story from a woman who stopped giving her son pocket money. Find out what happened next.