didn’t need the numbers to speak.
I needed the payments to stop.
I canceled the automatic mortgage payment to Diane’s house.
Then I asked Patricia to pull up everything I had paid on behalf of relatives.
The spreadsheet filled the monitor.
Six years of mortgage payments.
Four years of tuition.
Insurance premiums.
Emergency transfers.
Wedding vendors.
Line after line.
The total at the bottom:
$214,600.
I stared at it.
More than a down payment on a house.
More than a decade of retirement contributions.
More than many people earn
