Ramit SethiRamit Sethi: The No-BS Guide to Living a Rich Life

Is Giving Her Parents Money Actually Helping Them?

31 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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1:07

In this conversational segment, Ramit Sethi probes a guest (Speaker B) about the dynamics of financial support within families, especially in a South Asian context. He contrasts the guest’s willingness to set expectations and hold a partner (Arham) accountable—thereby boosting the partner’s capabilities—with the guest’s more deferential, hierarchical view of his own parents, treating them as above him and not expecting them to act like peers. Sethi highlights that while expectations can empower a partner, the same approach is not applied to the guest’s mother, suggesting that giving money to parents may not foster their financial ability and could reinforce a child‑like dependency. The dialogue explores cultural hierarchies, the impact of expectations on financial agency, and the potential pitfalls of providing unconditional financial aid to parents.

You effectively told Arham, if you don't make a plan for this and deal with it, this relationship can't continue. You said that, right?
Mm-hmm.
Have you ever applied that same thing to your own family?
No.
Why the disconnect?
My parents are my parents. They're above me. I don't expect my parents to be the same as me and Arham.
It's interesting. There is a hierarchy, but we might look at it and say you treat them almost as if they're below you. Below, as if they couldn't figure things out for themselves, like a child. I don't mean to insult— I hope it's not coming across. I'm very sensitive to the South Asian dynamics here. I'm very well aware of them. You know, it'd be easy for somebody who's raised here with no cultural knowledge to be like, just cut them off. Obviously that's not what I'm saying, but in a way, your expectation for Aram has raised his abilities. And yet the way that you have built this financial relationship with your parents and your mom especially has not raised their abilities.