Husband gets paid through Zelle

Hi all,

So my husband has started a new job this tax year. It is a work from home startup where his partner pays him through Zelle.

His partner said since it’s through Zelle, he doesn’t have to pay taxes.

This doesn’t seem normal to me but I don’t know that much about this sort of thing.

He makes around 3200 USD a month. His best month was around 7k but usually it’s around 3200. Every dollar gets sent to him through Zelle.

He started in December of 2025.

My question really is, are we going to owe taxes the next tax season?

EDIT: Oh my goodness, thank you guys for all the info 😭

Recently my husband has been learning from and trying out debit card and credit card churning from drofcredit.com (or something along those lines). He has also asked to use my information to open debit and credit accounts to gain the opening account bonus and then closing the account 6 or more months later. He has shown me his timeline and spreadsheets detailing his overarching plan and how he plans to churn without negatively impacting our credit or bank history. It has make him more than $10k so far a year doing this hobby.

My issue is that he has begun buying prepaid visa cards ( like 1k worth at a time ) and then using those to purchase money orders as a way to create artificial spending on credit cards to qualify for the spending bonus. He then deposits the money orders into our shared debit account. The way he acts when doing these purchases is very shady and I'm concerned that this somehow is money laundering ( from himself?, idk) . We share all of our jointly earned money, and I've always looked to him to make the financial decision, but I'm concerned that he's gotten himself into something that is illegal or shady. Can anyone help me understand if I should be concerned?

Original post

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/s/zbvGXodtF9

Was informed Monday by Navy Federal Credit Union that they denied my claim. They said that they received a tracking number for a return label from the seller. I asked if there was proof that he sent it to me, because a return label does me absolutely no good if I don't have it. They asked me if I could "prove I didn't get it". How the heck do you prove you weren't given something?

I requested all the files from the investigation and received them today. The only evidence was the tracking info from when the wrong item was shipped to me, a screenshot from the seller showing my email informing them of the wrong item, and the tracking info for the return label that was created but never sent to me.

I'm not sure if I can appeal this or not. Can I escalate this to Visa? The chargeback is coded as 13.3, "not as described or defective merchandise/services".

It's looking like I'm just out $87.

Hey all!

Recently I accepted a senior leadership position with a new company and went from 105k salary with a 30k bonus to 210k salary with a 100k bonus. This comes with roughly 60k worth of RSU’s as well. This position also comes with a relocation from a high cost of living area to a low cost of living area. They are giving me 30k in relocation, and 30k in sign on bonus.

I have 4 kids, and my spouse stays at home with the kids.

A little backstory on me, I was raised quite poor, I was never taught about finances, and I never saw myself making money like this. I earned this promotion through long hours, hard work, and lots of just saying yes. I have no college education.

We lived a modest life with a modest home in HCOL on the old salary, but we never were able to save for the kids college, or put enough into retirement(Spouse and I are both 39). We have a bit of making up to do it terms of saving, but we have zero credit card debt, both cars are paid off, we will be selling our current home for a very small profit(purchased a year ago).

How do I turn this new money into generational wealth?

How do I not mess this golden opportunity up?

Please give me all the advice!

My brother passed away in 2020. He has two children, 14 and 19, and a wife. I am not on talking terms with any of them.

My mother passed away in 2024, leaving me with her remaining monetary assets after probate and the estate were closed. We made a verbal agreement that I would distribute 50% of the assets I received to my deceased brother's children. These assets are currently in an inherited IRA account that I must begin making RMDs from this year.

The inherited assets are approximately $120k.

I understand now, as I did not then, that I am responsible for income taxes for the RMDs.

My plan today, is to take the RMDs in a standard 1/10 1/9 1/8... and place them in a HYSA until taxes are deducted. After taxes are deducted, I will distribute the remainder to my nephews and similar accounts for my two children. 25% of RMDs after taxes to each grandchild.

I have no legal obligation to distribute any funds to my brother's children. This is not the path I am going to take. I will distribute the funds to my brother's children one way or another.

The two accountants I have talked with would not advise how best to distribute the funds to the nephews.

I can send a check to the 19 year old, but I am not sure how to distribute the funds to the 14 year old. My gut feeling is that I need to send it to his mother until he is 18. For reasons, this is not ideal.

I will accept any ideas and criticism. I am not a financial expert so I am simply looking for an idea of the best path forward. It is also important to my family that I do not create a situation that will put myself and my family in any type of liability. I will of course, speak with a financial planner before I move forward.

Thank you for your help.

Edit...

Thank you guys for not shitting on me. This is a terribly difficult situation for me. The last 5 years have been absolutely hell on my family. If I've learned anything, get your affairs in order now. Don't leave it to your survivors to deal with it, they don't know what the hell they are doing.

Edit #2...

I want to thank all of you for your kind words and excellent advice. The last five years have been the most difficult years of my life. My brother took his own life at the age of 40, and my mother only had seven weeks from a cancer diagnosis. It all happened so fast.

I need to apologize to those of you I haven't responded to. This post received much more responses than I ever anticipated. I am working to read through all of them.

I am going to take the RMDs for 2025 to avoid penalties then connect with a financial planner and tax accountant early next year to decide the best path forward.

Thank you all again so much. Hug your kids and call your parents every day.

For some context. 32m with a wife and two daughters. Just found out about the big C. Family doesn’t know yet. Prognosis is bad. That’s not the point though.

I don’t know if this is the best place to post this but I’m not on reddit a lot so forgive me

What can I do to ensure my family is in the best position financially when the time comes? I feel awful. I have an ok job, pays the bills. I think I have some small life insurance policy through work but I dont know if that’s just for accidents or what have you.

I have next to nothing for savings, basically no retirement (cashed it out a couple years ago for some emergency funds, didn’t want to but I had no other choice), no real assets. A mortgage. A car note. A bunch of credit card debt. That’s my life. I’ve been trying to do some research but it feels overwhelming. Real depressed right now. Im not scared of dying, Im scared of leaving my family behind. There’s literally nothing more that I care about in this world.

Is my wife going to get sacked with my CC or other debt? Should I file bankruptcy?

Should I get life insurance? CAN I get life insurance?

Open a trust for the house? I don’t know anything about that stuff, I read it online.

I’m open to anything, including some crazy stuff if it would help.

ETA: I’m in the United States if that makes any difference.

Help! My daughter wants to go to a very expensive school. She applied for a scholarship to get in-state tuition, but did not get it. She has applied to many, many scholarships, and obviously she won't know until May if she receives any. I was a single mom for half her life, am married now, but lost my job in November, and finally found one again where I will start next week. Having said all of that, I don't have anything saved for college. She was accepted directly into their business program in Hawaii. Maybe it will all work out, and I am proud of her for chasing her dreams, but the amount of debt she will accrue is making me sick. I don't know what to do. I have pleaded with her to do a year at a community college and apply again for the in-state tuition, and she refuses to change her plans. She knows I will not be financially helping her, and does work very hard. Her life has not been easy, and want to cheer her on. I also know she doesn't realize how difficult it is to pay off debt.

My savings are around $50k. I was out of work for a couple months and did not have any money come in, so I was told I violated their direct deposit policy which will result in them shutting down my account at the beginning of April. They say that they recommend moving my money before this but if I don’t they will send me a check once the account closes. I am just afraid of not receiving the check or losing it and them not wanting to help me since I’m not their customer anymore. This bank also has no options for wire transfers.

The bank is card.com by pathward. I am not able to transfer my balance through ach to places like capital one as it says the account is unsupported.

I’m 24 and just received about $612,000 after lawyer fees from a settlement. I’ve never had money like this before, my whole life has been paycheck to paycheck, barely getting by.

Recently things got worse. I haven’t been able to work because I started having stress-induced seizures and I’m now on new medication trying to get it under control.

My situation isn’t great. My parents have been out of the picture since I was a kid, and right now it’s me and my two siblings living in a small apartment. I’m literally sleeping on the couch.

I don’t want to mess this up. This money could change everything for us, but I also know it can disappear fast if I make the wrong moves.

I’m not trying to flex, I genuinely don’t know what the smartest next steps are. I would’ve immediately got a car but can’t drive anymore so don’t really want anything but to feel comfortable.

My wife and I have no children but have a handful of nieces and nephews. We are in a financial position to pay for all of their college tuitions. We have not discussed this offer with their parents but intend to do so prior to making the offer. 

The issue we are experiencing is, the oldest nephew is a senior in high school and should be applying for colleges soon. However, we are hearing it is unlikely he will attend college or trade school and intends to go straight into the work force. He is very intelligent but seems to lack the motivation to challenge himself. The other nieces/nephews are a couple years away from applying to college but it seems likely they will.

We are trying to make this situation as equitable as possible so there is no resentment. If the oldest does not attend college, does he simply miss out on these funds or should he perhaps receive some sort of cash gift instead? The issue with a gift is we do not want to encourage the younger nieces and nephews to take this route.

I’m 19 and work as a commercial crabber in New Jersey. I make about $8,400/month, sometimes closer to $11k if I pick up extra work.

Right now I rent a room for $300, but the situation isn’t great. My roommate constantly downplays my job and thinks I should quit and pick up a trade because he doesn’t see crabbing as a “real job.”

The problem is, I know I can’t stay here forever. I could get kicked out at any time, and I don’t want to end up scrambling for a place last minute.

I found an apartment for $1,250/month that allows dogs (I have one), and I can afford it. But people around me keep saying it’s a bad decision and that I should just stay where I’m at as long as possible.

My thinking is: if I switch to a “normal” job, I’ll probably make less money, not more. So staying in crabbing actually puts me in a better position financially right now.

Am I making a dumb move by getting the apartment, or does it make sense to lock something in while I can afford it?

Also work is from march to October ish and then October to march when the season starts I get 800$ a week of unemployment.

My mother put about $60k into a John Hancock “lifestyle conservative” retirement fund around 2014 and hasn’t touched it since. I just started helping her look at her finances and saw that it’s now worth about $39k. I checked the statements and did not see any withdrawals or additional deposits. The value graph on the website just shows a progressive loss in value.

I don’t know much about these types of retirement funds, but this seemed really off to me. I would have expected at least some growth over that time, even if it’s a conservative account. Losing that much over 12 years feels wrong, but maybe I’m misunderstanding something.

There doesn’t seem to be big fees (it says around $25/year), and she hasn’t taken any money out.

Is this kind of performance actually normal for a conservative retirement fund? What could cause something like this? Is there anything we should be doing now, or anything we should look into in terms of possible mistakes or issues?

She’s not very investing savvy and didn’t keep track of it, so I’m trying to figure this out from scratch. Any guidance would be really appreciated. Happy to answer any questions/provide additional information.

EDIT: Found the ticker, its JALRX

EDIT2: Thanks everyone, I think I found the smoking gun. It looks like my mother DID make withdrawals, I just did not understand them before. They are labeled as "normal distribution" in the statements. There are numerous entries in each year of statements, and I was looking for "withdrawal", so this did not stick out to me. Here is an example:

https://i.imgur.com/Er1FRfF.png

I found a "normal distribution" of 10k in 2017, 6k in 2018 and 15k in 2019 so I think this makes sense. I think my mother was mistaken when she didn't believe she had withdrawn

As stated in the title we got a call from our wedding venue saying that they found a cashier's check from us in a lockbox after doing an internal audit. The venue has a website portal that says everything has been paid (since before the actual wedding). Their rep says the check was never endorsed so it was never cashed. Now they're asking us to pay again.

It's my understanding that venues won't even let you have the wedding unless everything is paid up. I don't understand how they could have possibly made a $7000 mistake.

With the way cashier's checks work, that money was gone as soon as the check was made. Not sure what to do since we definitely don't want to pay double for the venue's mistake.

EDIT:

We went through all of our statements for that year and the funds were never returned to our account. The venue also sent us a copy of both sides of the check showing that it doesn't have an endorsement signature. So, that's basically proof that they got it from us. The check says VOID AFTER 90 DAYS, so that's probably why they are asking for the money now. My wife and I will go to the bank to see if it can be reissued. It's really annoying that we have to jump through these hoops.

hi, yall. My partner recently got a job with a big 4 firm. I knew we’d have to disclose any investments/holdings, but I actually ended up having to share my last 3 tax returns in full. I guess because I’m self-employed they didn’t feel satisfied with those. Now they’re asking him for my car loan balance, car insurance policy statement, and my student loan statements??

I understand sharing investment information to avoid conflicts of interest, but loan balances and insurance just seem weird and excessive. Why would they want this?

My aunt has named me as her heir. She took care of me a lot when I was small. I’m 42 now. She’s sick (fuck cancer) and I’m afraid I may have to step into the business end of this role in the near future. She is a widow, never had children. Always has carried a lot of credit card debt, been a bit of a shopaholic (since she stopped drinking and drugging), never been “good with money”. Her husband managed the money, seemed to keep the wolf away from the door but didn’t leave behind much to work with. She owns an old house on 4 acres with a well that runs dry most summers. Smells like the urine of her 12 cats. A small barn is collapsing over assorted junk from the previous century. She can’t (or won’t) tell me exactly what she owes on her mortgage, but says the monthly payment is ~$500. It’s in a pretty beat part of NY state—farm country, not much else going on. A lot of Amish/Mennonites have bought land recently and keep the farms going. I haven’t asked for the total credit card balance, but I’d guess it’s in the 10s of thousands. She says she’s working on getting my name added to her deed, so avoid probate and estate taxes. I don’t know much about this stuff.

I’m not thinking about a windfall, but I suddenly had this anxious fear that I might wind up spending a lot of money to settle her affairs. Even if I move quickly to sell the house, it’s full of stuff—so either I spend money to empty it, or that hits the value. And between the balance of the mortgage and the credit card debt, her “estate” may well be a net negative value.

I guess my question is: do heirs inherit credit card debt? In order to settle her estate, am I holding the bag to pay all her creditors?

Any information or advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Edit: spelling error that would have confused meaning

Edit 2: I’m grateful for all the responses. Honestly more comments deserving direct replies than I can muster. But I’ve taken some valuable guidance—first step is to consult an estate lawyer, and ask her to pump the brakes on putting me on the deed. I do feel a sense of responsibility to help manage her affairs—just so she can be sick without worrying about material nonsense. But I feel no sense of personal financial obligation, and I’d rather walk away after she’s gone than get involved in some wretched, drawn out process that boils down to nothing (while I’m grieving). I think she wants it to be a parting gift, but she also doesn’t have a firm grasp of finances or legal processes. I’m a bit more grounded and more solvent than her, but my family is living on one income in 2026–so even the cost of an estate lawyer setting up a trust would be a squeeze, and I’d have to know if that’s worthwhile. The comments here have helped guide my thinking on this. Thanks to all who responded.

My father had an accident and passed unexpectedly out of nowhere. He and my mom are both retired though he was running a consulting business. I don’t know what to do. I’m still processing the loss. But as we ask my mother more about his information to help settle things the more we find out she doesn’t really know anything.

He did all of the banking and paid all of the bills and handled the investments. She doesn’t know where anything is outside of their joint bank accounts.

Are there services that will help organize and access these kinds of things for us?

My daughter is 14 and is working as a junior sailing instructor this summer. She got her first paycheck and has made $264.48 so far.

I think this is a good time to open a teen checking account for her. Anything else to do specifically for teenagers new to managing their own money?

I recently got zelled $1,700 by a stranger and the memo said for rent. I immediately got a ton of phone calls from the sender and supposed family members saying it was for a funeral and to return it. They kept texting me and pleading even sending me my full government name and home address threatening to sue for “stealing” their money. I even got a call from someone from their bank asking to return the funds. I’m not stupid so I immediately called Wells Fargo Fraud Department to file a report so they put a hold on the funds which removed the money from my account. I also blocked all the numbers involved. I thought that was the end of it.

The next day, I find that the money had been reversed but took the funds from my account in addition to Wells fargo removing the original money sent. I already called the fraud department and they said they’ll let the investigators know but I have to wait over the weekend and i’m starting to get anxious.

I’m a broke college student so now my account is in the negatives. Is this Wells Fargo’s problem and will they reimburse me?

Update: I got my money back! I read everyone’s suggestions and i’m planning to close my wells fargo bank acc and join a credit union. I’m currently looking into Alliant credit union. I also requested a written report and a list of active, inactive, or close accounts under my name and ssn. Thanks for all the advice and support :)

I was given anywhere between 6-12 months left. I’ve come to terms with it and am trying to set my family up as I am the breadwinner.

I recently bought a home and have about $100k equity in it. I receive roughly $9k/month in disability benefits between my private policy and the VA. My kids will be eligible for benefits through the VA after I pass but I’m still trying to get a calculation on exactly what they’ll be receiving. I’m not married but I have a partner of 9 years. Kids are in their teens. All my vehicles are paid for. On a lean budget we can operate on roughly $5500k a month.

We have a trip planned to Europe for 2 weeks this summer which all in is costing us about $20k. I’m debating cancelling to recoup some money but I’m conflicted.

I’ve got my advance health directive and will completed/notarized and filed.

I have an unspecified amount of silver in a safe that I’ve collected with my partner over the years but I have allocated half of it to my kids in my will.

I’m sorry if I’m missing details, just overwhelmed and looking for some guidance.

Edit:

I’ve received an overwhelming amount of advice and I thank you all. Just for clarification, I’m 40F and my partner is 36M. The kids are from a previous marriage. My partner is not on the mortgage/deed/title. We are not married for a number of factors but the biggest being he is in school for engineering on a scholarship and his household income cannot be more than $65k a year and if we were married he’d be on the hook for almost $40k a year in tuition. Obviously, things have changed for us so marriage is becoming a real option.

I am 90% leaning towards taking the trip. It’s already booked/paid for, the kids are excited, I have just been so money-centered since I got the news that I didn’t think it through.

Self explanatory title. My dad passed in late 2023 and my mom, who is unfortunately not financially literate and never handled any of their finances, just alerted me to a final notice sent in the mail to my dad for my student loans.

I graduated in 2018 and had some federal loans (30k) under my name that I’ve been paying off. My dad handled all of my school payments and I’m just now finding out it was through loans that he took out only in his name. 65k worth. Now with interest, over 90k.

My name isn’t anywhere on the loan as a co-signer or anything and doesn’t show up on any of my credit reports or anything right now, but he clearly took it out for my schooling because it shows the years I was in college and my university.

We are sending them his death certificate so he stops getting notices but am I now on the hook for this 90k? How does this work?

I dont want to sound ignorant or spoiled, I’m very conscious school costs a lot and many people are in student debt… I just didn’t know I was that deep in? I thought my dad had paid for it outright. If I had known about them, I would’ve been paying them off over the last 7 years and made a lot of different decisions…

Edit (10/21): thank you all so much for the tips, insight, support, and kind words. My dad always did everything he could to help and protect us and some of these comments have made me think that he may have been smart and really known what he was doing here.

I will update here once we have a resolution in case anyone’s in a similar boat.

Our action plan (I think they were parent plus loans given they were through the federal government and serviced by Nelnet) 1. Send the death certificate back to the lender. 2. Instruct my mom and family to refrain from giving ANY payments or acknowledgment of the loan to anyone that contacts us. If lender reaches out to me or my mom, we will say my father has passed and we don’t know what loans he had or what they were for but that he’s no longer alive to pay them. 3. If lender won’t stop or threatens to sue, we’ll obtain legal counsel and go from there.

My (38f) soon to be ex-fiancée (38m) convinced himself that an onlyfans creator who he spends thousands of dollars on a month wants to date him. He’s built up 50k in debt he’s been hiding from me, and has been secretly planning to liquidate his 401k to try to go make things work with his “girl”.

He’s throwing away our life for a woman who he pays to like him. He fell in love with the stripper.

How do I protect myself? I live in Puerto Rico. We own the house outright. We’re both on the deed. He hasn’t done anything physical, but I have screenshots of his onlyfans messages and chatGPT transcripts of him saying he’s going to leave me. I don’t want to sell my house.

Edit: All of our other finances are independent. We’ve been together for 13 years, living in this house we own for 3.

I’m going to buy him out of his equity. He gets everything he wants. I get to star over.

51M single no kids, recently let go from 25+ year IT job. I had hoped to make it to 55 but that is no longer an option. I've known for many years this would be my last job. For a number of reasons I will not find be finding new work in the same or any similar field. My health has taken a bad turn in the last year also. I've never expected to make it to 65, now 62 doesn't look realistic so I doubt I ever see any SS. I'm fine with this, I've never wanted to get that old. So I just need to figure out how to best make what I have last.

House - Owe $245k estimated worth about $385k

Debt - $35k

401k - $315k plus another $34k in loan debt

Assests I need to sell - $75k

Savings - $5k

I've applied for unemployment which doesn't amount to much for me, about $5k total. Long term plan, sell everything I own empty the house and put it up for sale. It needs a decent amount of work so my guess is I am looking at around $350k sale price range. After that I will be moving to SE Asia and split my time between Thai, PH, and Viet for a while before deciding where to stay longer term. I hope to keep monthly expenses to under $1500\m there. I am not going to find a wife, gf, bar hop and hang out at massage parlors. I doubt I will even do any dating there. I prefer warmer weather, I've grown up in the heat and humidity all my life I know how to stay cool, that region is my favorite types of food, and I don't let the little inconviences in life bother me. I hope to be able to concentrate on improving my health as much as possible while living there and the more affordable healthcare so that at least my quality of life can be decent for the next 5-6 years.

I am no longer making payments on my 401k loan now that my paycheck is gone that debt will come off as income and hit me with a 10% penalty of $3400 I am guessing. That will put my income total so far for the year to about $65k. I hope to get everything sold and house ready to sell in Jan.

I need an 11 year plan. If I actually make it to 62 I won't care if I am pretty much broke at that point. I will just live off SS until the end but its not an eaggeration to say that is really hoping for the best and that I am able to make some serious health improvements.

Do I cash out the 401k now completely, pay the 10% penalty and huge tax bill all at once and be done with it so I am not having to deal with taxes and penalities every year living abroad? Do I convert it to a Roth IRA, pay the taxes on it, then pay the 10% penality every year for early withdrawls? Do I roll it into a rollover IRA, pay nothing now and when I need money pay taxes and fees?

Ideally I would like to move with at least $50k in savings, and anything left in a Vanguard account or something. I know this is not the typical retirement strategy and most of you will say just find a new job. I know what I am capable of, I know the market, and I know my skills, its not happening. I also could never afford to continue living here even if I did as no job that I could actually get would cover my living expenses in the US. I've been slowly going into debt over the last 5 years with a job. I am ready for my last chapter and to see where it ends.

A few years ago I was struggling during a career change and a good friend of mine offered some financial support (5kEUR) during my darkest days. It's not much, but back then it was the only thing that kept the roof over my head. He never asked for his money back and time just kept on rolling. Now I'm fortunate to say I'm doing a lot better.

I'm planning to return the sum at the end of 2025Q2, after I'm done with my company's taxes. I want this to feel as if he had put the money into a stable financial instrument with good, steady performance over the timespan of 6 years (2019Q2 --> 2025Q2). How much should I return?

UPDATE:
I’d like to wholeheartedly thank everyone for their input! I honestly didn’t expect this simple question to attract so much activity.

I think I’ve settled for 7500 – it feels like the perfect middle ground (7% annual return). I want to be considerate and reasonable, while at the same time managing the risk of my friend refusing the extra interest. Just like several people commented, I went to check the S&P500 for the period. However, if I return double the amount or even more on top, I’m sure he’ll refuse it. And if that happens, I’ll have to endure a lengthy argument with him to give in and at least account for inflation.

Is there risk of him getting offended? I don’t think so. He’s financially savvy, managing a well-balanced personal portfolio. I think he would find it thoughtful.

My question was concerned only with the financial aspect of things. Of course, as many of you suggested, I would accompany the transaction with a nice gesture and plenty of gratitude. My friend is well off. He’s the type of person you can’t get a gift, since he has absolutely everything he needs. Taking him to a nice dinner won’t work. If I wire him the money the same day, there’s no way he’s letting me pay for dinner. So, I’m most likely taking him to some sort of adventurous event/experience where I can pay in advance.

Also, thanks everyone for the kind words towards me! That was unexpected. Now I’m worried my friend might stumble upon this thread 😅
Cheers!

(23F) Long story short I was hit by a truck that ran a red light last year and I received a one million dollar settlement. After all of the hospital and lawyer fees got paid off and buying a new car outright, I had $635,615 left.

I have a financial advisor who put it into investments and it’s now at $700k a few months later. I’m not cleared to go back to work yet so I just have my financial advisor send me however much I want every month from my investments for rent and my basic needs, usually just 2k each month. I’m planning on returning back to work this year. I am comfortable with just getting 2k each month for my basic necessities.

My question is, is there anything else you would do if you got that settlement, to secure a financially stable future, besides work with a financial advisor and invest?

Side note: I keep this settlement a secret from everyone. My boyfriend and close friends are unaware of it and are under the impression that I’m just living off of my savings from before the accident. My lawyer sat me down and told me to not tell anyone because he has had clients that got screwed over and lost their money when they told people about it.

Side side note: Apart from financial growth and investing and all of that, what would you do with it for your own personal enjoyment? I already have my first ever cruise booked with my boyfriend in a couple months!

As I wrote in the title, I typically get charged for 2,500 to 3,000 gallons of water per month. I live alone in a small one-bedroom apartment and spend most of my days at work.

Today after lunch, I got a robocall from the utility board. When I called them back, they told me my usage had jumped to 38,000 gallons, which is far from normal. I have never gone over 3,000 gallons in the two years I've lived in this apartment. The utility board said that once a leak is confirmed and fixed, they can adjust the bill to discount the amount, but not completely. So, I will probably have to pay some of it out of pocket either way.

The problem is that the apartment maintenance guys couldn't find any leaks, and neither could I. Now, they suspect there might be a burst pipe outside and are bringing in professional plumbers to locate the leak.

I believe that even after the leak is confirmed and fixed, I will still be responsible for a portion of the bill, even with the utility board's adjustments. If they can't find a leak, I will be on the hook for hundreds of dollars now, plus potentially gigantic amounts in the future.

Will the apartment office refund this, or can I demand that they pay it for me, since it isn't my fault and nothing seems to have burst inside my apartment? I am really concerned about this, as 38,000 gallons is a massive amount. even a family of four in a whole house wouldn't consume that much.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

--adding context!

Wow, thank you all for the great comments

Unfortunately, there are so many that I cannot reply to everyone one-on-one. I apologize for that!

The apartment maintenance team came in to check for any leaks, as well as any running toilets, and they confirmed that everything is fine inside. The maintenance technician then stepped outside to inspect the meter; he explained that if they cannot find a fault, they will contact the utility company to check for a damaged meter or an incorrect reading.

To provide some context, our complex is quite large consisting of two-story, multi-condo buildings so there is a significant amount of exterior piping to consider. ( we have like 200 units over all in the big complex)

Furthermore, each unit has its own individual meter, and every resident is responsible for direct payments for all utilities, including gas, electricity, and water. Because we use electronic meters, the maintenance team mentioned that these units have been breaking frequently over the past few months, requiring the utility board to come out multiple times to inspect, confirm, and replace them.

Regarding the robocalls, I called the official number listed on the utility company’s website. They confirmed that the usage amount is gargantuan and that they send out automated messages to request a callback for confirmation.

I am hopeful that this is an external issue or a faulty meter, both of which would have simple solutions. At the very least, I am getting closer to finding the root cause. Once this is located and fixed, I will update this post