Throwaway account b/c family reads reddit.
I(35M) was asked by my wife(34F) about the bonus I received at work this year. When I told her about what I got, she asked me if I could loan her $10k. Since she's never asked me for this before I asked what it was for. She said it was to "help" her brother buy a house, and she would give him the loan and she would pay me back in monthly installments in $1k. When I asked why she wouldn't just loan him directly, she said it was because she wanted some buffer in her own finances(we have a joint account for bills but don't really mix finances). I had a bunch of questions:
Is this a gift? No, he says he will pay me back.
How would we pay this to him? She would send him the money(He lives in another country).
When is he buying the house? He's just putting a down payment on the build. It's not built yet.
When is he planning on paying you back? He'll pay it back but no idea when.
Wife is adamant that she'll pay me back, and handle it if her brother decides not to pay back. I was really concerned that her brother might not pay her back and I told her as much. My big concern is that he'll pull a "you're married to a rich American and so I don't have to pay you back" line on her. There's no real recourse if he doesn't and I don't think that they're really that close. Plus he lives on the other side of the planet(China). I've had a lot of questions and concerns as I've been burned loaning friends/family money in the past and my wife finally just said she wasn't going to loan him money and that she now can't rely on me for financial aid anymore(we share bills, but I pay about 75% of everything as I make more) . I've offered alternatives but wife shut it down. Now she's mad and isn't really talking to me. She says that she doesn't want to talk about it anymore. AITA here?
I think I might be because:
I can probably swing this
Wife is guaranteeing it.
I might not be because:
It's a bad idea to loan money to family.
There's no recourse if it isn't paid back.
From what I've read, the home market in China is a mess.