Teen Says His Siblings Used the Money Set Aside for His College To Cover Their Dad’s Medical Care — Even Though They Could Afford To Pay Themselves

Some family fights are ugly because of greed. This one is uglier because everybody keeps insisting it is about love.

A 17-year-old wrote on Reddit that he was the youngest of four siblings and that each of the older three had their college paid in full, while money had also been set aside for him. He said the amount was supposed to be about $150,000, the same amount each sibling had gotten, but by the time he was getting ready for college, that money was being redirected toward their father’s present and future medical care instead.

On paper, that already sounds like the kind of situation where people would say, “Well, of course the medical care comes first.” But that is exactly what made the story sting so much for him. He said his siblings all made very good money and drove $100,000-plus cars, and that the oldest sibling, who held power of attorney, even owned more than seven multi-unit properties. In other words, he was not saying his father should go without treatment. He was saying his siblings had the means to help and were choosing not to, while using the money meant for him instead.

That is the part that really makes this one hurt. If the family had no other options, it would still be sad, but it would feel different. What he kept coming back to was that his father himself was upset about the decision and had apparently told them he wanted the money used for his youngest child’s college. According to the teen, the siblings were overruling that because they believed keeping as much money as possible reserved for medical expenses was more in their father’s best interest.

He said his father had already spoken to a lawyer and learned that reversing the arrangement would be an uphill battle because the power of attorney was “springing” and tied to his father’s medical condition and mild cognitive impairment after a traumatic brain injury. The teen wrote that the legal advice they got was basically that the sibling acting as POA could argue that using the money for college instead of future care was not in the father’s best interest, even if that was what their father actually wanted.

That is where the whole thing gets especially bleak. This was not just a younger sibling feeling left out. It was a teenager watching everyone tell him, in more polished adult language, that the opportunity all three of them got was no longer available to him, and that he was supposed to accept that quietly because the legal structure was not on his side. He even said he understood he was not entitled to his father’s money, but that it still hurt because his father wanted him to have the same chance his siblings got.

The age gap in the family makes the whole story feel even lonelier. He said the oldest sibling was 25 years older than him and the next oldest was 15 years older, and that they had basically grown up in completely different worlds. That detail explains so much. This was not a group of siblings all close in age, handling one parent’s illness together. It felt more like one much younger kid trying to explain why he was devastated, while three much older adults were making decisions over his head.

He admitted he snapped and called them names, which is probably the least surprising detail anywhere in the thread. He wrote that what made him so angry was not just losing the college money. It was the feeling that his siblings could absolutely step in and share the burden, but would rather preserve their own lives and let his future absorb the hit instead. He said if they truly did not have the means, he would understand. What he could not get past was that they did.

In a follow-up, he tried to explain that point again because so many people accused him of not caring enough about his dad. He said that was never the issue. He loved his father, was upset about his father’s illness, and understood care was expensive. But he also said the family had other options, including the father’s house, long-term care insurance, and other investments, and that the oldest sibling seemed focused on stretching their father’s money as long as possible rather than honoring what their father actually wanted done with it.

That update also made one thing painfully clear: the kid was already trying to pivot and salvage his future however he could. He said he had savings from his own job, had gotten into good schools, was a year ahead, and could probably afford about two years of community college while he figured things out. Even in the middle of all that anger, he was already trying to act like the practical one, which honestly makes the story hit even harder. He was still a teenager, still grieving one parent, still watching another get sicker, and still having to immediately start reworking his whole education plan because the adults around him had made their decision.

The comments were full of people reacting to the same thing: the older siblings all got their turn, and now the youngest was being told to borrow his way through the future while they protected assets. One commenter boiled it down in a way that clearly resonated: “Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps! Just like we did! With the incidental help of $150k each from Dad…” That really is the feeling of the whole story. Everyone else got a head start. Now the youngest is being told to understand why he will not.

What really lingers is not just the money. It is the image of a 17-year-old sitting there hearing that the chance his siblings got is being taken off the table, knowing his dad does not agree, and also knowing he is probably too young and too outnumbered to stop it. If your siblings all got their college fully covered and then decided the money meant for yours should be used somewhere else, do you think you could ever stop resenting that?