Cosign
The bane of every responsible parent...who has an irresponsible child.
When a parent co-signs for a loan, that parent is equally on the hook to pay back that loan as the child who signed for it in the first place. Take the student loan crisis. Vast numbers of parents co-signed student loans; most pundits predict a majority of those loans will go unpaid (i.e. lots of sociology majors will go bankrupt), and the parents will then go bankrupt by dint of having signed those pieces of paper, or rather co-signing the promise to repay the bank the money.
Fair? Not fair?
Well, what if it was you who loaned that sociology major the $83,500 to go to college, believing...even betting a big part of your retirement money...that you'd be paid back that money. And then it turns out that the kid flaked, and now his parents are on the hook for that loan. Are you ok just saying, "It's okaaayyyyy. That $83k plus years of interest? It's all yours. I give it to you. The world really needed that n-plus-1th sociology major. Thank you, and yes, please leave room for cream in my blonde roast."
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is a Co-signer?7 Views
Finance a la shmoop what is a cosigner? well it's just this oh wait
that goes in the trigonometry video people why don't you do this all right [Man discussing trigonometry]
never mind cosigner it's this... okay all right we're in finance so a cosigner is
this there we go it's your mom you really wanted that
condo with the nice view of the park the cool arts district and the local dentist [Dentist office building]
office nearby for some weird reason but the building owners just didn't trust
you alone to make the payments yourself which makes sense given that you're a
part-time barista who takes at least one sick day every week you blame them so [Sick days marked on calendar]
your condo dream seems a well a bit out of reach luckily for you the bomb
or Bank of mom came in handy when she co-signed the loan along with you all [Mum signing loan agreement]
right what does that co-signing mean well it means that you are the first one
obliged to pay the monthly payments on your loan but if you don't well then the
Bank of America way bigger than the bank of mom can come after mom and she is
directly legally obligated to pay the loans that you promised - hey so yeah
you got your condo dream but mom's living quarters aren't so spacious yeah [Mum laying in a car backseat]
well you made her co-sign for your deadbeat self hanging her butt up to dry
and now she's well enjoying the view from her SUV parked on the curb of the [SUV window winds down and Mum appears]
road outside the dentist hang in there mom you'll get a better
parking lot slot with a view someday