<prompt> Human: Tldr: Mom made a savings account before divorce, Im now 18. Due to divorce and bad decision making, she wants to reclaim the money thats legally mine. Better Tldr by uColonialChicken: I have a personal savings account that my parents now divorced started for me when I was an infant. The account now has grown to 70K, and I want to use it for school. However, my home environment isnt great, and my mother keeps pressuring me to give her a large portion of that money. What legal avenues are open to me to protect the money, and ensure that I have access to it when I need it? Am I legally obliged to give my mother any of the money since she originally contributed to the account?My mother and father made a savings account when I was really young and accrued over 70k in it so I could use it for college. However they get divorced a long time ago, maybe when I was 10 or so Im 18 now. My father has been trying his hardest to make ends meet with financial support for 2 families now, added to the stress of leading his own business. Although Im technically an adult now, he still wants to help support me through college. My mother hasnt tried to get a job, because it would ruin her daily routine, consisting of staying up well after 5am watching motivational speakers on Youtube, claiming that shes improving her mind. Then sleeping half a day during daylight. She did however end up making things somehow worse, joining an MLM Market AmericaSHOP.com and is wholeheartedly convinced that the company is better than Amazon. She hasnt spent too much on it yet, but every time either me, my sister, or any of our sane family tell her shes not in a legitimate business, she just says the same thing, Go to BBB.com and look up shop.com it has an A rating and Amazon only has B. Ive tried logic, doesnt work on her. Im not a nonprofit business bureau, so to her Im basically an idiot. Anyways shes no longer getting the help from my dad, I was basically her money funnel from him to her. So now she wants my tuition money. She makes a compelling argument, saying it was her money to begin with. That it was before the divorce that she put it in. So technically its all her money, just under my name. Now its not all bad, I appreciate my mom for a lot of things, because when I was into sports, she would make sure no matter what Id get to practice on time and that shed pay for all the lessons, and yes she does care for me. I would honestly love to help her out if it was my choice to do so. The problem was the way she just demanded it from me. Now I dont want to sound like an ungrateful spoiled idiot kid, but I really have my suspicions about my mom. I know she cares for me and my sister, but her reasons are what bother me. She wanted fame and fortune, constantly talks of her dreams of being a famous singer. She wanted me and my sister to have her dream. She spent countless amounts of time and money on my sister in a dance studio and got her 1st in a national solo dance contest once, and many other times with group. But now my sisters in college majoring in business and foreign language. Yet my mother still insists she becomes a movie star to become rich and famous. In fact shes already believed its going to happen, which is why she refuses to work for her own money, she believes her work was already done in raising us to be famous. Now theres realistically no way either of us get famous and my mothers living a delusion at this point. Countless people on every branch of our family have tried to tell her she needs to fix her bad habits. Every time its the same response, either wait till my daughter gets famous or wait till I get my business gets rolling. Then does the adult version of covering her ears and yelling lalalala, basically repeating I dont want to listen to your nonsense over and over again. So the part about my savings. I dont necessarily feel entitled to it, however I believe I hold more potential for turning it into more money. Obviously my mom is entitled to much of it and Id give her a lot, but her taking all of it just doesnt seem like a good idea. The big issue now is conveying the message to her. Any talk of keeping the money shell see as a threat of treason or something. Im also unsure how it would work legally if I refused to give her as much as she wanted, and certainly wouldnt want to get in a court case against my own mom. Anyways sorry for the long story, I definitely spent more time describing my mom than describing the issue and I apologize, but any help would be appreciated.Assistant: Youve inherited some of your mothers love of the dramatic. Your fathers second family and business, your sisters early years of performing in various competitions, your mothers addiction to late-night infomercials on YouTube, and her failed dreams of stardom werent super relevant in this context. As other people have mentioned, you may need to take some of this to rrelationships for help navigating the interpersonal aspects of the problem. Unless I missed something, I believe the financial aspect of your post boils down to:I have a personal savings account that my parents now divorced started for me when I was an infant. The account now has grown to 70K, and I want to use it for school. However, my home environment isnt great, and my mother keeps pressuring me to give her a large portion of that money. What legal avenues are open to me to protect the money, and ensure that I have access to it when I need it? Am I legally obliged to give my mother any of the money since she originally contributed to the account?If the money is in an account that is in your name only, your mother has no legal claim to it. If the money is in a joint account with your mothers name on it, well, from what youve written here, its probably already gone. All of that aside, you are under no legal or moral obligation to give your mother any amount of money. She contributed it to the account for your future use, and assuming shes had no access to it its now yours. Her argument is ludicrous, not compelling. Im not sure what kind of material help your father wants to give you while youre in college, but it would probably make sense to discuss that with him. If he has the intentions and means to pay for some of your tuition, you may be able to leave most of the money intact until you are prepared to invest it or use it for another need. If your father owns his own business and has supported two families for most of your life, its possible that he has a decent grasp of practical personal financial matters. If you are asking something else other than what I parsed from your post, please clarify so that better minds than mine can help you here. Human: Sorry I have a bad habit of going off on tangents about things. But yes youre summary was accurate of my financial situation, and the advice is really helpful. Assuming that there are no issues with the account and such, I just have one more issue which is moving out my moms against it. I dont think this place is the best place to ask about it. Thanks for the advice and accurate summary!  <response>: Youre 18. It doesnt matter if your mom is against you moving out. 