‘That doesn’t work for me’: Billionaire Tyler Perry once fired his own aunt. Here’s why he decided to finally cut his family off financially

“[My aunt] said she wanted a job. She would always call asking for money. I said, ‘Okay,’ I would send her the money,” Perry explained on an episode of Den of Kings on YouTube (2). “But then I was like, ‘Listen, I want to help you. I want to help you build this thing, not be welfare to you. So, let me give you a job.'”

After his aunt stopped coming to work, he said he had no choice but to fire her — and stop helping her financially. “You want me to hand you the money, but you don’t want to work for it,” he said. “See, that doesn’t work for me.”

Perry’s choice may sound harsh, but it’s a situation many people understand — especially anyone who’s had to draw financial boundaries with family.

Family welfare

You don’t have to be a billionaire for your family to expect some financial assistance from you. In fact, lending or giving money to people in your social network is surprisingly common. According to community finance platform SoLo’s 2025 Cash Poor Report, 43% of people have borrowed money from friends or family members over the past year (3).

Perhaps the most common form of family financial support is from parents to adult children. It turns out that 46% of Gen Z Americans (ages 18 to 27) rely on financial assistance from parents and family, according to new research from Bank of America’s Better Money Habits team (4).

Many of these financial arrangements end badly. A survey by CreditCards.com found that 42% of people who loaned money to their friends and family didn’t get paid back and roughly a quarter of these lenders say the loan damaged their relationship with the borrower.

Keeping this in mind, saying no to personal loans can go a long way in preserving strong, healthy relationships. But if you do feel the need to help a loved one in a tough spot, be sure to set clear expectations — it’ll protect both your finances and your friendship or family bond.

Setting clear boundaries

Money and family don’t always mix — but setting clear expectations from the start can keep your relationship intact, whether you’re lending or borrowing.

The first step, perhaps, is to never offer more than you can afford. "Ask yourself: Am I really in a position to be gifting money right now?," Wendy De La Rosa, an assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, told NPR (6).