I met my boyfriend 4 years ago. Since the very beginning, he told me he had a huge student debt and several money issues. I'm not a materialistic person, so I decided to overlook this fact and, actually, even tried helping him a bit with his student loans.
Later on he moved to NY to pursue his luck as a musician, and we spent 1.5 years apart during which I also helped him sending him money here and there to get by. I was accepted to a school in NY and, as soon as I saved 10k to make the transition, I moved in with him, agreeing that this was the best way to split the bills and expenses. But then he decided to quit his job and collect unemployment to give another shot to his music career. Since then, we have had a lot of money arguments because all of his projects and risks to make a living have failed, and his student loans have doubled for lack of payments.
I know that he literally doesn't have money and some people have deceived him with promises they haven't kept, but I can't put his financial weight on my shoulders. I'm a struggling student with a part time job that pays me enough to pay my bills alone, I have goals in mind, and having my life and financial matters in order is very important for me even though I'm disorganized. To this day, he owes me more than $5k (because he rarely ever pays me back). It makes me incredibly mad and resentful that I have to use my hard earned money to pay for his rent as well, even though I know he is struggling immensely... but I'm tired of promising myself that this is going to be the last time, of hearing his plans to pay me back that never happen and of hearing his carefully-chosen words or his extra nice behavior to manipulate me into bailing him out. I feel like I can't trust his word, or respect him, or even see a future with someone who's situation hasn't changed in 4 years. And still, I'm broken into thinking that I'm not a good girlfriend for refusing to be there when he needs me. Every time we talk about this, I'm made to look like I'm making this about money and that I'm greedy. I feel incredibly trapped and powerless because I can't talk to anybody about this.
Right now I'm debating on whether paying all of our rent yet again, or paying my part and telling the landlord to keep the deposit because I'm moving out.
What should I do??
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