Our roommates selfish financial behaviors

One of the alternative income streams that I have recently posted includes adding a roommate to generate some additional income. Now this is not some person that we don’t know off the street. It is my wife’s brother. I wouldn’t feel too comfortable renting out a room in our home to a stranger with two young children in the house. Anyways, a few months ago, my wife and I extended an invitation out to my brother-in-law to come and live with us. The original intent was not to make extra money from having him stay with us, but to help him get back on his feet and teach him about money and how to budget. Once he landed a job and started saving some money, we would then charge him a monthly rent to help offset our added expenses.

Unfortunately in the first several weeks after this experiment, things have not gone very well. While he picks up after himself and does not leave messes, the financial thinking of my brother-in-law is worse than I feared! My wife and I always knew that he shared a different philosophy on money than we did. If he had money in his pocket, he would always find something to spend it on instead of saving it or investing it. We thought that by having him move in with us, he would see how we budget and live frugally and he would make some changes in his own financial world. We were very wrong!

Our new roommate (I will refer to him as our new roommate) currently has no job and $0 income. I will give him credit in that he is very active in a job search and is attempting to find something. Unfortunately, the job market for someone who has bounced from job to job and has no college degree is difficult in the current state of the economy. He also really helps out around our house with chores and cleaning. The only place he gets any money from right now is my in-laws. They are helping him out as well until he can start generating some income. All of this is great and is what families do for loved ones when they need help. The problem is that our roommates financial thinking is so far gone it makes me sick. He drives an extremely nice car and has all the fun toys (plasma tv, iPod, etc.) and still has no income. These material items were purchased as a direct result of income given to him by my in-laws. Unfortunately, they are as much to blame as he is for supporting this habit. I must also admit that my wife and I are somewhat to blame as well. We are guilty of supporting his habit. We don’t charge him rent or any payments for utilities and don’t say anything when he goes out and spends money on new video games and fast food (when he could eat at home). Of course, all of this money used to buy these items is coming directly out of my in-laws bank account.

Do you have friends or family members who live like this? Do you try and help out people you know in these types of situations?

Tagged as: Peeves