He Cut Off His Stepson Financially After His Stepson Spent Six Months’ Worth of Rent To Upgrade His Gaming Computer

Valerii Honcharuk - stock.adobe.com-  illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Valerii Honcharuk - stock.adobe.com- illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

This 43-year-old man and his wife have been paying some of his 19-year-old stepson’s bills for seven years.

“We haven’t made my son pay for his car, phone, or laptop. He even runs a server farm in my basement that I haven’t made him pay for,” he said.

At 16, his stepson got a job, so he and his wife had a talk with his stepson about how he needs to be careful with money management.

They advised him to be practical and not spend all his money on computer-related items or other non-essential hobbies when his stepson said that he wanted to buy a drone, which was $1,000.

In his and his wife’s view, if his stepson had enough money to buy a drone, this meant that he had enough money to afford his car payment and other expenses. A drone wasn’t just a small, inexpensive toy.

“He’s always been able to spend his money as he wishes; he goes out with friends, buys food, and goes to the movies, but irresponsible purchases were always discouraged,” he explained.

This summer, his stepson moved in with him and his wife. His stepson had a difficult freshman year of college, so he and his wife told his stepson that he could work part-time and have a fun summer before going back to college.

The assumption was that even though his stepson wouldn’t be working full-time during the summer, he would still be saving all of his money for his sophomore year.

His stepson was planning to live in an apartment this fall, and even though he would talk about how he wished he could buy things for his computer, he’d add that he was going to make sure to save up for his expenses. He had hoped that his stepson was growing up and making more responsible decisions.

Valerii Honcharuk – stock.adobe.com- illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

He and his wife agreed that when his stepson moved into his apartment before the new school year started, they would pay the rent and groceries while his stepson would cover the utilities.

His stepson had a job on campus, so he would be making enough money to pay the utilities he was responsible for, as well as for having fun going out or saving up. He co-signed on his stepson’s apartment.

“A week before he moved into his apartment, he secretly went and upgraded his entire computer system and spent almost half of his earnings this summer on parts and components that he did not need,” he shared.

“He had always had a nicer system than all his friends, and he said that when he went with his friends, and they were upgrading their computers, he got caught up in the moment and didn’t want to be outdone.”

His stepson’s friends all worked close to full-time hours this summer, so, naturally, they had more money to spend than his stepson.

But his stepson still decided to upgrade from his two fancy 4K monitors to a huge, curved monitor. Obviously, this upgrade was purely aesthetic and unnecessary.

After this, he was furious and sick of his stepson’s lack of financial responsibility. The amount of money his stepson spent on these computer upgrades was six months’ worth of rent.

This is also keeping in mind that he and his wife were still paying his stepson’s phone bill, car insurance, and college tuition.

Now, both he and his wife believe they should stop paying his stepson’s expenses. They realize upon reflection that his stepson has a more abundant life than they both did growing up, and they think that his stepson needs a bit of a wake-up call.

He believes that now they need to allow his stepson to “sink or swim” and learn what it’s like to work hard and maybe “struggle a little bit to start appreciating everything we’ve done.”

When he and his wife told his stepson that they were cutting him off financially, he was angry with them. He told them that he is free to spend his own money how he wants to.

He then responded that if that were the case, then he should be able to do the same thing, thereby not paying his stepson’s expenses anymore.

Even though he and his wife will be making his stepson pay for everything on his own now, they would never allow it to get to the point where his stepson is at risk of being evicted from his apartment or without anywhere to live. They simply want to allow him to become more financially independent.

Do you think he’s wrong to cut his stepson off financially?

You can read the original post on Reddit here.

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