Carving your place within the workforce takes time, and even if you spend decades building your career, there’s no guarantee that the turbulent economic winds won’t occasionally knock you down.
Knowing this, Reddit user KeyHelicopter6678 was happy to take in her brother when he lost his job. After all, that’s what family does. However, once the sibling settled in her guest room, he started playing video games and hanging out with friends instead of looking for new employment opportunities.
Unhappy with how things were shaping up, the host brought up the issue, but the two of them quickly got into a pretty bad argument.
This woman took in her brother after he lost his job, but he spends most of his time playing video games or hanging out with friends
Image credits: LightFieldStudios (not the actual photo)
So she started feeling like he was taking advantage of her
Image credits: mstandret (not the actual photo)
Image credits: KeyHelicopter6678
Siblings often end up in different financial situations
Some fights like this one might be preprogrammed. According to an Ameriprise Financial Family Wealth Checkup study, 57% of siblings — and 64% of boomer siblings — approach financial situations differently than their brothers and sisters.
Additionally, 63% of respondents said they had very different asset levels than their brothers and sisters.
At the same time, nearly half of siblings believe they are more financially responsible (44%) and more knowledgeable (45%) than their brothers and sisters, but very few admit to having less financial knowledge (18%) or being less financially responsible (13%) than their siblings.
The fact that many aren’t discussing financial matters with their siblings also doesn’t help. This is true for 42% of boomers, 35% of Gen Xers, and 27% of millennials.
In an older survey, most people said that letting someone stay at your place for a few nights lies well within the boundaries of good old-fashioned hospitality. After that, things get less clear. Generally, respondents felt that the shelf life of a free visit is about three to five days. Once it starts to border on a week or longer, a guest should probably offer to pay in the interest of fairness or consider giving a gift of roughly equivalent level (not necessarily monetary).
About two-thirds of respondents also thought it was fair to simply treat guests as roommates for the duration of their stay. In other words, if someone stays for half a month, they should pay half a month’s rent and utility bills as if they were a regular roommate.
Of course, it feels like the terms for family members should be different. However, I believe we can agree that there is a line somewhere, especially if the initial deal was set on a very specific condition — job hunting — and it’s not being met.
Image credits: Eye for Ebony (not the actual photo)
The woman added that she and her brother have a pretty good relationship overall
Most of the people who read her story said she’s not a jerk for asking her brother to pay up
However, some think she could be more understanding
