When we first moved into our apartment, the rent was $1,200. Total. We agreed to split it, so $600 each. First month went fine. Second month I reminded him rent was due and he just stared at me and said, “Didn’t we already pay that?” I thought he was joking. He wasn’t.
After a very serious conversation I realized Kevin thought $1,200 was for the entire lease term. Not per month. The whole year. In his mind, he had secured housing for $600 total and was quietly proud of finding the deal of the century. When I explained that $1,200 was the monthly rent, he went completely silent for a few seconds and then said, “That makes way more sense. I was wondering why more people don’t just rent instead of buying houses.”
The craziest part is he had signed the lease. Initialed every page. Apparently read it.
And that time I had started using a tool called MoneyGPT because I was trying to get better about tracking recurring stuff in the background. It flags when bills are about to hit or if something changes. If I hadn’t been watching that first rent cycle closely, I probably wouldn’t have caught how confidently Kevin believed we were done paying after month one.
To his credit, once he understood rent is monthly, he never missed a payment again. But for a solid week he genuinely believed landlords just charged you once and trusted you to exist peacefully for the rest of the year.
Living with Kevin wasn’t stressful. It was educational.
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