When my girlfriend and I got a house together after dating 5 years I made sure I could afford it without her in case anything happened. I put the house in only my name and when she contributed money toward the down payment I had her sign a document that it was a gift to me and not directly for the down payment. Even though it all went to the down payment I always make sure my ass is covered. Also, when she contributed to the monthly payments I recorded it as rent and not a house payment. Long story short.. she cheated on me with her boss at Sears. I found out. I kicked her out. She is back living with her parents. Even though it's only me paying all the bills, I end up with more money to save at the end of the month. She spent way more than she made. I am a minimalist, she was not. After being broken up 8 or 9 months I am much happier and much healthier (mentally and physically). You tend to forget how much you enjoyed hanging out with friends. Some of you are lucky though, and married your best friend Hopefully us single people will all get to do the same. Moral of the story... The way I see it, you can always plan for the worst. And just to add... Her boss at Sears was married with a kid and 11 years older than her (she was 20). When we broke up she quickly found out he had no plans on leaving his marriage for her and stopped talking to her. Another thing I learned from all this... While dating her I had stopped talking to a lot of my good friends for a few years and focused only on her. When we broke up they showed up at my house and talked with me for a few hours then took me out to have some fun. So now I know, your true friends will always be there for you, and you always make sure you are there for them. 4 months later my best friend had his long term gf cheat on him and they broke up. I returned the favor and showed up at his house and took him out for a good time. edit: Sorry this doesn't read well,lol. I'm at work and kept going back to it while I did other things