AITA for telling my girlfriend to stop telling me how to spend the money I won?

A Reddit user recently won a life-changing amount of money, sparking a heated debate with their girlfriend over how to spend it. While they want to stay close to family, she dreams of moving to a nicer city, leading to a clash about decision-making and priorities. Read the full story below to see who you think is in the right.

‘ AITA for telling my girlfriend to stop telling me how to spend the money I won?’

I live in the UK and I recently won a life changing amount of money. By this I mean enough to quit my job and never work again. I live with my girlfriend and told her about the win. She was excited at the fact I’d won and we started talking about what to do with it.

We live in quite a deprived part of the UK so my girlfriend immediately started talking about moving to a city and living somewhere nicer. I said no to this as family and friends are nearby and my parents are both quite ill so I don’t want to move far away and have to travel far to see them. She said we could look at cities that aren’t too far but I again refused and just said we’ll look at a nice house in a nicer part of the town we live in.

She said she doesn’t want to continue living here is we have this much money. I told her it’s me who has won the money so she doesn’t get to tell me how to spend it. She just said she wants to move away but I just reiterated it’s my winnings not hers and that the final decision is mine. She said I wasn’t being fair by considering it but I told her she was being unreasonable for expecting to get to dictate how I spend the money.

She said we’re a couple and should be making the decisions together but I just told her that some things aren’t up for discussion and that I’m not moving away. SHe just called me unreasonable and said I should be considering her opinion on it. AITA for telling my girlfriend to stop telling me how to spend the money I won?

Take a look at the comments from fellow users:

notAugustbutordinary −  Do not get married to this woman without getting thorough legal advice on how to protect your assets.

aeroeagleAC −  recently won a life changing amount of money.  Pretty crazy how often this seems to happen on here.

Legal-Lingonberry577 −  Have you taken a moment to thank your lucky stars you won the money before you got married?

Zealousideal-Olive34 −  “She said she doesn’t want to continue living here”. That is a statement she has made. She needs to find out for herself what all is out there, and go find herself an adventure !

EmmEmm228 −  Forget the money for a moment. There’s an existing incompatibility issue with not wanting to live in the same type of area. If that can’t be solved, nothing else about this relationship, including how to spend the money, matters.

Poperama74 −  It’s fine if she doesn’t want to continue living there. She could move out. But we both know that isn’t going to happen with that money sat there 🤣

milfoxrox −  I will probably get downvoted for this but how is someone you have been in a relationship with for 3 + years ahead of the win suddenly a gold digger for wanting to share in your good fortune? You live together and I assume sharing expenses ahead of this.

Stop listing to the knee j**k gold digger comments, we don’t have any context on the money you were both contributing to the relationship ahead of the win, we don’t know how intertwined your finances already were. What you had planned for the future etc.

Sit down, think about how you would feel if she had won and you hadn’t, be honest with yourself, would you want a say in the way the money was spent and go from there.

Pale_Drawing_6004 −  She wants to use your money to make a better life for herself. You aren’t married she has no entitlement to the money. I would suggest if she doesn’t agree with what you want to do you can remind her she is welcome to leave and do her own thing. It’s not her money it’s yours. She wouldn’t even have the possibility to do so without your money. Don’t give her handouts you’ll soon find alot of people will be asking for them.

Dry_Meaning_3129 −  Bail now.

az-anime-fan −  Well you made the no.1 mistake all cash prize winners make which ends up ruining their lives.. You told someone.

Everyone who learns of this money will come to you. everyone. this will shatter friendships, family relationships and pretty much endanger your life. if your GF gets certitude she’d have access to the money if you die she will probably have you killed over it. Seriously. wonder why lotto winners often are broke and in a terrible place inside of a decade? because of family and friends finding out you won the lotto.

you will be sued out of this money, you will be coerced out of this money, and the grabby little hands will never stop coming to you once you hand out a dime.

I strongly suggest you consult a financial advisor about putting this money into a trust or annuity or creating a corporation to move the money into, so that you can honestly say you cannot access the money at a whim and can turn down people asking. expect her to tell everyone of her friends. and for gods sakes don’t give her access to whatever account the money is in. don’t even let her know where the money is.