[breadcrumb]

 

Sooo many people in this community have been taken down financially by narcissists – myself included.

And it’s terrible … because you may have lost everything you’ve worked your entire life for, to someone who you know manipulated, connived, lied to you and was in the relationship ONLY for their own selfish benefit.

It’s devastating and it’s beyond cruel.

How can we stop this happening to us now?

And, how can we shore ourselves up so that this will never happen to us again?

If we are going through this right now, how can we overcome all the reasons WHY we keep handing stuff and money over despite our inner being screaming at us NOT to?

In today’s Thriver TV episode I share with you the 4 of the main ways that narcissists can deceive us and mine us to get our money, assets and resources, causing us to be bled dry whilst they get to live the life they want (without paying for it) and have their messes cleaned up by us.

It is my greatest hope that this information will grant you clarity, strength, deservedness and the power to say “No” so that this never happens to you again.

 

 

Video Transcript

Many people in this Community have been bled dry by narcissists and lost virtually, if not everything, they have worked their entire lives to achieve.

In today’s Thriver TV episode, I want to have a deep look at the four ways that narcissists can do this and how we can heal and recover, as well as shore ourselves up to not let this happen again.

Today’s episode is really important because most people who are susceptible to narcissistic abuse are generous. We are people who like to pay our way and do the right thing. And we want to give and share, but we may have very poor boundaries. Perhaps we struggle to say ‘No’ because we may not wish others to disapprove of us, and if we have a great deal of unhealed co-dependency we may even feel like we have to earn other people’s love and approval by giving what is ours to them. Or perhaps deep down we feel like it is our duty to fix, save and help people so that somehow, they will look after and love us.

In my past, absolutely I suffered financial abuse from narcissists, and as a result of healing and becoming a source to myself, there is no way that this could happen to me again. Now, when mining happens in my life, I shut the gates, and say ‘no more’.

With healthy boundaries and awareness, you discover the people in your life who are real, fair and generous behave very differently from those who feel entitled and are takers.

Narcissists absolutely fall into the second category.

Let’s get started on four of the main ways that narcissists can bleed you financially.

 

#1 Guilting and Threatening You

Narcissists want what they can take, it’s that simple. They feel naturally entitled, and according to them what is yours is theirs, and their over-inflated ego believes that you should be paying for having the privilege of them being in your life.

This person is an expert at picking your weaknesses to work over in order to get what they want. For me, my previous terrors of abandonment would easily cave into a narcissist saying to me, “I will only stay with you if you prove you are committed to me. If you don’t help me out with ‘X’ amount of money when I need it, I won’t believe that you are serious about the relationship and I’ll leave you.”

Or maybe the narcissist will tell you how you are so selfish for hanging onto your inheritance, or that it’s not fair that you earn more than them, or they will tell you the reasons and justifications why you owe them and should give them what they want.

You may relate, giving in to a narcissist in order to try to ease your guilt, keep the peace or make them stay with you, or get them to stop abusing and punishing you and of course hopefully, start loving you more.

Rather than granting you the desired result, the narcissist doesn’t comply with being grateful and reasonable. Rather, they know they can get away with it and that you will be a supply of cash and resources to give them the lifestyle that they want but won’t earn themselves, as well as bail them out of their continual overspending and financial disasters.

This is where we need to heal our fears of C.R.A.P. (fearing criticism, rejection, abandonment and punishment) when it comes to every aspect of ourselves, including money.

When we know our worth and truth regarding our resources, we realise grown mature adults don’t try to get other people’s money, (do we?) and certainly wouldn’t expect and feel entitled to it. They take responsibility for themselves.

When we work on our terrors of saying ‘No’ so that we can do so without the fears of criticism, rejection, abandonment and punishment, we know we are willing to lose it all to get it all. If this person leaves us because they can’t get what they want, so be it and good riddance. We deserve better. We deserve real, whole and kind people in our lives.

And we need to lose the fears of, ‘I may never get another chance at love’. This is exactly the unhealed wounds that cause people to be taken in by internet scammers and send them money abroad, which of course is a terrible sociopathic trick that vulnerable people have fallen for.

When we love ourselves enough, we know we would much rather be with a healthy self-generative adult who has their act together.

Additionally, assisting someone who is not taking responsibility for themselves is not teaching them anything. I like to give to people in need, on my terms, because I want to extend that help and not because I am scared of what they may or may not do if I don’t.

There is a huge difference.

 

#2 Mining You For What They Can Get

Narcissists may come into your life with grandiose shows of love bombing, showering you with affection and gifts, and then you start to see that the money and giving has terrible strings attached (in the case of the altruistic narcissist) or that this person’s previous generosity completely goes once you are hooked.

Or you may be dealing with a parasitical narcissist, who from the early days has very shallow pockets. These narcissists seek people who earn good money and who are generous with it. Parasitic narcissists stand back and allow other people to pay for meals out, food, bills and all amenities without offering. They have an air of superiority about them which is selfish and entitled.

This type of narcissist arrives empty-handed to functions and dinner parties, or at best, only takes their own alcohol but would never consider a gift of gratitude for the guest’s generosity. These people don’t consider doing what is kind and appreciative, let alone offer.

This is the person who goes to functions where plates of food are required and arrives empty-handed and helps themselves to whatever they want, doesn’t take gifts to birthdays but absolutely expects and asks people to bring ones to theirs.

This is the person who will ask you out and then state they don’t have any money with them or tell you that they haven’t been able to get to an automatic teller machine. This person will pile goods into a shopping trolley for themselves and then stand back watching you pay for it.

This is the type of person that helps themselves to everything they can get their hands on when the opportunity arises, with no shame at all, no thought of other people or how someone else may be put out and just believes they are entitled to take whatever they can get.  This person is testing you to see how far they can go and if you will continue to pay for them.

What could seem or be declared as ‘innocent’ can get so much more serious in the future. Be very aware, any of it is bad form. It’s narcissistic. If you are living with someone who sits back and doesn’t contribute, you are being mined. If you don’t start speaking up and laying boundaries, they will continue to bleed you dry.

This person is looking for a ride that is as free as possible and will be piling away money or using it for whatever they want on themselves or their future, whilst you are funding their life for them.

After you lay boundaries, expect comments like, ‘Would you like me to pay for that?’ instead of just doing it. Also expect, when you speak up for money, they will throw in your face anything that they did pay for.

When you are in a healthy, honest, kind and generous relationship, you would never be having tit for tat conversations over money with people.

Take note of someone’s character. Their character is their character. People who are mean, parasitical and self-absorbed are people who lack conscience, credibility and consideration for others. This is a pathological person, and when we are healed enough to know that we deserve generous, real and honest people, we would never tolerate someone who is mining our resources for their own selfish benefit.

 

#3 Combining Accounts, Businesses and Property

If a narcissist knows that they are on a good thing financially, they often will seek to enmesh quickly with you. By winning you over and gaining your confidence or guilting or threatening you into putting their name on a title, creating them as director of your business, paying for renovations on your property or even marrying you, this helps them get into your financial life.

Then they can start extracting out for themselves what they want, as well as ensuring that things are too complicated for you to easily leave them.

No matter how a deal is cloaked with a narcissist the dice are stacked well and truly in their favour, as you will painfully discover when you start to see the conscienceless financial behaviour unfold down the track, filled with justifications, excuses, lies and zero accountability and remorse.

I strongly suggest against joint purchases, joint accounts and legal ties with anyone, until you have spent a great deal of time with them and know them to be of sound and healthy character.

It is so, so important as adults to be a healthy source to ourselves, emotionally and financially so that we don’t get sucked into any deals and ventures with narcissists who may make us believe we need them, or because of our own unhealed wounds, we do it to stop them from abandoning or replacing us.

This is what myself and so many other people tragically learnt with narcissistic relationships, any choices we make financially from a place of fear or emptiness, makes our greatest financial fears come horrifically to light.

Protect yourself, have healthy boundaries, draw up pre-nuptials and don’t consider a relationship with anyone who wouldn’t agree to that.

 

#4 Creating Your Dependency

If we hang out with sick people, we get sick. The sicker you get, the abler narcissists are to confuse you, manipulate you and help themselves to what is yours without you realising it. A very sinister way that narcissists can take over your home, assets and funds is if you have let them because you are just not well enough to handle matters.

It’s horrible, because if you can’t work and function, you believe that you need this person in your life to survive, no matter how abusively they are treating you.

If you have severe anxiety and depression and can barely function and get out of bed, then the narcissist may be in charge of the bank accounts, funds and assets and can do whatever he or she likes with them.

When you are stuck in trying to survive, wondering if you are the crazy one, (because the narcissist is convincing you that you aren’t well), then the narcissist has a much freer rein to help themselves to what they believe they are entitled to, which is pretty much everything.

I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard about this and helped people heal and recover from this tragic story, of them getting sick, the narcissist mining them mercilessly, and then when there is nothing else to take, discarding them like emptied out corpses and running off with the next usually lined up financially prosperous supply.

 

Our Lesson In All of This

Money is always a difficult topic, and many of us have had seriously compromised self-worth, as well as defunct financial beliefs. I believe it is all very closely interwoven, and so much of our self-love and worth is about healing our prosperity beliefs as well as our ability to have the difficult conversations, honour ourselves, and have healthy emotional and financial boundaries and intact deservedness.

My healing resources are very holistic, they cover and deal with all of our belief foundations to heal our internal fractures, free us and create us as Thrivers. Whether you know you need to firm this all up for next time so that it never happens to you again, or whether you are overcoming the terrible devastation of being bled dry by a narcissist right now, I can help you.

The first step is by signing up for my free 16-day course which you can do by clicking here.

And, if you want to see more videos, make sure you like and subscribe, so you get notified as soon as each new video is released.

So, until next time… keep smiling, keep healing and keep thriving because there’s nothing else to do.

 

Join My FREE 16-Day Recovery Course to Begin
Healing from Narcissistic Abuse

Related blog post

Reclaim Your Radiance and Confidence After Abuse

Read More

Narcissistic Abuse and Complicated Grief

Read More

Commments (60) + Leave a comments

60 thoughts on “4 Shocking Ways Narcissists Bleed You Financially

  1. I can so relate! At my previous home, 2 narcissists bled me dry, one overtly, the other covertly. Now I have moved away and done your wonderful NARP healing modules, I am astounded at how much my financial stability has improved! Your Recovery programme is soooo worth the small investment, and you have saved my life. Thank you Melanie for your ongoing work to help people who have been Narcissistically abused.

    1. Hi Melanie. My name isTristany and I have been in a relationship with a narcissist for 18 yrs. We have 4 children together and we each had a child from a previous relationship. He chooses to forget about his daughter who was only 3 when we came together and my daughter has blocked me totally from her life no matter how much I’ve tried to reach out to her. I was young and lost when I had her so I made many mistakes but until the Narc came into our lives, we had a strong bond and, now that I think about it, she overlooked my faults and shortcomings. It wasn’t until he came in and not only treated her unkindly but also constantly pointed out my issues, picking fights with me continuously, though he himself had been doing the same things that he was criticizing me for, it was only then, that she too took on his point of view of me. She’s now 24 and I believe that she still won’t speak to me because I still appear to “be” with him.
      That’s the second thing. I know that going “no contact “ is the ideal thing to do but due to my inability to see at the time that I was being abused by a narcissist, and neither did ANYONE ELSE, everyone, aside from his family, told me that he’s a controlling, abusive and dangerous man who should not be allowed around the children. DCF believed that I was just in denial and if I would just admit that he’s abusing me, that I would stop all contact with him. In all honesty, I was thinking, ya, you’re right. He puts me down in front of the kids, he doesn’t allow me to have access to the car keys or money, but they don’t know the truth about me. I thought, I’m a mess, and he’s justified in this behavior. In the end, we were brought to court and at one point DCF offered to give the kids to me if he agreed to sign over his rights, but he refused, which now because he’s never going to willing hand over his powe, not even for his children! In the end we both lost our rights but you’ll never get what happened next! His mother got custody of our 3 boys and now he has more power and control over me than ever. If I want my boys in my life, I will allow him to live with me. All week, when the kids aren’t here, we hardly say a word to each other but when they are, he picks fights with me, usually pointing out that he pays all the bills and I do nothing! He pays the gas, electric and internet…that’s is it! He will treat me like shit when he knows I have money and guilts me into buying groceries even if I had just gone the week before and spent $290. In 3 weeks, I spent $500 JUST on groceries, not including toiletries, take out for 6 people,… I could really relate to you when you talked about how we give because of fear…that’s part of it and I also spend all my money on the family while he never spends a cent on anything except those 3 bills which he has reenforced into the kid’s mind and his family’s,as well, as to why he never has any money…He says, “ I never have any money because I have to pay all the bills while your mother pays for nothing unless I get mad at her” As untrue as this is, and as much as I KNOW everything that you’ve said in the video, I will still do everything I can to prove to my kids, him and even to myself, that he’s wrong. It will never be enough, though because he is entitled or so he believes! My fear is that my children are being sucked into the manipulation and his bullshit and in the end I am going to lose them to him as well!

  2. I’ve been with a N for 40+ years. I only discovered in recent years why our relationship is so warped. I hadn’t heard of Narcisism. I know a lot now. I also know that I am Co-dependent. I’m considering leaving but have to put certain things in place before I do. We have always had joint bank accounts (yes I gave my power away a long time ago). He has always had the main financial control (eg. final say on expenditures) at the same time and now more so in my nature years, I have had a little freedom with my personal expenditure. As long as it’s not too much too often it’s ok! The thing is, I’m not into ‘stuff’ or the latest gismos etc so I really don’t spend a lot of $ anyway. He buys whatever he wants whenever he wants. My dilemma atm is that our Superfund is in joint names (we retired 2 years ago) and I need to secure my share (half) if I’m to leave. I’m guessing I’d need to get legal advice on that one. I’ve wanted to sign up for NARP but he would know if I use the Cr card and want to know the details of what it is I signed up for. I’m thinking I might be able to work something out with my kids who have some idea what life has been like for me. What a situation to find ones self in at the ripe age of 64. I read heaps of your info Melanie so am much wiser about the personality who I thought was my life partner and soul mate. NOT! Hopefully I can start to heal myself soon. Thank you for the info.

    1. Hi Sue,

      I so hope that you do connect with NARP and start getting the incredible support from the NARP community, which can help you at this time.

      Sending you love, strength and healing.

      It is wonderful that you are clear about what is going on, and the next step is about breaking free.

      Mel 🙏💕❤️

  3. Aside from the devastation of realising that you have given him a way to take all you worked for all your life, for me, there was also the shocking lack of support from my family, who essentially said, “we could all see he was a fake, you should never have trusted him with the home loan, you have no one to blame but yourself”. It was too hard to swallow from four sisters who have been dependent wives working symbiotically with good honest men, sharing any money they earned from investments etc , and living in grand houses with expense accounts. None of the trust or financial arrangements I had in place with the narcissist was any different than any normal marriage where two people are a team building a life and wealth together. My family piled on so much scorn and derision that I became estranged from them as well, right when I needed support.

    I was single and independent until age 40, and supported a husband who didn’t work for eight years. In the last two years, as the big multi-million dollar comeback of his band approached, he coerced me into giving up my two careers because he wanted so badly to support me. He boasted about supporting me all around town. Meantime, I had poured all my resources into our ‘forever’ home – sold properties, life savings, back breaking renovations that doubled the value of the home (while he watched, knowing all this value would come in handy when he forced me to sell).

    Sure enough, once I was totally dependent with no way back (and also wheelchair bound), he left. He took all the equity from our home loan account, hid the millions he went on to earn in the year of separation somehow (my lawyers and forensic accountants could never chase them down because they were most likely in off-shore accounts), and left me homeless, disabled and broke. The conniving effort he went to to ensure that I was left with nothing and completely slandered and blamed by our community was totally traumatising, so then I had four years of acute PTSD to deal with as well.

    My narcissistic sociopath (psychopath) did all those things. He was intelligent and cunning, at the same time as being hugely irresponsible and extravagant. He loved to give me expensive gifts from money I had paid into the home loan!(I only found out later as he lied about music royalty payments and the like). This ‘generosity’ hid his true intentions. The coerced dependency and clever juggling of mortgages and bank accounts was central to his scam. Later, I found that he had done this to four women. It’s how he made his living in between ‘comebacks’ every decade or so with his band. That fact alone was totally re-traumatising. Those poor women. The poor next one!

    I agree with Mel. That old model of joint bank accounts, shared names on titles etc left over from the days when women were dependent on males is out of date in a new age. Unless we look at our unions in a similar way to business partnerships, where our own interests are clearly stated on a legal document somewhere. These evil types are way too cunning and deceptive for kind generous souls to keep up with. Even if we had been warned (which nobody does) we could not have even imagined how low a person would stoop because we are just not like that ourselves. I thought I had done my due diligence to establish his character for three years, but everything changed the day after the wedding. He suddenly ‘ran out of money’. He pretended to be someone he wasn’t for three whole years of love-bombing so he could get his hands on everything I had, then bided his time for another six until his ticket out arrived.

    I am healed now (still housed homeless, broke and now long-term unemployed – we can’t get a new job in our ageist fifties). He will always be a parasite with a long legacy of broken lives. It is tragic. And the Truth is pretty much exactly the opposite of the public image for this ‘legend’.

    1. Omg… my story with the narc/husband… of 10+ years… has been pretty much exactly the same as yours … I’m wife #5 … I found that out after being married to him for 4 years… the mortgages… his lies of “taking care of me “ … the”presents & gifts & cars… that he forged my signature on credit applications, loan documents… mortgages… my family said & acted the same towards me as yours did with you

  4. i do believe Melanie that you were my first coach. How I found out what in God’s name I was dealing with. Many many years married. I stayed as long as I did, no one would believe me. He was the saint & I was the bitch. My own family was a good part of the reason I stayed. I didn’t come from one, it was 3. I was trauma bonding from a mother, with her own hands caused a brain injury. Almost landed 6′ under at 5 years old. I knew nothing about narcism. He was a wonderful boyfriend, but I don’t think I ever fully trusted him. I handed over my pay check, which wasn’t very much, to add to the bill paying money. He took my SS & without asking. When, he got his 401 K he didn’t save a cent & gave just about the whole thing over to our girls & they gladly took it. He ends up in medical building & eventually out of state. They think PTSD. HA!!!! He gave POA to our son-in-law. My son-in-law & my daughter stole everything including my SS, which I eventually got back. My son-in-law I let use our SUV, because I don’t drive. He made me pay for the car insurance, because they couldn’t afford it. I lost everything including my dog. If they could have gotten away with it, they would have put me in home, to keep stealing our money. I was seeing a specialist, at the time & she scared them silly with the threat of court. They finally dumped me at an apt complex, because I knew too much, including he hurt me & my daughter. My husband told me he would gladly go to Hell with me & sent me the biggest Bible I ever saw. Shortly after that, I went no contact which was 3/26/18 shortly there after, I did the same to my family & haven’t & won’t break contact. I am already starting to heal & grown quite a ware of the dangers lurking everywhere. If there is a Mr. Right out there, he will have to find me. I’m not looking. A few more people have just started opening to me & we became FB friends. My one friend is amazed t has been months & I haven’t even tried to talk to me. He loves younger women & I know he tried to infect me with HIV, but not ready to talk about that. I don’t think he’s a narc, because he could care less what he looked like & he is very dangerous. My doctor before he retired knows more & he told me whenever he gets out get a restraining order against him. I had a detective involved, but he bailed, didn’t feel like handling it. Spiritual hoovering can things go missing, fall to the floor & buckling metal sounds occur. My daughter had a cat like yours, but smaller & I love that color on you. Thanks, for you, being you, Melanie!

  5. I’d really like to say something about this, with all due respect and deepest compassion to all those who consider themselves victims of Narcissistic Abuse, etc. I am an open minded person, so I have explored this topic, among others to try and understand the demise of a relationship. I really don’t think anyone is born this way, I believe we are all inherently good at heart? No… I don’t seem to get it, thank you.

    1. Dear Lisa

      Thank you for your honesty. As someone who has been helped immensely by Melanie’s work I will try to explain briefly as I once felt as you do about people being inherently good.

      To be in a narcissistic relationship means that nothing can appease the narcissist no matter how hard you try.

      You could argue that this type of person is ‘good’ as it forces those of us that need the lessons to have them.

      Often the abused ones are constantly trying to improve their marriages/relationships but are thwarted at every attempt. It is the relentless pressure from their behaviour that backs us into a corner with knowhere else to go but towards our own pain so that it can be healed.

      Do I see my ex husband as good? To be honest, no but see the good in the lessons I’ve had from him.

      It’s a very complex subject and took me many years to even realise I was being abused (emotionally, not physically) when others could see it.

      Best wishes

      Angie

    2. Hi Lisa, Yes, I’m in agreement with everything Angie just shared! Though heartbreaking and sad, this stuff is REAL & it’s devastating to peoples’ lives. A seared conscience is a dangerous thing, and there are many people out there operating in these hideous behaviors as a lifestyle…..unmoved by their negative effects on others! Only by the Grace of God can any of us change (including these type people),…but it’s communities like this that God has used in my life to wake me up, protect me, and bring me into a place of Healing! I’m responsible for owning my own stuff, but He’s showing me that I cannot own what belongs to someone else. Hopefully that helps!

    3. I’m open minded as well. I like to think people are good.

      When people show you over and over and over again who they are, then you have to believe them. Narcs will constantly say one thing “I’m so giving, I have a big heart and love everyone, I take care of everyone around me” yet their actions continue to be the opposite. They show you that they are takers, they only care about themselves, they only take care of people around them when others are watching to keep up their appearance.

  6. Oh my goodness did this one really hit the mark for me this time round and I was only thinking about the gaps I have with my own lack of financial limits I have in place within myself. I know that I have learnt and collected from my father that being generous was a way to earn friendship and acceptance and joy and then with my mother I learnt that I needed to provide her with financial support from a young age to be the good girl who she then became dependant on. Through out my own life I have seen friends take advantage of my generousness and been the one to give more and secretly hope that I will be given it back in return in someway but that is so conditional. I really want to get out of the giver and taker roles that I am playing out on the inside and living precariously because of being taken advantage of in different situations in the past. How does NARP help with establishing a healthy and fair belief system when it comes to financial boundaries and setting limits? I have the program just need to get going but been in my own mind a lot and am finding it is trying to run the show here. Thank you.

    1. Hi Penny,

      You have wonderful self awareness which is such a positive step in the right direction.

      With the use of Module 1 and the Goal Setting Module in NARP you can literally reprogram any defunct or painful relief.

      Myself and other Thrivers regularly do that work!

      You can learn more about how to work with this in the NARP Forum as part of your Gold NARP lifetime membership.

      I hope this helps.

      Mel 🙏💕❤️

  7. Thank you Mel

    Timely as ever!

    I am at the settlement discussions point of a divorce and your video helped me regarding being too ill to work which is what happened to me gradually over the 20 years I was married. I was beginning to think I was the narc because since leaving I have felt I have needed the money he earns to live on and have had some guilt about that. I now realise that the dynamics of the marriage kept me ill and dependant on him.
    I have been Narping is phases since leaving early in 2017 so will get back into it now for this issue.
    I was always good with money before I met him, prepared to work for it, able to save, not get into debt so know that this is part of me and that I’m not a ‘sponger’. Obviously I hope my health returns and I can be a source to self financially too and accepting of what will come my way from the settlement without guilt!

    Thanks again xxx

  8. I’ve lived with a narcissist for 20 long years. The first 15 years I saw him as a good person, believed his lies, begged him to stop abusing me. He bullied me into subsmission. As for financials… in the beginning I was unemployed. Every time I mentioned “career”, he went bilitistic. Interviews and training programs were met with sabatage to the car (gee, all of a sudden the car doesn’t run- even at the cost of losing tuition)… or, “oh, no gas for you to get to that interview!” But the next day he came home and asked if I wanted to go out to eat. His personality changed the SECOND he knew I had no place to go and no money to get there. I was in a catch 22. If I mentioned “job”, I was threatened with being put on the street with no money or gas in my car. He knew I was stuck, like an animal in a cage. Slowly, the PTSD developed, sense of self shattered, dreams dissolved… Point- it not just bleeding you financially that narcissists do.. they also keep you from making money. So, when I say “let’s go to a movie” and he doesn’t want to see it, he can say “no money”, when there probably was. But, with me not working, I can’t say “I want to go and I’ll pay”. Still in all, during the early part of this nightmare, while still thinking this was a normal guy (who hid his narcissism very well with his manipulations and excuses), he had me borrow money from my friends…. late in paying back, and finally the last friend I had left- he borrowed and refuses to pay back. It extended into my health. I need corrective eye wear. he wouldn’t pay for glasses. I had contact lenses, a lot cheaper. They were to be thrown out/ changed every month. I wore them for 4 months. On my last pair, I begged him for new lenses. NO. I told him they were scratching my cornea’s. NO. No money – we can’t afford them. But, we can afford pizza and take out.. amazing how that works, huh? I ended up in the emergency room, followed by two weeks in a dark room because any light was excruciatingly painful. This is not where you gasp…. Three years later, the same thing happened, another trip to the emergency room. (Now gasp.)

    Ok, so I’m trapped. I got myself on disability for anxiety… and NO, I didn’t tell him. I stashed most of it. My monthly income equaled an average persons weekly income, so not enough to even pay for a roof over my head elsewhere. Since in 20 years I was not allowed to buy clothes or get my hair done, and my car had hundreds of thousands of miles on it and falling apart (which gave him more power since I am stuck at home, and can’t run- even for an hour- when he went manic)… I would buy some clothes at after Christmas sales and say that an old friend in another state sent them to me… I got my hair done 2ce / yr and kept it in a pony tail for a week or two-he didn’t notice. I bought myself contact lenses when needed… and it never crossed his mind that it’s been three years since, in his world, I have gotten new lenses. I told him that a friend is giving me a car no longer needed. (I bought it from my disability). And yes, I constantly sat in amazement and disbelief that “THIS is my life?” I didn’t stay because I loved him. I hated the sight of him. I shook when his car pulled up. I stayed one step ahead of him, because every word had an ulterior motive. There was no time for dreaming, it was full survival mode.

    So, in 2012 we bought a mobile home for a few hundred dollars. It was not livable, but it was so much cheaper than the hotel we were living in. I put the money up, but told him that I borrowed it. I paid for all of the repairs and did all the work. Because of my disability payments, it was structured where I was not allowed to own anything, so it went into his name. The $600 mobile home was worth $20,000… in his name. Always something held over my head.

    In 2015 a friend in another state bought a house for me, a fixer upper. He knows nothing of this evil human being I’m living with. The house was set up in an LLC. If my friend dies, his will states that the house goes to me. If I die, he sells the house. You’re thinking “Run, Forrest, Run!” No, I need the $20,000 to make the house liveable. It sat vacant for years and filled with mold and cracked plaster and no appliances. Yes, I brought the narc along. At least he can do the work I can’t do like electrical and plumbing. (You can laugh now….) I thought I had it planned. I told (lied) the narc that I have 3 years to get a mortgage or we have to move. So, the house has to be finished fast. In reality, I want the house finished and thought with a deadline of losing it, that would back him off the resistance of me working. We’re approaching 4 years and the last room, the bathroom, has sat with no drywall, vanity or toilet for a year. I can do drywall/ painting. I can’t do plumbing/ electrical.

    There are times I want to say “OUT! LEAVE!”. But with CPTSD so bad… I am a shell of a person. I rarely shower, I rarely leave the house, I don’t recognize myself. I haven’t had a choice in years. Every choice has been verbally pummeled with rage or sabataged.

    My disability has been halted because they wanted a review of my case, which means going into their office. Calling them took months of vomitting prior to calling and hanging up while on hold. Why? Social Security is like a gun to my head. The letters/ calls received are the gun, the message is the bullet. My life depended on this. And I was too terrified to face them. Think tight rope walking over Niagra Falls type of fear. So, it’s gone.

    The upside is- I told this narc when the house was bought, that we have to pay 50% of market value in rent, and the other 50% is in labor for rehabbing the house. The truth is- we only have to pay taxes. Oh, utilities, of course. We CANNOT touch that rent money. (Did I see an eye roll?) Yes, the money was borrowed from. There is no rent. I call this “battle pay”. And I am stashing it. So the tables have turned. Here’s the game… there’s a catastrophe- dog sick, car repair, etc. I told him we can’t afford the dog years ago. (He abuses the dog). He told me that “if you get rid of the dog, I’ll burn your house down”. And he will. So, its borrowed against…. then paying it back is ignored, hoping I’ll forget…. then when push comes to shove I hear “I PAID IT BACK” or “I DIDN”T BORROW THAT MUCH” and when I show him the receipts, he refuses to look at them and says “YOU HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS, DON”T YOU!” and still denies it.

    So, here I am… almost 60, one third of my life gone… a shell of a person… isolated… haven’t had a two way conversation of substance in YEARS… failing health from stress… and broke….. and trapped. And, I’m slowly realizing that this is a slow painful death from now until my body can take no more. And daily, I wonder if this is it for the rest of my life…. it’s not worth it.

    One of the financial gains he plays is- brings home paycheck…. spends a good portion on HIS food for the week, and anything else he needs. By Sunday night he says “Here’s whats left”.. which doesn’t pay the bills or my food. Or, he comes home on Friday and says “what are the bills?”, He gives me money for the bills, goes and buys himself food, keeps $10 for his morning coffee, hands me the balance for my food. ($30 for the week.) I do not leave the house unless he’s at work because he’s a thief, so I plan on buying food on Monday. Seems that on Sunday he didn’t buy dog food and the dog will starve… he didn’t put enough gas in his car and he won’t get to work. By Monday I am down to $10 for food for the week. I’ve lived off of cereal and hot dogs, one meal a day, for the past month. He knows I am not going to let the dog starve and have him lose his job. Last night he said to the dog “your mommy is too cheap to buy you food”. Of course I went off on him that he has money, and I need food… and, I know, he doesn’t care.

    I cannot see an end to this ever. I used to strive to build a life… before him… then I strived to find a way out… then I strived to survive. Now I’ve come to terms that the only way it’s going to end is if one of us leaves this earth. Option 1) he stays- I slowly die from stress beyond measure, because this is not living. Option 2) he leaves- I slowly die with no way of supporting myself. I envision utilities getting turned off one by one… food being scarce…. and it’s over. I just don’t have the energy to try to fix this anymore. I’ve tried to “fix this”, “fix me”, “figure a way out”, “survive”, etc. for years.It’s taken it’s toll.

    The only peace of mind I get is knowing that I am and will always be a good person… he will always live in his absolute misery.

    1. Correction…. (can’t find “edit”) First sentence… “First 15 years…” No, that is “First 5 years I saw him as a good person”. Then the red flags. Then the “planning to get out of this. trying to outsmart him”, then the survival mode and shaking/ crying/ praying…. then the house…. “

    2. My N hated my job too. He didn’t want me to work and it just didn’t seem logical. I remember getting a raise years ago and he went ballistic and went on a rant about how I would never amount to anything and would never make as much money as him yada yada. I refused to quit my “dumb” job. He was one of those people that sometimes helped with the bills and sometimes not. I am very conscientious and hate this behavior. One time I handed him a stack of envelopes to mail (he went right by the post office on the way to work). He never mailed them. A few weeks later I came home and switched on the lights (no electricity!).

      I had girlfriends that had dealt with partners that refused to work or contribute too. Their solution was to quit and stay home with the kids. Their men stepped up to the plate! The strategy worked. I had a gut feeling this guy of mine would just not do that. I knew we would end up living under a bridge in a cardboard house if I stopped working. Breaking up with this parasite was virtually impossible. I could not get rid of him! He wouldn’t stay home and take care of our son either (to save on daycare). When I proposed that idea he acted like it was a huge insult!

      So slowly as he proved himself unreliable I shouldered more of the bills and responsibility. I stopped counting on his paychecks and only counted on me. It was the best thing I could have done.

      His behavior does seem to run in his family though. His sister managed to live rent free for many years off a friend until the friend got the guts to just kick her out. They bought into her sob story. Ex-sister-in-laws who were married to his brothers say that his relatives would come to visit “for only a week” and weeks later they would still be there – rent free. It would be nearly impossible to get them out! Sometimes they would find some sucker to rent them an apartment – only to pay the rent the first few months and then run up a considerable tab with the poor landlord.

      1. No Name— It’s amazing, isn’t it? That to us, logically two incomes is peace of mind I often think, “you bullying me- you pummeling me into submission with rages to keep me from working is costing you tens of thousands of year. Is THAT how much your power is worth?” I think he thinks, if I work I can get away. If I work, I’ll talk to people. If I work, he can’t throw it in my face “YOU CLEAN! You don’t do anything all day!” If I work, my full attention won’t be on him. If I work, I’ll have choices, and he loses his control. When I mentioned work or career years ago (cause i finally gave up), he went into a rage beyond description. I often thought “he’s acting like he’s literally fighting for his life”. LIttle did I realize, he was. He was fighting for his life= power= air to breathe as a narcissist. Then he tells his family that I don’t want to work. (ARE YOU KIDDING ME?) And, yes it runs in his family, too. “What can you do for me?” seems to be the family motto. YOU fix it, YOU clean, YOU borrow money cause I can’t pay my bills on time. (He will have the money, but in his world- a bill owed on the 4th of the month, mean “sometime during the month”). Add to the narcissism, family history of schizophrenia and addiction. (Whoopie! The tri-fecta!) Sarcasm… Good luck with your nightmare. I’m glad that you have control (peace of mind) of your finances. That’s a major sense of “self”. And sorry you can’t get rid of the leach. I keep saying “this too shall end”.

      1. Womens shelters are packed in my area, and women with children come first. And, you get 30 days. That is definitely not enough time to heal PTSD and get working skills to support oneself financially in my area. Rooms for rent are as much as apartments in the worst of areas (think- stepping over needles on the way to your front door).

    3. To Hudson Valley Girl,

      Everything is so complicated, and tedious, with a narc. I absolutely know your plight. I am very touched by your final paragraph and statement. I have two children that my narc has abused. He has brainwashed one and has taken her illegally, refusing to return her to my custody, and he is starting to brainwash my younger son. Trying to survive, yet alone thrive, involve days of frantic thinking, methodical research, government services that refuse to be involved. I feel isolated, although constantly reaching out and taking small steps forward. I feel like I am trying to outrace time to become financially secure after divorce, and also to protect my children. But like you, I know that I am good, and that my ex will always wake up everyday in a paranoid fretful state.

  9. Thank you so much Melanie for your heartfelt guidance. It helps me so much. I am a man who met a narcissist who lived abroad. We had met a few times and fell, it seemed in love. Of course, as things progressed I had to be the one who left their country, learned a new language, adjusted to a new culture etc etc. She said she had no intention of doing it. I was happy to do so because of how much I felt for her.

    The expense of moving country was huge. I was going to be spending a small fortune to relocate. She used to tell me we were soulmates, a team who would share every challenge. So, I asked her if she could please go 50/50 with me on the ‘plane ticket as I was really struggling. I will never forget the disgusted, shocked look she gave the webcam before she told me “What? Get it yourself! What kind of a man are you to ask for money? You’ve got to take responsibility for yourself.”

    I told her I was paying 95% of my own way but really needed the help. She got angrier and said “Well, you’d better pay every penny of the gas money I have to spend to pick you up.”

    Red flag Number 2, at the time. If only I’d listened to all the ones which came later! I’m 4 months No Contact now and listen to you as part of my recovery.

    Thank you 🙂

  10. I am truly blessed that my narc is such a selfish person when it came to finances and wanted to keep our money separate. Even when he was making $30K a month he wanted me to continue working as he says I was still on trial to be a stay at home wife. Thank goodness I never passed his test and continued working. We kept our finances separate so I had my own money and would pay child care, groceries, utilities and kids clothes and entertainment. I saved and saved and was finally able to move out and start fresh, pay for attorney to release myself from him.

    He is trying to get full custody so I have to pay him child support and of course he is asking for alimony even though the prenup that he insisted on states no alimony.

    Recently, the narc asked me many times to come to dinner with him and kids since it was kid 2 birthday, that he doesn’t keep things separated as I had already thrown a party for my kid without inviting dad. I asked my kids and they wanted me to come, so I sent along. We are done eating and guess who conveniently didn’t have their wallet? I refused to pay even though kid 1 was insisting I did because they wanted to go home and play with the new toys from the birthday. I explained that if you are invited to dinner you do not pay. The narc ended up telling the server to take the tab to the manager to pay for it since the ticket time was too long. I was so embarrassed, but held my ground. I did end up paying some of the tip while a sister in law paid the rest.

  11. I was NEVER one for joint anything EXCEPT for the kid making and if I knew then wheat I know now, I wouldn’t even do the kid making either! Or stop at one. Though I say this, I have no regrets in having them. Now back to financial. My challenge is now at 49 and it’s been years I have been seeking a job is how to get back on my feet, pay off my growing credit card debt, friends and family I owe and get my own space to call my own and start a healthy life? OMG! When will there be a breakthrough!

  12. The ex liked to control me with money, as well as other things like fear. He was really good at it. I fell for it hook line and sinker. And became less and less functional. So at 55, when I took the kids and left, I had no career, no savings, and compromised health. But I did hang onto the house with the help of an attorney. It is in my name and is my retreat now! I write and teach from here now, it has become so peaceful.

    After spending a fair bit of time on NARP 1-10 and FOO, my health improved. About a year ago I shifted (heh, heh pardon the pun) to working with mod 11 regarding relationship with myself and self sufficiency and work. As I have continued this, I have been more successful no matter my age (now 58). Actually I think I also look younger now than I did at the end with the ex.

    I am teaching music, getting paid for gigs (well, not many but hey – they all count 🙂 and am back working part time for an architect. I also write regularly for two journals, pro bono, and am building networks and bringing in more students that way. It is not yet a living wage combination. But I am now earning more than I have ever earned at any point since hooking up with the ex 20+ years ago. Moving into my own success and abundance, step by step… I am proud of my progress.

    I think I might not still be alive if I had not found NARP. My health was going down in a big way at the end there. I am better now, though much room for improvement. Thank you, Melanie!

    More talks on greater Thriver-ness with self sufficiency would be fabulous. More Thriver stories about coming out the other side of this financial challenge stuff would be great. I know I have a ways yet to go…Healthy balance with all of life – please!

    Maybe more suggested sample goals? I have a distance yet to go to be where I want to be. Maybe there is more I could be doing that I have not thought of yet.

    Thanks – blessings and love to you and yours –

    1. Hi Valerie,

      Thank you for you share and it is so wonderful how far you have come. You are such an inspiration!

      I’d love to help you with more Thriver-ness and I think you will love the next Thrivers Life video I put out because it really does relate!

      We can continue this conversation on that thread!

      Mel 🙏💕❤️

  13. Melanie, this article is so on point. However, once you are married and financially entangled with a narcissist, the legal system doesn’t always come to your aid. I financially supported my ex-husband for the last 8+ years of our marriage. When we divorced, he came into a family inheritance, which by law I wasn’t entitled to, and left me to take care of the kids, mortgage, and legal fees with less than $5000 in my checking account. I later discovered that he had been hiding assets, biding his time to find his next victim. He did, and within a week was being financially supported by her. She bought me out of the house, but the judge required me to stay on the mortgage (but not the title) for the next 24 months. I pinned this article hoping that his new victim will somehow read your advice and wake up. I’d hate for another single mother to fall prey to such a scam.

  14. I live in the US and have not been able to sign up and pay for the other NARP resources because I am unable to use a credit card due to my narc husband seeing the purchase. No other VISA type gift cards work internationally that I know of. Can anyone provide a solution to purchasing without detection? I am really ready to heal from this abuse and get the strength and financial means to leave this extremely long and abusive marriage.

  15. Dear Everyone,
    Hi, My name is Cathy. I have lived with him for 20 years. This is the first time in 20 years I have ever divulged to anybody anything below. Respectfully, please may we keep this confidential. thank you.
    Every single day of 20 years, if I very politely, very slightly or gently “disagree” with ANYTHING or if I walk on the tiles at home and accidently leave a footprint if I have no socks on, or if I touch anything of his or accidently get in his car the wrong way, or if I move in a certain way he will call it out and he calls me the following in a very calm way: “why are you acting like a retard,, or when in a rage when he can’t find anything of his that he has misplaced it is always, always my fault and he calls me:… “stupid cNnt”. F*cknig spastic. Retard, asshole (his very favourite word), Moron, parasite, f*king this and that, and then calmly carries on whatever he is doing and if I burst into tears or stand there in shock he starts to put his finger to his head and act as if he is mentally challenged and in a mentally (with all due respect to anybody mentally less able) odd voice and mimics what I am doing in shock and says “oh look at her she is abused, she is in an abused situation” and starts mocking my feelings and will call me an an animal or stop acting like an animal. One of his favourites is” any normal person would not do this or that” or are you stupid or something. He calls me these names at least 5 days out of 7, the remaining two days are if I am compliant and do not behave or act in a different or way to his opinion.
    He has bought a house now in a different State we were living in Sydney and he bought a large house here. The terms are I pay him $200 per week (we dont sleep in the same bedroom and we never have done because if I move around in the bed he will kick me and tell me not to move or breath as I am annoying him) so after six months of living together (he moved into my life so so quickly it was unreal I bought a home and he moved in straight away all of his things and took over, he took over the whole house my dad bought for me he told me to rip out the bathroom and rennovate it to HIS liking, new hot water tank, brand new kitchen, cupboards, cooker, carpet, office he had of his own, office table, chairs, expensive lazyboy chair, all the bills I paid, water, electricy all food, due to his (then physically way towards me he would hit me but I dont want to go into that please) I lost my jobs, in fact when I met him, I had a brilliant job in a massive company in London, that is where I met him. May I say it was such a wonderful job in a very massive global company. I was popular, lots of friends, I so blessed I have the most amazing parents God has blessed me with, such an amazing family (they all live in the United Kingdom), I came here because he said we have to move here from the UK. He moved into my home after 4 months of me knowing him, as I lost my great job I had to sign on the dole in the UK and I had to take out a loan to pay for all the repairs and massive house rennovation when there was nothing to do in the house it was perfect. he then told me after 6 months of meeting him that I should sel my car as I could not afford to run it, i could afford to run it, the issue was that I was unemployed for the very first time in all my 30 years, before I met him I had never ever been unemployed. Within 6 months of meeting him I had lost my job. I met him at my great job that I had and he told me when we moved into my home in the UK that he wanted to take me on a six week holiday. I had just been made permanent at this job as I was prevoiusly on a 3 year contract and the managers moved heaven and earth to make me permanent. I asked my managers if I could take six weeks leave and they said unfortunately not as I had just been made permanent. He said to me who matters to you more, me or your Managers and he made me feel very guilty and he said he wanted to take me around the world. So he did, he took me around the world, booked the tickets, (I quit my job), and took me to a few places. When we returned, he then told me I owed him 10,000 UK Pounds for the holiday. Please kindly know I was a bit blindsided. He took care of the tickets, the money, the accommodation, I had nothing to do with it, but he told me I had to give him 10,000 pounds as that is what the holiday cost. When I acted suprised and shocked upon our return as I did not not expect this, (and I was certainly not thinking it was free I was just a bit taken aback as i had not planned for that expense) he said Ok I will live free in your house until you make up the money to me. I was getting 50 pounds per week on the social security, not working, and paying for all food, all bills, all furniture, everything. he planned a move to Australia and to fund that, as I had no money, he said sell ur house. Which I foolishly did, in hindsight, may I say he personality was very very very overbearing. He told me daily how much he had “invested emotionally” into this relationship, how much he had invested his time into me, and that I was ungrateful. He had a very physical overbearing character and he could get quite rough with me. I sold the house my dad bought me for a pittance, less than 30 english pounds, and moved to Australia with just that money. He got a job straight away, i went from benig a project manger to sweeping floors in a shop in Sydney cash in hand for 6 months. After six months I got an office job.
    since being in Sydney for 16 years he has earned approx 800 to 1000 per day. he has a very high paying job. for the first 12 years since being here I would pay the majority of food as he would say, he doesnt eat but he does eat, and I would buy food, cook each and every day and he would eat it, but if I asked for money towards it, he always says, I NEVER ASKED YOU TO BUY THE FOOD. His answer to get out of paying is I never asked you.
    but he still eats all the food. It is only past 2 years since we moved here have I managed to ask him for $50 per week towards foods for both of us including all cleaning products and then I begged him to go to $85 per week. Please bear in mind he earns approx $8,000 to $12,000 per month and he has lots of investments, and cash in banks. We have always gone half on the rent and gas bills. but he is VERY VERY money minded when it comes to food. However during the 16 years here he orders very extravagent things online for himself.
    Now he has bought a house the terms are I pay half of his bills, plus $200 per week for the two rooms downstairs of his house one small bedroom for me and one small other room, plus I cant really use his kitchen as its located in his living room and he does not like me make a “mess” so I had the idea of getting a gas bbq and cooking outside, he has the main huge master bedroom living area upstairs, my area to sleep would be at the back of the house downstairs. he chose this house. and I have to pay all food he says he is no longer going to pay $85 per week towards the food so I have to pay that now despite taking $700 per week less for moving over here. but his wages are the same. the house will be his I have no claim over it, and he says the $200 per week is the interest he is losing per year ($7,000 per year) despite my pay cut of $700 per week which totals $33,000 per year. when I politely asked him for any reduction or could he pay for food since I came here to this new state he told me to fuck off, I dont love you, in fact I dont love you. its the first time he has told me he does not love me (he has never told me he does) but now he saying fkk off go back to sydney if you dont want to pay I can rent the downstairs out you ungrateful paraise fu&*king theiving parasite. this is after 20 years

  16. I worked with a very toxic narc who wanted to ‘sell’ me is barbershop…place was falling apart, needed total fix up and he kept no books
    Or records of clients. As I’ve
    Done Narp since 2015 (I walked out of this place due to his narc ways)…I said ok…. let’s contact the landlord and I’ll get a contract of sale from an attorney. Guess what…. he said NO not doing that…. gotta be one ahead of these losers…. imagine if I was dumb enough to give him the money and then he refused to follow through. Not on my watch. Since contacted landlord and he is watching him carefully. Says he cannot do anything without landlord permission. Imagine giving him the
    Money and landlord says
    Not renting to whoever gave him cash. There you go and he has conned you….. I really want that shop tho but in an upfront way. This barber got it from Previous deceased owner for nothing and has messed up the business. He can’t keep barbers either because of his narc ways. Be smart before you give them anything especially money. He plays so I regroup but that’s another story, stealing my clients in
    My days off….arghhhhh

  17. So basically we are sitting prey for these life leeches that intentionally as well as subconsciously, say/do things to attach us to them (trauma bonding) so as to be sure they have access to us for as long as they choose. 🙄 I’ve always worked to provide for myself and my daughter as did my partner. Though how does it happen, that narcs are made?? How does someone become like an adolescent mooching off others and knowing they can always rely on their sainty martyr mom to pick them up, drive them to appointments, pay their debts and rent and be there no matter what to care for them, listen to them and set them up on date to arrange a relationship or marriage for them only mom would enjoy?? I mean if it’s on us as women to use tough love on men then wouldn’t that make our relationship Oedipal instead of free of their narcissistic, childish mothers??? 🥴🤪

  18. Yeah if narcs can’t bleed you dry financially, they will in other ways suck your energy and motivation to the point you can’t or don’t want to function.

  19. Wow, I have been here and experienced all this. One of the things the narc kept bumping his head on about was having access to my savings which I refused vehemently and this caused me untold hardship and physical violence… We have dependants together and it’s a long story.. Parenting together was hard work and Co parenting together is even worse.. He is trying his best to have access to my properties and I’m at my wits end… I need help specificallwith this area Melanie..

  20. I got lucky and discovered was was behind a mask before I married him. He lived in my home and paid no bills for 5 years. He had relationships on the side and said I was jealous. Thanks to you Mel I saved myself and got rid of the narcissist before he totally destroyed me. He married four months after I booted him out. I feel sorry for his new wife going through the torment he is likely giving her. Love you Mel and thank you so much for saving me.

  21. My partner and I were together before either of us had high income. We both worked and supported each other’s dreams and goals though both always worked to meet our responsibilities and take care of a kid. Eventually we started to have some financial and career success and while not millionaires (not our dream per se) we could enjoy the efforts of our labor, until he got roped into an internet scam where he was drugged (sounds too crazy and high drama for anyone to believe) designed to disrupt us and drain all his resources (we kept separate accounts), pass bad checks on the account like they were owed something (as if it were us that were the toxic narcs) when he got away- just an overall crazy nightmare where he got sick and I definitely felt that pain you describe (poisonous foul ink, shoulder blade pain). But you know, when you are raised by a narcissistic family that fosters and nurtures dependency it can take a while to realize that poison is not medicine.

  22. As I listened to the video attached with this article, it was pretty much the whole 21 years I was married to my ex wife. I didn’t even see it until recently, but it started when she & I were engaged. My parents opened a savings account for me and had their names on the account as well. A few months before the wedding, she convinced me to drop my parents from the account and add her, without talking about it with my parents first, I didn’t feel right about it, but she said it’ll be ok…..which when we did tell my parents, it most certainly wasn’t. My mom was furious that we didn’t even discuss it with them beforehand.

    Skip ahead a few years, I’m a truck driver, and I was working in construction, I was bringing home some very good paychecks, and something she did that was a serious source of anger and frustration with me, we had a joint bank account, but I couldn’t be trusted with a debit card of my own because she said I’d spend the money and not be able to control myself….which was a MAJOR problem she had. Often spending much of my paycheck on Facebook credits to play games, or going out for expensive lunches while I was working. Also, I’d get an allowance from my own paycheck of $20-$40 a week, while she’d be spending on average $200 a week going out, and if I ran out of cash, I was expected to take cold meat or PB&J sandwiches for my lunch. And IF I wanted a little extra cash, I would have to pay her back out of my next paycheck. Also, she’d spend so much during the week that our bank account would be almost bone dry halfway through the week, and she’d write checks for over the amount of purchase to get cash, knowing that my deposit would hit the bank to cover the checks she’d write.

    A couple weeks before I ultimately moved out, I had stopped at the bank to get some cash from our account, no sooner had I gotten back in the truck and she was calling me and chewing me out for getting some of my hard earned money. I told her we’d talk about it when I got home….it wasn’t good enough, she wanted to talk then and there…I hung up on her.

    When I got home that night, she wanted to fight in front of our kids, and I refused, and I went to our room, she was about to rip into me when I shot back saying I worked my ass off to earn those paychecks, and I’m entitled to more than $20 of the money I worked to earn. And I threatened to open my own account without her name on it, and if she wanted money, she’d have to go to me…I ended up doing it anyway when I moved out a couple weeks later. Also want to note, she wasn’t working at the time either.

    Thank you for bringing up this subject.

  23. You have described the exact experience I had with my now ex-husband. I am so glad that I was strong enough to extract myself from this toxic and abusive man before he completely destroyed my health. Towards the end he was purposefully aggravating my health in order to weaken me, and make me desperate, so he could extract as much as he could from me. I am so much healthier, stronger, happier now that he is out of my life and I am confident that I will recover my finances in time.

  24. This can also happen in family relationships such as father/son in farming, which is exactly what happened to my husband. He financially supported the farm partnership with his father until I pointed out he was getting nothing out of it. Sure enough, after years of doing all the buying, paying for upkeep and expenses, his father left him out of the will and gave all land, and cattle, and housing to my husband’s brother who wasn’t even in the partnership and who had never contributed anything. (He had his own farm.) So this kind of narcisstic financial abuse with trading a partner in and ruining someone financially isn’t just for marriages. Beware farm family america if you are doing all the giving and the parent is doing all the taking, especially if there is no way to protect yourself. I wouldn’t ever do this unless I bought out the parent and had a legal contract.

  25. I was a sahm homeschooling four kids when my husband got cancer (which he blamed me for, saying I didn’t cook enough vegetables). Because he was self-employed and couldn’t work, we were able to get disability and some church people helped us out. But we also had to put things on credit cards to survive. When he became able to work again, he chose to do so only part time. Meanwhile, the kids were bigger and I was able to work part time too, but the more I worked to pay the debt, the less he worked. Slowly I began to work harder and shoulder all the expenses but it was never enough. Just when it looked like we would get ahead, he stopped working completely. He now blames me for all the debt we still have, works occasionally for cash but won’t share it, and is threatening to leave me and doesn’t care if we default on the debt. He refuses to fix up our run down house, buy food, or contribute in any way. I’m so stressed and broken. At fifty three I don’t have the energy to keep going like this. I’m scared I won’t be able to eat or survive. He claims he’s retired. He somehow earns cash to get what he wants but I have become responsible for all the bills. He has physically hurt me before and I know I need to figure out how to leave. I’m just not able to and I’m not sure why.

  26. Hi, my situation is opposite. I am the one with the money however found myself paying for him all the time…. Even asking him to contribute to the home was a massive issue. My ex narc also had a binge drinking problem and that’s when the vile side came out!
    I was with him almost 4 years he’s finally left our home after I kicked him out… I have no contact

  27. Hi Melanie. I am divorced 12 yrs from a 21 yr cult marriage to diagnosed malignant narcissist with 5 children (1 is still a minor) and 1 grandchild. I was financially bled and taken to court so many times that I went no contact only through emails about children and moved back to my home state. The ex has been offering to buy me plane tickets to visit our children and grandchild. I graciously declined. Now he emailed me to offer to help me with a plan to move back to where they are. I didn’t ask or ever say I wanted to go back. Even if I wanted to, which I don’t. I have no where to live there, etc… I know my children which I was closer. They tell me that all the time, but I don’t think my mental and physical health could handle living in his vicinity ever again. It’s like selling my soul to the devil again. I feel so bad that I have to choose my own sanity, but I am labeled every thing but a good mother. All because he choose a different state to reside in than my home state. How do I respond to his latest offer?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *