My SO and I are considering moving into an apartment together when his lease is up in November (his rent is going up 7% despite being already overpriced), but the apartment we've put in an application on (we had to move fast to hold it, apartments don't stay open for more than a day in this rental market) is $1495/month for a large 1-bedroom. I currently pay $597.50 to share a 2-bedroom.
Here's the issue that I'm running into: I'm slightly unsettled by the prospect of a sharing an apartment that I can't comfortably cover the whole rent for more than a few months if something were to happen to him. The rent by itself is 50% of my gross income. I currently save 50% of my net income (as does he.)
He makes 4 times what I do in earned income (his rental property income is separate). Despite that, we've always split things 50/50. I've proposed an unequal split for the rent- I suggested we split the rent $950 him/$550 me, which has me spending $50 less than my current rent (for half of a 2-bedroom) and him spending $600 less than he currently spends for a studio. He's comfortable with this, but I'm pretty uncomfortable. I'm just too much of a hufflepuff, it doesn't seem safe or fair. (Though it's worth noting, if we were to split the rent proportionally by income, I'd only be paying $345 and he's still be saving money over his current place.)
I'm also conflicted about the apartment: it's going rate these days for an apartment, but I've got an old rickety, smoky apartment that's much cheaper for my own room and I've gotten used to that amount. There's no way we're going to find a deal like that, so this is close to the best deal we can get, and my apartment is pretty sad (mold, terrifying outdoor stairs I have to carry my 40lb bike up multiple times a day). But if he weren't in the picture and I had to move, I'd be looking for something much, much cheaper (and likely sub-standard.) But to choose an apartment based on his means and not mine seems..like using money that isn't mine. Living outside my means.
What would you do?
**the potential apartment also has a lot of things I would like, to be clear, like a washer/dryer and dishwasher and safe (downstairs) bike parking and it's a non-smoking building, and an epic back porch. And the rent is locked in for 18 months. My current place could go up at any time (and has been every 3 months.)