The Luv Doc: A Content Creator

Dear Luv Doc,

I am 33 and I am four years into a live-in relationship with my boyfriend, who I met at a service industry job I was working at part time. He is a nice guy and he is very sweet to me, but he makes very little income. He is working hard to make it as a content creator, but he only has a high school diploma and his income is mainly from his nearly minimum wage food service job. He makes about a third of what I make as a customer service rep. This wouldn’t be a big issue, but I have two degrees and a lot of student loan debt, so I regularly work part time on weeknights as a restaurant hostess to help make ends meet. He wants to get married and have kids, but I have told him I don’t want to even think about marriage until I am debt-free, which at this rate is going to take years because Austin keeps getting more expensive. When I talk to him about our finances, he tells me once the content creation takes off we won’t have to worry about money. The stuff he creates is good, but there are so many people trying to do the same thing, so it’s hard to believe he will eventually make money. I feel bad about it, but I think I have finally lost faith. I want him to succeed, but I am over working extra hard trying to finance his dream. I want him to cover his share, but I worry he will think I don’t believe in him and we will end up breaking up. Is there a gentler way I can get him to step it up financially?

Working for 2

Over 50 million accounts on Instagram are designated as creator accounts. I am one of them. Occasionally I get a payout from Meta that adds up to a few shekels. It’s more of an insult than a payout – especially given the investment of time, energy, and yes, actual money I put into social media posts. When I hear about content creators like MrBeast or Khaby Lame making hundreds of millions from social media posts, it’s unfathomable. Clearly I have yet to crack the virality code. I’m still struggling to go bacterial. Maybe I am just terrible at content creation. The hard data says it’s time for a pivot, but I have devoted too much of my life to content creation. If I’m in the bottom percentile, so be it. To paraphrase Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II: “This is the business I’ve chosen,” and let me assure you folks, there ain’t no goddamn business to it. Thus, I live in the hubristic delusion that I am a true artist. Yeah, that must be it. It’s only a matter of time before I cut off my ear and send it to a brothel … or maybe get a pet ocelot.

One thing I am definitely not getting is rich from content creation. As far as I know, I am not even six degrees of separation from anyone making a modest income posting on social media. It would be truly inspiring just to know a content creator who is able to pay rent and bills on a singlewide in suburban Rosanky. Now, it may seem like I am going to great lengths to portray your boyfriend as delusional. After all, you yourself admitted his content is good. For all I know your boyfriend is the next Bella Poarch, and it would be unseemly of me to rain on his parade by carpet-bombing him with actual statistics. Life is difficult enough without having some stranger cavalierly shit on your dreams. To that end, I would like to apologize to all of the sub-5’10” kids in my Round Rock ISD high school detention class. I never should have said there was zero chance you would make it into the NBA if you didn’t graduate high school. I sincerely hope you are living your dream as a point guard for the Portland Trail Blazers.

I sincerely hope your boyfriend becomes ridiculously wealthy as a content creator, but it would be imprudent of me to recommend you invest your money in him rather than, say, a few choice shares of Dell stock, politically problematic as that might be. You’re probably right. Asking him to pull his weight financially might be seen as a vote of no confidence, but, from a third-party perspective, his desire to be a social media star shouldn’t supersede your desire to be debt-free. That’s as gently as I can put it. You might be able to make it land softer, but I think it’s important to state your needs plainly.

This article appears in September 25 • 2026.