You should not be paying off your boyfriend or girlfriend’s debt. I don’t care if they’re struggling to pay it off or are constantly implying that you should be helping them out. It’s a whole different story if you’re married and have made a commitment to each other romantically, spiritually, and financially, merging your financial situations into one entity. But if you give your girlfriend $40K to pay off her student loans, she can just break up with you the next day, and you’ll be down $40K. That situation is more common than we’d like to believe it is. 

It’s one thing to ask someone in your life for help, but it’s totally different to demand that they pay off a loan that you willingly signed up for. Especially a loan that your partner didn’t even take out. Instead, it’s the loan of your partner’s relative. How is that your responsibility?