They say when you marry someone, you also marry their family and this is true. My family is pretty well off and my first girlfriends were too, so I never really thought about these things when I got married to my wife.
My wife's family is poor. Her parents don't speak English and made close to minimum wage doing factory work their whole lives. She has four siblings. She somehow became very successful, even though she grew up in one of the worst school districts in the state. Her two brothers are dead beats. Her two sisters live paycheck to paycheck.
We're pretty happy now. We are lucky to have relatively high paying jobs. My wife helps out her family financially. At first it annoyed me because we have a joint account. But now I'm okay with it. She makes more than me so I can't really complain. In the future when her parents are older, we'll see. We have one child and another on the way.
Our net worth is about 1.3mil, late 30s so we're not struggling. My wife gives her parents around 10-15% of her take home pay per year. She bails them out anytime they are in trouble. Her sister got married last year and my wife paid for every meal for 11 family members, everyday for a week. Things like this would ruin some people's marriages. I look at it as having a good heart. She would not be here without her family, after all.
So for any young guys out there, make sure you know what you're getting into.