<prompt> Human: I became a contracted consultant right out of college. Despite having been an investment banking intern and worked on a cutting-edge trading platform; I found the day-to-day in finance too monotonous and took the risk of joining a couple guys I barely knew to work on a startup. I signed a contract to work as the Interim CFO - compiling reports, projecting financials for capital raise, building slides and getting to work on the overall strategy. I was also to assist the partner with his other real estate business doing similar work. I owned no equity but I was told there would be plenty of options to acquire some after the first capital raise and bonus cycle. Both of the guys I was working under are much older, own multiple international businesses, and have a serious network of entrepreneurs as verified by emails and research on executives. Fast forward to October 21st, I was expecting my first check; the partner I was working under told me to wait a few days and I thought nothing of it. A week later I was told his foreign accounts triggered a Suspicious Activity Report causing his assets to be frozen. After 35 days, I still havent been paid and the email I just received from him stated Might have some money for you on Monday but cant say for certain. I have already began looking for other jobs but in the meantime Im in serious trouble. Checkings account is at: 345Savings: 0.63Credit cards: Maxed at 3000Pantry: Half a bag of granola topping for yogurt Due to a bad check he wrote me a month ago, the bank took back the 1200 my roommates gave me for rent. I am currently selling my clothes, laptop, phone T-mobile already suspended the account to make up for that amount. I have no foreseeable income except the hope that I see some money from the partner on Monday. My friend offered to bring me a Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, that might be the only food I see until Monday. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. ---Edit 1: I just wanted to let you all know that when I was typing this I was very hungry and scared but after reading all your advice and positive responses I dont feel hungry at all and actually have a gameplan to get out of this. I cried all over my laptop when you guys started offering me pizza and financial assistance. While I cannot accept either I want you to know that it means the world to me and someday I hope I can be as good of a person as you. I wanted to reply on everyones comment but they have started to grow exponentially. I promise I will be reading each and every one of them even if I cant reply. ---Edit 2: A lot of comments have become focused on my title as the Interim CFO. I want to clarify that my work from the start till the remainder of my assignment was nothing similar to what a CFO of even a small company would go through. The current financials and the anticipated cash flows were extremely basic and the recording of them could have been done by someone with Accounting 101 under their belt. I had no intentions to remain the CFO, nor could I have, once the company gained serious traction, and was told from the very start that when that happens I would need to write my own ticket within the established firm. Until then my work was entirely focused on securing capital and buildingshowcasing a strategy that would drive revenues - something I had done for two other startups before and was the reason for my hire. I spent majority of my time compiling, analyzing and building reports and plans which were ultimately going to be used as marketing and governing tools for the organization. Listing me as a Financial Analyst would have created issues when dealing with prospective investors some that I remained in contact with until last week. ---Edit 3: I listed my email to channel any job leads - this seemed to have locked my post. Apologies to Reddit and Mods. Assistant: Real Talk: grow a backbone along with a sack of balls.Are you kidding me? Taking a chance as someone young is working on a 1099 that was supposed to be extended to full employment in 3months, but 5 months later you realize its bullshit. They signed you on right out of college to work as the Interim CFO? What? What? I am so confused right now.Under no circumstances are you to work for free ever again. If someone lies to you about payment, thats the only lie they get. You leave the position immediately. These dudes knew they could take you for a ride and they sure did. Human: Honestly, looking back at it I feel like an absolute moron but when I met the guy who eventually signed me it seemed like a natural progression. During college I was one of the top finance students, did a trading internship, an investment banking internship, built a trading platform that was 2 years ahead of competition, led 3 different startups through capital raise. I could have been on track towards a 6-figure salary but I didnt really care that much for money and wanted to build something that didnt exist yet. The partners definitely saw that hunger and capitalized on it. I certainly should have insured my ass more than a simple contract. I always trusted everyone like they were family; definitely learned my lesson. Assistant: One arrow you have in your quiver tonight that you didnt have before is the fact I found this thread through the Reddit Twitter account. i am sure thousands of others will soon see it as well. The chance these very successful international businessmen will be outed, on a grand scale, as liars and cheats is the sort of thing which can be subtly dropped into your next correspondence. Its just that this thing has really started to snowball out of control on Reddit and I want to be sure none of us ends up feeling libeled or harmed by bad publicity. Human: Throughout my emails with the partner I really wanted to just make it all public just so he understands how bad his actions are. I dont know why but even during all of this, deep down inside I still want this project to succeed. Assistant: I dont know why but even during all of this, deep down inside I still want this project to succeed.I went through something similar a while back. I was working for a small business Id joined in the early days of its life and helped build up.We hit a rocky patch and my salary stopped coming through. Like you, I held on for far, far too long. A big part of that was because I wanted to help drive the business back into profit, but eventually it reached actually it was beyond, really the point where I had to walk.At that point, I got given grief for giving insufficient notice amongst other things. Even then, I didnt go public with it, just got on with the new job and started chasing my backpayIts damn hard to let go of something youve emotionally invested in, and that investment clouds your judgement.Others have given you good advice on there here and now, so all Ill add is that you need to make sure you learn from the experience in the future. If youre ever again in a position where salary is even a few days late, start the process of looking for suitable alternative employment there and then. You dont need to jump ship straight away, but the earlier you prepare the earlier youll get into something that paysHuman: When my check was only 11 days late I met with the partner and told him I had applied for a few jobs and even had a couple interviews lined up for the following week. He said I dont want you to jump ship, this is only temporary and like a fool I sat there and listened. The next day I got back to working 11 hour shifts to help us succeed. It hurts quite a bit when your trust gets broken like this.  <response>: Yup. Years later Im still angry, though its as much because I had to threaten to outright destroy something Id helped build to even start seeing some of what I was owed.The thing I learned was, no matter how much you enjoy the role andor believe in the companys futureproduct, at the end of the day its just a job. As soon as the job is putting you at risk, its time to think about walking.It sucks, its not a mindset I particularly like having, as it makes me pretty distrustful. People sometimes forget though that theyre only ever a paycheck or two away from losing everything, in that context its the only sane position.Hope things work out for you OP! 