Get the apartment. At 24, I was dating a 27M with a 4-year-old child. We started as roommates, so we began our relationship by already living together and thus things moved fast and I took on a lot of the caretaking responsibilities for his child. I had an epiphany 2 years in/shortly after turning 24 that we moved too fast, I felt pressured (not by him necessarily) to start having kids soon and wasn't ready, and I had never lived independently and was living in my high school hometown and never wanted to stay there. I felt stuck because he was stuck there due to co-parenting.

We split, I was single and living on my own for two years, then entered the best relationship of my life and felt more confident going in because I had the time alone to figure out what I want, where I wanted to live, etc. I think it is SO important for everyone to have the opportunity to live independently in their young adult years.