Couple sitting on couch looking upset

They Have Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Worth of Home Upgrades, a Luxury Car, an RV, and a Brand New $30,000 Backyard but When It Comes to $400 for a Family Vacation They Say They Need Time to Think About Whether They Can Afford It

ByKristin Stones

When someone spends $30,000 on a backyard renovation and then needs time to think about a $400 share of a family Airbnb, the gap between those two decisions is hard to explain away as a simple matter of budgeting. That’s the dynamic one family member is trying to make sense of after years of watching…

Group splitting bill at a restaurant

He Kept His Order to a Single Main and Water Because Money Is Tight, Stayed Calm When the Bill Arrived and Asked to Pay What He Actually Owed, and Two People in the Group Called Him Cheap for Not Covering Their Wine and Three Course Meals

ByKristin Stones

Ordering a main course and tap water, calculating exactly what you owe, and paying it with a tip is not a social transgression. Being called cheap for declining to cover someone else’s cocktails and three-course meal is. That’s the situation one person is working through after a group dinner to celebrate a friend’s new job…

Young woman carrying a box of her belongings looking upset

She and Her Husband Run a Company Together, She Fired Her Younger Sister for Causing Workplace Problems, and Then Discovered Her Husband Had Secretly Promised the Sister Extra Pay So She Could Go on Vacation Because She Cried to Him

ByKristin Stones

Running a company with your spouse requires a level of alignment that most business partnerships don’t, and finding out your co-founder made an unauthorized financial commitment to the employee you just fired, because she cried, is the kind of thing that tests both the marriage and the business at the same time. \That’s what one…

Woman sitting outside dressed up and looking sad

She Saved Carefully for a Bachelorette Party She Could Afford, Two Bridesmaids Kept Adding Events Without Asking Anyone, the Total Climbed $2,000 Above the Original Plan, and She Got So Stressed She Finally Decided Not to Go

ByKristin Stones

Planning ahead, saving carefully, and then watching the cost of a bachelorette party grow by $2,000 beyond what was originally discussed isn’t a budgeting failure. It’s a different trip than the one anyone agreed to attend. That’s the situation one woman’s boyfriend laid out on her behalf after watching her spend weeks stressed about a…

Woman looking shocked reading her credit card statement

Squatters Moved Into Her Inherited Home and Refused to Leave, the Sale Fell Through, the Executor Went Silent for a Year, and Now She’s Watching a Property She Was Supposed to Inherit Slip Away While Nobody Involved Will Tell Her Anything

ByKristin Stones

Inheriting a house should be the beginning of a process, not a year of silence from an executor while squatters claim ownership and a sale falls apart. That’s the situation one woman is stuck in after being left a home that’s still moving through probate. The property had a buyer lined up and was headed…

Man sitting at his desk looking very stressed out

He Owes More on Repairs Than He’d Net From Selling, Has Wanted to Leave for Years, and Is Weighing Whether to Stay Through the Foreclosure Process and Save $20,000 (Until Someone Pointed Out the Bankruptcy Didn’t Protect Him From a Second Hit to His Credit)

ByKristin Stones

Deliberately staying in a home through the foreclosure process to accumulate savings isn’t a new idea, and people do it, but the gap between how it looks on paper and what it actually involves is wide enough that it’s worth understanding the full picture before treating it as a straightforward financial strategy. That’s the calculation…