She had just turned 20, her mom gave her a $100 gift card to the only salon in town for her birthday, and she used it to get a simple French-tip manicure. No extensions, nothing elaborate. A few days later her food benefits loaded and she went to the grocery store to buy her usual…
Her husband is 34 and is entering treatment for a gambling addiction that consumed his savings, his retirement accounts, and resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card debt and personal loans. He also withdrew $45,000 from one of their shared accounts. She is not looking for advice about the marriage. She is…
Her sister is 29, earns roughly the same salary she does, has a cheaper mortgage, and fewer necessary expenses. She also cannot afford her $850 monthly mortgage payment. When she finally said that out loud, the follow-up question was obvious. Where is the money going. The answer was more than $1,500 a month in discretionary…
She moved in with her father in 1997 when she was single, broke, and pregnant. It was just the two of them and her son in the house after her parents’ divorce, and she stayed for years, handling everything her father could not do for himself. He did not drive, so from 1997 onward she…
Her daughter is 21, works part-time, and recently saved enough money to pay for an entire trip with her friends on her own. Two weeks after that trip, the family has a vacation planned, and her mother asked her to contribute about 10% of the total cost. Not because the family cannot afford it. Because…
He bought a brand-new Subaru in 2011, the engine blew a few years later, money got tight, and he stopped making payments on the loan. Capital One never came for the car. It has been sitting in his garage ever since, technically belonging to a lender that eventually charged off the debt and disappeared from…
