Category: Reader Case Studies

Sam loves her outdoorsy life in Salt Lake City, Utah and is an avid rock climber, hiker, trail runner, ultimate frisbee player and skier. On the professional side, she manages content creation for Petzl, a French company that manufactures work-at-height equipment for careers in vertical spaces. She enjoys her job and the stability it provides, but craves a more independent lifestyle. She wants to explore the possibility of becoming a freelance video producer in order...

Jenny and her husband Will live in the Upper Midwest along the shores of Lake Michigan with their two children, Sam (age 16) and Alex (age 10), and their one old cat. Will is 56 and the couple always planned for him to retire at 60 and to pay for Sam and Alex’s college educations. However, now that the date is nearing, Jenny’s not sure this is actually feasible. She’d like our help checking her...

Kait and her husband Dave live in Alaska with their three young children. Kait works as a Postpartum Doula and Dave as a scientist for the state. They love their outdoorsy lifestyle and have created an incredibly close-knit community with their neighbors and friends. However, their beloved home has some serious structural issues that need to be remediated, but will likely be very expensive. Let’s travel to Alaska to help Kait and Dave determine what...

Taylor loves living in Washington, DC and enjoys her job in global public health. She likes to travel, spend time with her family and friends and has a stellar roommate/friend. The only trouble? She’s tired of renting and would like to buy a condo to start building equity and planning for her future. Can she afford a condo in our nation’s capital? Or would she be wise to consider a cheaper–but potentially less valuable–co-op condo?...

Leigh is a diabetes educator living in Denver, CO. Her children are on the cusp of adulthood and she’s looking around her soon-to-be empty nest, considering her options. She’d like to downsize to a smaller home in her same Denver neighborhood and is interested in exploring the possibility of buying a second home in The Dominican Republic. Leigh wants to continue her work, a passion she feels called to, but would enjoy reducing her hours....

Vanessa lives in Eugene, Oregon with her boyfriend and three cats, Freya, Orpheus and Gandalf. Vanessa works as the Licensing & Contracts Officer for the University of Oregon and is an attorney by training. In 2018, she bought her first home and is now facing the prospect of some pricey renovations or the possibility of selling this home and buying a different place. She and her boyfriend are also in the process of discerning whether...

Sara is a doctor and mother living with her best friend, Jodie, in the Pacific Northwest. Sara is a single mother by choice and her son Sam is now seven months old. She loves her work as a doctor and her new role as a mom, but wants to make sure her finances are as healthy as they can be. What’s a Reader Case Study? Case Studies address financial and life dilemmas that readers of...

Peter and his wife, Kim, both work as registered nurses in a medium-sized city in the Eastern United States. They became a family of three when they adopted their daughter, Rachel, in October 2020. Well, family of four including their cat, Pringles. Peter and Kim both enjoy their careers as nurses, but are at a point where they need to step back to part-time work in order to reduce burnout and fatigue and for the...

Sam and her husband John both work as full-time foresters for the federal government and part-time school bus drivers for their local school district. They live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on an off-grid hobby farm with their dog, dairy goats, laying hens and Tibetan yaks. Sam’s family lives nearby and they’re very happy with their location and lifestyle. The only problem? Their jobs. Both Sam and John would like to disentangle themselves from their full-time...

Sidney lives in a west-coast Canadian city with her husband, Steve, and their nine-year-old son. Sidney works as an atmospheric scientist for the federal government and Steve is an analyst, also with the government. They’ve been renting out their basement suite to friends for the last three years, but those friends will be moving abroad in May. Sidney’s grappling with whether or not they need to continue renting out the basement for the income, or...