Case Studies
Read below to see how we’ve helped people just like you.
Individual comprehensive
financial planning for
early educator
Couple comprehensive
financial planning
Individual comprehensive
financial planning
for young professional
Individual comprehensive
financial planning for
healthcare professional
Project-Based
Financial Planning
Student Loan
Analysis
View Case StudyIndividual comprehensive
financial planning for
early educator
View Case StudyCouple comprehensive
financial planning
View Case StudyIndividual comprehensive
financial planning
for young professional
View Case StudyIndividual comprehensive
financial planning for
healthcare professional
View Case StudyProject-Based
Financial Planning
Student Loan
Analysis
Individual comprehensive financial planning for early educators
Tanya is single, 28, and a social worker in a large public school system. She had several thousand dollars in credit card debt, substantial student loan debt from undergraduate and graduate school, and no retirement plan. Tanya wanted help with budgeting, a debt payoff strategy, optimizing student loan payments, and retirement planning.
To help Tanya reach her goals, we:
- Analyzed every part of her financial picture and created an accessible financial blueprint.
- Went through a budgeting exercise and tracked expenses.
- Created a debt payoff plan that was aggressive but realistic.
- Opened a low-cost, tax-advantaged retirement account offered by Tanya’s school system and began funding it.
- Helped Tanya get on the right path for Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and enrolled her in the lowest monthly payment plan while she pursues forgiveness.
- Guided Tanya to apply for the Maryland Student Loan Tax Credit, earning her hundreds of dollars in deductions on her state taxes.
Impact: Tanya is now consumer debt-free, aligning her spending with her values, well on her way to having her student loans forgiven, and gradually increasing her retirement contributions over time.
Couple comprehensive financial planning
Melanie and Brett, a couple in their mid-30s, didn’t know where their money was going. They felt like they were living paycheck to paycheck despite earning high salaries. They weren’t saving enough for retirement to sustain their current lifestyle, and their retirement accounts were in high-fee plans. Melanie and Brett wanted help tracking and reigning in their spending, building an emergency account, creating a plan for investing enough for retirement, saving for college for their two young children, and saving for short- and long-term financial goals, like travel and home improvement.
To help Melanie and Brett reach their goals, we:
- Executed a thorough analysis of every aspect of their financial lives.
- Examined their spending history and reflected on how to adjust future spending.
- Guided Melanie and Brett to set new spending goals and worked with them to analyze their spending and adjust as necessary.
- Created a financial plan that outlined a recommended cash flow strategy.
- Created multiple savings buckets in a high-yield savings account to fund short- and long-term goals, including an emergency account and travel and home improvement accounts, and set up automatic contributions to reach those goals.
- Transferred their existing high-fee retirement accounts to low-fee accounts and set up recurring contributions that increase over time to ensure a comfortable retirement.
- Opened and maxed out Roth IRAs and taxable investment accounts to optimize retirement diversification.
- Estimated the cost of future education for their two young children to determine how much they should contribute to a 529 college savings account.
- Helped them create a credit card strategy to optimize travel rewards, resulting in nearly free travel for their family.
- Recommended they add beneficiaries to all their accounts and get a will, and provided life insurance recommendations to protect their family.
Impact: Melanie and Brett are in complete control of their spending, and they now know where all their money is going. In two years of working with Garritt Financial Solutions, they have amassed tens of thousands of dollars in their savings and retirement accounts, and they increase their retirement contributions and 529 contributions every 2-3 months. They know exactly what their hard-earned dollars are invested in. In addition, they now have a strong estate plan in place to protect each other and their children.
Individual comprehensive financial planning
for young professional
Rhyan, a young professional in her 20s, is a great saver, but didn’t know what to do with the money in her account. She knew she should be saving for retirement but didn’t know where to start. She was also transitioning to a new job. She was looking for help with negotiating her new salary, setting up benefits and her 401K with her new employer, and creating a plan for cash flow to contribute to retirement while saving for larger goals, like a car and a house downpayment.
To help Rhyan reach her goals, we:
- Conducted a thorough review of her existing cash flow, accounts, and short- and long-term goals.
- Created a cash flow strategy for her to effectively save for retirement while attaining her savings goals.
- Shared resources and strategies with Ryan to help her successfully negotiate a higher salary.
- Supported Ryan with selecting the benefit options that were the best fit for her situation.
- Assisted her with setting up a 401K with the correct allocations given her situation.
- Supported her with determining how much she needed to save for her future car and house downpayment, and crafting a plan to ensure that she met her goals by her timeline.
Impact: Rhyan negotiated a 10% pay increase at her new job and is contributing enough to her 401K to earn her company’s maximum match. She has exceeded her car saving goal and is well on her way to her house downpayment goal.
Individual comprehensive financial planning
for healthcare professional
Kate is 41, single, and works as a travel nurse. She had several credit cards and a large amount of credit card debt. She had retirement savings in a variety of companies that she contributed to throughout her career but wasn’t sure what to do with them or how to save for retirement moving forward. Her company offers an HSA but she didn’t know what that was or how to optimize it. She was about to get married and join her finances with her partner. They were planning to start a family soon. She was looking for help with eliminating credit card debt, determining if her retirement savings were sufficient, optimizing her HSA, streamlining finances after marriage, and selecting life insurance.
To help Kate reach her goals, we:
- Created a debt payoff strategy that minimized the total amount of interest paid over time.
- Implemented strategies to cease credit card use and reduce impulsive spending.
- Taught Kate all the benefits of an HSA account and guided her to select the most optimized allocations for his situation.
- Helped Kate and her partner think through their priorities and goals to inform how to seamlessly bring their finances together.
- Calculated Kate’s retirement figures over the next 30 years, helped consolidate accounts, and helped her adjust her contributions so she can retire when she wants to.
- Helped Kate think through how much life insurance she needed and for how long and obtained quotes from highly-rated companies for her.
Impact: Kate has paid off all her credit cards and is optimizing her HSA plan. She and her partner enjoy open, productive conversations about their finances, and they regularly communicate about their short- and long-term goals. Kate’s retirement accounts are in one place with one simple log-in and investment strategy which she understands, her contributions are on pace to allow her to retire when she wants to, and she has an affordable life insurance policy that meets her family’s needs.
Project-Based Financial Planning
Damian is a teacher who has no debt and is an excellent saver. He has a do-it-yourself mentality and feels confident with his investment strategy for retirement. He has heard that his district may offer a lower-fee retirement plan than the one he’s in. He also needs assistance with setting up his children’s college-funding accounts.
Because of his do-it-yourself mentality and clear understanding of the facets of his financial life that he wants to optimize, Damian was an ideal candidate for the Project-Based Financial Planning Service. To help Damian reach his goals, we:
- Set up three meetings to work on his two areas of choice – transitioning his retirement plan and setting up his children’s college funds.
- Analyzed Damian’s current retirement plan and educated him on his district’s more optimized retirement plan options.
- Created plan recommendations and action steps to execute the retirement exchange.
- Walked Damian through the exchange process from start to finish.
- Discussed education funding goals Damian has for his kids and created a plan for how much to contribute for college and what investment vehicles to use.
- Provided instructions for how to create and invest in a 529 and a taxable investment account to attain a diversified college funding strategy.
Impact: Damian’s retirement account is now invested in his employer’s lowest-fee plan. He has a clear plan and strategy for college savings for his children and knows how much and where to contribute to meet his college funding goals. Damian is confident he is on track to meeting these two long-term goals.
Student Loan Analysis
Brianna has $74,500 of federal student loan debt for both undergraduate and graduate school. Brianna currently works for a non-profit and has worked for other non-profits for the past 5 ½ years. Brianna feels like she is drowning in student loan debt and that these loans will be part of her life forever.
Brianna was an ideal candidate for the Student Loan Analysis Service. To help Brianna with her student loans, we:
- Analyzed Brianna’s student loan profile and learned that she qualifies for 56 payments towards the Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) because of the COVID pause.
- Compared the PSLF and Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program to determine the most optimized outcome.
- Presented the pros and cons of the different payment plans and determined that the new SAVE plan, which dropped her monthly payment in half, was the optimal choice.
- Recommended increased pre-tax retirement and healthcare savings contributions to further reduce monthly payments.
- Applied for Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and got all 56 payments counted towards the program.
- Provided recommendations and action steps on how to best approach the remaining 64 payments needed for forgiveness under PSLF.
Impact: Brianna left the Student-Loan Analysis Service with confidence and clarity on her ability to balance student loans with her other financial goals. Brianna is now on track to have her loans forgiven in 64 payments, which equates to a total of $46,280 forgiven.
