Danielle Smith and her family thought they had finally escaped the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle they had fallen into. They used stimulus checks to chip away at $20,000 in credit-card debt and enjoyed a reprieve from monthly payments on their $160,000 in student loans. Lately, they have been hit with one unexpected expense after another, from an out-of-pocket MRI to a broken water heater. They also took trips with their four children that they had put off because of Covid, including to Walt Disney World, local museums and the zoo. By 2022, their credit-card debt had doubled to nearly $40,000.

---