Most financial advisors will tell you that getting a raise is unambiguously good news. Garrett Jennings would respectfully disagree — and he can tell you exactly, to the dollar, where that logic breaks down.
I first connected with Garrett in late February 2026, after a financial counselor in El Paso reached out to me saying she had a client whose story deserved to be told. She didn’t give me details, only that he was a man in his late sixties who had made a series of completely understandable decisions that had stacked up into something painful. She said he’d never told his friends any of it. I called him on a Tuesday afternoon, and he picked up on the second ring.
A Raise, a Truck, and a Decision He Still Thinks About
Garrett Jennings is 67 years old and has driven a school bus for the El Paso Independent School District for nearly nine years. He is engaged to his partner, Delia, who is currently finishing a degree in healthcare administration. They share a modest apartment on the east side of the city, and until September 2024, they were managing.
That month, Garrett received a pay increase — from $19.10 an hour to $22.65 an hour. On a full-time schedule, that translated to roughly $7,000 more per year in gross income. He told me he sat with that number for about three weeks before doing anything.
In October 2024, Garrett traded in his 2018 Honda Civic and financed a 2022 Ford F-150 — a truck he felt he’d earned. The loan came out to $28,400 at 9.8% APR over 72 months. His monthly payment jumped from $187 to $519. He told me he ran the numbers and felt like he could absorb it. “The raise made it feel possible,” he said. “I didn’t think about what happens if something else goes wrong.”
When the Truck Broke Down, the Math Collapsed
In early January 2026, the F-150’s transmission began slipping. Garrett took it to a shop on Mesa Street that he trusts. The estimate came back at $3,200 for a full transmission rebuild. The truck had roughly $24,100 left on the loan — and a trade-in value that had dropped to approximately $18,500. He was, in plain terms, underwater by more than $5,600.
He couldn’t afford the repair out of pocket. He couldn’t sell the truck without bringing cash to the table he didn’t have. And without the truck running reliably, getting to work — and getting Delia to her evening classes across town — became a daily negotiation of borrowed rides and shifted schedules.
“I felt stupid,” Garrett told me plainly. “I know that’s not a nice thing to say about yourself, but that’s what I felt. I knew better. I just didn’t do better.”
The Tax Refund That Was Supposed to Fix Everything
Garrett filed his 2025 federal return on February 4, 2026, using a tax preparation software he’d used for years. He filed electronically and selected direct deposit. His expected refund: $2,417 — a combination of withholding overpayments and an earned income adjustment. It wasn’t enough to cover the full transmission repair, but paired with roughly $800 he had in savings, it would get close.
The IRS “Where’s My Refund” tool initially showed his return as accepted within 48 hours. Then it stalled on “processing” for week after week.
Forty-six days is longer than the IRS’s standard processing window, but according to reporting from Poole College’s Nathan Goldman, delays like Garrett’s have become increasingly common as the agency manages constrained staffing and resources. The Dean’s Professor of Accounting at Poole College of Management has noted publicly that budget pressures have reduced the IRS’s processing capacity in ways that directly affect ordinary filers waiting on refunds.
What 46 Days Actually Cost Him
During those 46 days, Garrett paid $340 out of pocket to rent a vehicle for two separate weeks so Delia could get to her clinical rotation. He missed one day of work when a borrowed ride fell through. His savings dropped from $800 to roughly $460 as small daily gaps — gas, a meal, a co-pay — quietly drained what he’d set aside.
When the $2,417 finally landed on March 22, he had the transmission repaired the following week. The final bill came to $3,290, including parts and labor. He pulled the difference from a credit card at 24.9% APR.
The broader pattern in Garrett’s situation — elevated spending following a raise, high-interest debt, and reliance on a refund as a liquidity cushion — reflects a dynamic that Poole College’s Bonnie Hancock has addressed in discussions about income allocation. The challenge isn’t the raise itself; it’s that new spending often outpaces new income before the dust settles.
The Part He Doesn’t Talk About
What struck me most in my conversations with Garrett wasn’t the debt math — it was how completely alone he had kept all of it. His coworkers at the district don’t know. His brother in Albuquerque doesn’t know. Even Delia, he admitted, doesn’t know the full picture of where the auto loan stands.
“She’s working so hard on her degree,” he said. “I don’t want this to be her problem right now. I got us into it.” He paused on the phone for a moment before adding: “I keep thinking that when she’s working, we’ll catch up. But I’ve been thinking that for a while now.”
Garrett told me the financial counselor who connected us had been the first person he’d spoken honestly with in months. He’d found her through a nonprofit credit program his district HR office had mentioned offhandedly in a benefits email. “I almost deleted that email,” he said.
As of late March 2026, the truck is running. Garrett is still $5,600 underwater on the loan. The credit card balance is new. His refund arrived — 46 days after he filed, and well after the moment it would have mattered most. He told me he plans to adjust his withholding before next year so he doesn’t end up depending on a refund again. Whether that plan holds is something I can only report, not guarantee.
When I asked Garrett what he’d want someone else in his situation to know, he was quiet for a second. “That the raise isn’t the finish line,” he said. “It just moves the finish line.” It wasn’t a conclusion that arrived with any comfort. But it was honest — and that, more than anything else, is what made his story worth telling.
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