My stepdad's niece was going through a hard time and randomly moved to CO to be closer to him. They did not know each other well and she couldn't live with them because she has a dog, so I offered to let her live with me. We became friends, but it was challenging because she had lost her job and was in a funk. I didn't ask her for rent because I knew she was broke and she's a veteran who's been through a lot.

Later that year she landed her dream job and moved out. I wanted to renovate my scary basement into an apartment so I could rent out my main house, and stepdad said he would help with a big element of the project. I went on a wilderness backpacking trip for a month and came home to find that he had finished almost my entire basement (it's very small) and it looked awesome. I was speechless and incredibly grateful. He basically gifted me financial security.