Middle class, middle age, financial ruin from divorce, having to file bankruptcy and upside down in a mortgage, how does one start to recover from this? Have stable job.

I find myself in a stressful situation. My lifestyle was never extravagant, in fact as a single mother, I've worked hard & don't have a lot of retirement savings. My income is fixed & I've had the plan of being totally out of debt by 60. Unfortunatley, my daughter has never been able to live within her means. I have paid off her bills since she was a teenager & financially desperate over & over. My heart & my head are in constant diagreement over helping her. I know many would say I'm enabling her, but as a mother I feel compelled to bail her out while I offer suggestions about cutting back on spending & getting on a budget. Now she's 40 married with 2 children & has been on the brink of foreclosure & bankruptcy for the last few years. She had worked part time for 7 years, then got laid off last year. Her husband took a second job but now it's very sporadic & not enough to help. They have ruined their credit scores throughout the years while I kept excellent credit til now. I tranferred much of their credit card debt to my own, at first with the understaning of a monthly payment plan to me, since their finance charges are 29 & 30%!!!
They were denied a mortgage modification after 6 months of stalling & misinformation that they would be approved. The re-payment plan hardly materialized & I offered to pay it off as a part of their meager inheritance & to be fair my son & his family would be given a much higher percentage of whatever is left when I'm gone. Thank God he is are financially secure after many years of struggling & living more modestly. I rarley had to help them but did on occasion.
Finally, here's the dilema I have to deal with. My home equity line of credit was cut from $100k to $14k (I had a balance of $13k on it from my daughters debt). I was prepairing to have home improvements done on my own home, but that option is gone. My credit card balance tranfer offers have stopped & all of my credit limits cut to the minimum. I now live from month to month hoping for some miracle to happen to relieve this burden of stress & tension in my family. I keep trying to count my blessings & take my daughter's advice ironically, "just do the best you can!

Unfortunately, seniors get suckered into helping their children, whether they can afford it or not, whether the children are spendthrifts or not. And there's nothing we can do to stop this.

I'm retired with modest life-style, and would have enough money for all basic things, with a little left over for a small trip or other pleasurable activity, EXCEPT: 2 of my 3 grown children lost their jobs due to the recession. When they lost their jobs they lost health insurance. One has found another job, but at low wages, no benefits. So, when they are in dire need of money to pay mortgage, pay medical needs, and other important expenses, I've been helping out. Many of my friends, on a fixed retirement income, are helping out their grown children and grandchildren as much as they possibly can. Some have even taken in their children and grandkids, making their every-day expenses sky-rocket. This is happening more than people realize.

Hopefully the baby boomers all end up in debt and broke. These spoiled, lazy, whining brats were handed never-before-seen opportunities by previous generations. And they desecrated it.

Due to greed, or laziness, or both, these morons ruined it for a century of future generations to come.

I feel sorry for the elderly, but I do NOT feel sorry for baby boomers. Hopefully the next generations have woken up and will protect themselves from these bratty blood-suckers.

Clark guesses are worthless. Try getting some data before you share your opinion. My in-laws moved to a bigger house with a jumbo mortgage during the boom. This is just one example, but there might be a whole bunch of other seniors that got carried away too. I will say that my guesses are equally worthless too.