I’m disabled and misplaced every little thing in my divorce. Can I keep away from monetary collapse?

Throughout our divorce, “Jim” filed a number of motions for the help of our two youngsters. Having no cash to rent a lawyer to defend myself, I answered one movement and let every little thing go as a result of I used to be recovering for main spinal surgical procedure and couldn’t deal with the stress. I used to be awarded $17,000 in tuition by the choose in 2014.

Jim has earned $140,000 a yr for the previous 10 years. I’ve earnings of $28,000 per yr plus a two-hour-a-day job I took for extra cash. I’ve restricted mobility and might’t sit up or stand for an extended interval. In 2017, my lawyer misplaced a case preventing for a change of circumstances. Jim took me to court docket and received a settlement of $78,000 in opposition to me. 

I’m dealing with a invoice of $107,000 for care that Medicare received’t cowl — bills like hiring an aide and, probably, future authorized payments if the supplier refuses to approve care, plus the maintenance of a home that wants $20,000 to $30,000 in upkeep as a result of I haven’t been capable of maintain an revenue that will help residing within the highest-taxed state within the nation.  

I’ve $193,000 fairness in my dwelling, and owe $140,000. Month-to-month rents begin at $1,700 in my city. Presently, I pay $1,340 monthly in mortgage repayments, and payments complete $3,200, if I hold issues tight. I obtain $2,600 after Medicare deductions. I personal a 2010 Honda with over 103,000 miles on the clock and, the place I dwell, you possibly can’t go with out one. 

I’m 64 years previous, and I’ve power ache day by day, and want life-long intensive ache administration. Life, I’d add, is just not simple. I’ve low credit-card debt ($2,000) and property taxes are frozen at $6,000 per yr for my 1,000 square-foot property. Any phrases of knowledge to calm my fears of a monetary collapse?

Making an attempt to Keep Afloat

Pricey Making an attempt,

The very first thing you are able to do to keep away from a monetary collapse and an emotional collapse is to make a plan to cope with this in the future  at a time. Outlining your entire challenges in a single letter, and viewing them as one huge mountain to climb will solely result in extra anxiousness and emotions of hopelessness. You’ve come a good distance. You’ve gotten an extended option to go, however you are able to do this in 24-hour intervals, one step at a time.

When you have extra authorized issues together with your husband, look into free authorized help. Your state’s bar affiliation or native legal-aid workplace ought to be capable of provide you with some recommendation on the place you will get face-to-face recommendation with a monetary counselor. Pay your high-interest money owed (like your $2,000 credit-card debt) and mortgage first, and have a look at methods to chop your month-to-month bills.

The Nationwide Basis for Credit score Counseling is a nonprofit financial-counseling group that may aid you put collectively a finances. The American Shopper Credit score Counseling additionally helps folks in your place. There are 12-step help teams, together with Debtors Nameless, providing a protected house to speak about your background and listen to different folks’s tales.

You may additionally contemplate taking in a roommate, and look right into a reverse mortgage in your property, says Cary Carbonaro, senior vice chairman and director of ladies and wealth at Advisors Capital Administration in Winter Backyard, Fla. Often known as Dwelling Fairness Conversion Mortgages, reverse mortgages are loans accessible to owners who’re 62 or older.

Reverse mortgages help you faucet fairness in your house. They’re known as reverse mortgages as a result of the lender pays the debtors, not the opposite manner round. To qualify, you could personal your own home outright or have a mortgage steadiness that’s low sufficient to be paid off with the proceeds of the reverse mortgage. If this doesn’t give you the results you want as we speak, it could possibly be an choice sooner or later.

They’re in style for seniors who’ve fairness of their dwelling, who could have money owed or suffered funding losses lately. There have been 27,397 reverse mortgages processed up to now this yr versus 64,489 for all of 2022, in line with knowledge from the U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement compiled by NRML.They hit a peak of virtually 115,000 in 2009.

Examine senior help providers in your city and state that present every little thing from transportation to medical appointments to Medicaid waivers the place seniors can obtain dwelling care relatively than being admitted to a hospital. New York State, amongst others, has food-delivery providers for individuals who have issue making ready their very own meals.

Every facet of your monetary life must be rated so as of significance, and whether or not it’s a short- or long-term purpose. All of the items collectively seem unsurmountable, particularly together with your power ache. Enlist the help of your youngsters and/or associates for recommendation. You don’t should undergo this alone. The very best praise you can provide somebody is to ask them for recommendation.

Readers write to me with all kinds of dilemmas. 

By emailing your questions, you conform to have them printed anonymously on MarketWatch. By submitting your story to Dow Jones & Co., the writer of MarketWatch, you perceive and agree that we could use your story, or variations of it, in all media and platforms, together with by way of third events.

The Moneyist regrets he can’t reply to questions individually.

Extra from Quentin Fottrell:

‘I simply don’t have a clue the place to start out’: The place ought to I make investments my $50,000 life financial savings proper now?

‘She says it’s not truthful’: My spouse will retire at 62, and I’ll be prepared at 59. Now we have $5 million. Am I being lazy?

‘Is my husband the most cost effective man in America?’ We solely eat out on our anniversary, and I don’t even have an engagement ring.