My wife and I are a true picture of hardship during this recession.  I was laid off in March and unemployment insurance will run out in November.  My wife, who is self-employed, is not able to bring home much money either.  The house is upside down and we have not made our mortgage payment for 3 months.  My car is also way upside down and I am struggling to make payments.  We are approaching $20k in credit card debt.  We have been making minimum payments.  My wife has hepatitus c with end stage liver disease.  The doctors recently caught and removed a cancerous sarcoma from my leg.  Needless to say our medical bills are stacking up.  We have been paying only 35% of cobra health insurance coverage (from ARRA-2009), but that will triple after December.  We have been in touch with a credit counselor for advice which has helped us take the emotion out of ownership.  We interviewed 3 realtors last week about putting our home on the market.  The comps in our area say we will need to do a short sale.  We have an option to move across the country and stay in my brother's vacant lake cottage for free.  Our credit scores have always been very good, but at this point we are considering bankrupcy to get out from underneath our debt and keep the mortgage and car companies from coming after us for the amounts owed.

While I have 15+ years of management experience, I have discovered that companies are only hiring individuals with a bachelor's degree.  I was able to transfer in credits and could get a degree in approximately 2 years.  I qualified (from 07-08 returns) for a federal student loan.  I am 52 years old and am now trying to justify getting a degree at 54 along with a $25k debt, something we are trying to get out of.  If I drop out now, I will only owe $3500 which I can pay off over time and re-build credit if we go bankrupt.  We need a money coach!

Tim in Nevada