My name is Matt, my wife Vicki and I are retired and on a fixed income. Living in California and retiring in 2016, I have seen the cost of living dramatically increase to where the income just doesn’t go as far anymore. We refinanced our home to pay off some bills and as a result our mortgage payment went up dramatically. I took a full-time job to help cover the increased expenditures, however I am finding that getting older isn’t for the faint hearted and I had to quit the job due to fatigue. I now stay at home and care for my wife who requires about 60% of my attention for day-to-day tasks with herself and the house. We also perform fostering for special needs kittens and have had a rough time getting them adopted, we spend about $1,500 a month for their care, and we do write this off as a tax deduction (to a non-profit) but one only sees about 21% of that back upon the tax return. Both of our vehicles are paid for, and we don’t live an over-the-top lifestyle, just the basics. We were able to make the mortgage payments on time for about 7 months, but we were always becoming late with other bills to ensure the mortgage was paid. Finally, I decided to skip the mortgage payment at the beginning of the month, catch up on the other bills and pay the mortgage at the end of the month while incurring a late fee but so far avoiding the dreaded 30 day late. As a result, I know run 27-29 days late every month and am trying to make up that extra payment to get back on track. On a good note, I have been slowly paying down credit cards and my credit score is slowly rising (I think I am at 614 as of today). My mortgage is $4,270 without late fees. If there is relief out there, I pray it finds us. I cannot handle anymore high interest loans that just trap us and keep us from moving forward.