Early 30s and looking at supporting our parents...advice?

Thanks for your response. I agree that she needs to change her behavior. Part of her disability affects her cognitively...long story short, it's extremely hard for her at this point to change her behavior or make long-term plans, even though she's able to work and live independently. We've actually worked with her for several years on this and she has made positive changes, even though I know on paper it looks pretty grim--a chunk of this recent debt is from moving expenses that she tried to hide or minimize, rather than just shopping expenses, for example. We don't want to give her money directly, but know that we can't control how she chooses to spend every dollar she has. It sucks.

I DO think it will be helpful to talk to her specifically about the credit card debt and how she plans to tackle it. Hopefully she won't say "I'll just die" like she often does. :) When she's reminded that my brother and I want to help her, she can focus a bit better and follow through on making better choices.

Regarding the mortgage, the house is in her name and my brother's name. They bought it last year, and while my brother hasn't yet been paying the mortgage, part of the long-term plan with the house was that my brother wanted to invest in property but can't afford to do so in his high COL area. This seemed like a good way to help our our mom and become a homeowner, at least on paper. So he went into it expecting to take over some or all of her mortgage payments at some point. We also know that if she needs to move in with me, we could rent out the house and cover the mortgage plus a bit extra. Everyone would prefer to have her living there on her own as long as she can, though.

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