Thank you all again for your further thoughts and information (and almost hopefulness). i'm processing it. it's a lot to deal with.

a random question. one of the things my gf has wanted to do more of all her life is to travel. she's never really been able to afford it. otoh, i can basically afford it, for one person, since i'm also doing most of the earning and all of the saving for the two of us. but i was thinking, maybe i should take $5 - 10k from the kitty and let her spend it on travel to wherever she wants for however long she wants until the money runs out. she'd always thought she'd travel when she gets old and retires, but maybe it's best she do it now, while she's still able to get around pretty darn well.

otoh, she's like $30k in debt and could use the money to pay that down. otoh part 2/ if bankruptcy is in the future, why do that? otoh part 3/ maybe i should be saving every nickel for the probable dark days ahead.

what do ya'll think?

sadly, i wouldn't be able to go with er on such a trip, due to work. but i'm basically a stick in the mud homebody anyhow and she might have more fun by herself, meeting new people, and so on, which she is veyr good at. (actually, the shame of it all is, if either of us had to get pd, it should have been me; she has always been vibrancy itself, while me, erf, not so much ...)

damn it all to hell.

linter