patrick.net

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/paid-off-90k-debt-4-103000099.html

Paul and Joan Ostroff went into debt trying to give their son, Andrew, a shot at getting past a learning disability so that he might be able to go to college.

The first year, the tuition was $4,500, and it was close to $16,000 by the time Andrew, now 37, graduated from high school [emphasis added]

By the time they went to Consumer Credit Counseling (now run in Philadelphia by Clarifi) for help in 2010, they owed $88,000 on about 20 credit cards. [emphasis added]

Their kid is 37 now. In 2010, he was 33. So you're telling me that 15 years after their kid graduated from a private high school, they were still $88K in debt because they were trying to get him into college? That seems like a spending problem, not a "we're trying to get our kid into college" problem. They're not even asserting that any of the debt is from actual college costs.

If all that debt were actually from paying for a private school for kids with disabilities, you'd think they would have been able to pay 6 grand a year for 15 years to pay it off:

even with an annual income of about $90,000

They had savings, but they’re retired now.

They are fortunate in that both had pensions from their jobs (she taught in public schools, and he worked for the Department of Defense) and Paul’s military pension as well. They also get Social Security benefits.

“It was causing depression and problems in our marriage” as both were on edge and looking for someone to blame.

How about blaming yourselves?