Wife trying to figure out how to finally become responsible with her money and what to do with it.
Let me preface by explaining that my wife is suffering for severe mental health issues.
She is an army veteran who is 300k in federal student loan debt with horrible credit rating and only just recently managed to temporarily overcome some of her PTSD trauma to apply for VA benefits and disability. She hasn't received an answer yet on how much she is supposed to get monthly, but the VA advisors said 100% benefits is around 4000 a month.
She has no idea whether the government is going to garnish her debt through her monthly pay but googling made it seem they will at 15% max a month.
Recently, her aging father decided to share his money with his children as a form of early inheritance. She received 25k inheritance.
At the moment she is at a mental health wellness house and will be coming back home end of the month and she would like to try and figure out what to do with her money both monthly benefits and inheritance to achieve some semblance of monetary stability for her future.
She is 56 years old and most likely will be unable to find a job in her field (creative) and unable to work amongst people due to her mental health. She wants to soft retire and work on her art.
I have been supporting her for the last several years and some of her money will go towards recouping some of my money.
Our rent is pretty high because we live in Los Angeles and since I've been paying the rent she never had to worry about much. $3000 rent. We don't usually spend much in going out, so mostly grocery shopping. We do not own a car and mostly use public transpo. And most of the other expenses go towards her cats (dont ask).
We might move to somewhere cheaper in the future but at the moment I would like to still stay in the place we're living at and I dont have a problem paying a higher share of the rent if she's able to put some money towards the rent.
She would love to hear any suggestions what is best for her in her situation and possible ways to invest this money if possible.