Many years ago when I was a young engineer just starting out I had a friend at the same company who had started a week before I did and we both made the same salary. We made low salaries for engineering college grads, but we were far from poor.

My friend grew up with very wealthy parents who lived on 5th avenue (IIRC, maybe just close by) in NYC. We both bought new cars. His was much nicer, but cost 2x what mine cost. I bought dress shirts from Land's End. He bought Brooks Brothers. Etc. etc. Every couple of years his parents had to bail him out because he had massive credit card debt (maybe they still do, our friendship ended - partially over money - a long time ago).

I know everything is massively more expensive than it was 30 years ago. I know those working hourly jobs have gotten screwed the most. That being said, it is hard to know from the outside how much Haley caused her own problems and how much was beyond her control.

In any case, denial is never a good solution. I think it is great that you offer lists of things you can do BEFORE it gets to the bankruptcy stage.