<prompt> Human: Hi Reddit!Ive been a long-time lurker on this subreddit on my main account, this is obviously a throwaway :P, and Ive been so because its always very refreshing to see a community that genuinely cares about helping people get through shitty situations. Even if you cant offer me any advice for my particular situation, if youve ever helped another Redditor in need on this subreddit, thank you!So, Im writing this post on behalf of my parents, who arent doing very well financially right now. This is mostly due to some very poor financial decisions made by both my mom and my dad in the past. My parents have recently sold their old family business and bought a small restaurant in a different state, but this new restaurant is not doing well profit margins are low, and they dont get enough business. To help pay for their bills, which consist of three cars, the mortgage on our family house, rent on the apartment they are currently staying in, and college tuition for my younger sister 10,000yr they have considered selling the two properties that they own. To clarify, one of these properties is the house that I grew up in our family house and the other used to be my grandmas who is now in an assisted living home. Unfortunately, when they tried to sell these houses, it was brought to their attention that both properties have liens on them. The lien is a result of a loan from American Express on the order of 50,000, for which my dad signed a Confession of judgement back in 2003. It may also be worth noting that the rest of my siblings myself included are financially independent and have been trying to help them as much as possible. I should also add that neither of my parents who are in their mid 50s have any sort of retirement savings.My first thought was that they should sell one of the three cars that they are currently making payments on, but it turns out that all three are needed two for my parents to get to and from their restaurant and one for one of my other siblings to get to and from work. Im not sure where their bills can be reduced elsewhere.One of the major reasons that Im posting this is because Id like to assess how bad their situation really is. I actually had no idea that liens even existed until yesterday, and Im not sure what exactly ignoring it would entail. Their current plan is to foreclose on my grandmas old house and to try to rent our family house for the next 3 years until the lien expires - at this point, they hope to be able to sell the house before the lien is renewed. Of course, if the lien is automatically renewed by American Express, or if they are unable to sell the house in time, my parents would be back to square one.Any advice is appreciated, and thanks for reading!  <response>: If it was me I would sell every property that I was not living in and satisfy the liens I was legally and morally obligated to pay. American Express lent him money and I fail to see why weaseling around trying to get out of repaying it is even an option. I would get rid of cars with payments and drive something I could pay for. If both I and my husband were working at the same location I could even find a way to make one car suffice. I would stop providing a car for any adult children and consider eliminating college funding. They need to start providing for themselves before they provide for other adults. I would do a very careful combing over of my budget and eliminate everything not crucial to my life. It sounds as if they are in a near emergency situation and they need to start treating it like one. 50s is not that old, but they need to make some changes and they need to make them soon. But thats me. 