<prompt> Human: My wife is the last surviving child of her parents. Her parents come from a small Texas college town, and her father taught at the university for 25 years, and retired with a modest University pension and insurance. He also ran an audio-video installation business on the side, which he ran full time after retiring from teaching. He ran his business for roughly 20 years, always as a sole-proprietorship no LLC, or real company structure. His record-keeping was abysmal, and he had no real system of inventory management. It took two full 16 hour days to clean out his workshop when moving. Her mother is an uneducated woman who worked minimum wage jobs on and off library, front desk work. They are both in their 60s and have started to draw social security, though her mothers SS is less than 300mo. A year and a half ago we sold their small home, and they did a one-time-gift of a portion of the proceeds to go towards buying them a home around a mile from our house. We bought the house, pay the mortgage, and do the upkeep on this home, while they live there and pay for the utilities. We knew that her father had in his words some credit card debt, which he accumulated while running his business, but we werent told the physical dollar amount. He intimated that the money left over from the sale of their home would be enough to handle his credit cards. After moving he got a part time job working at a local retailer, and has also been picking up work with a neighbor that runs an AV business. We noticed that they always seemed very strapped for cash, and that he seemed to be working more and more hours recently.Early last week my mother in law told my wife that they had been contacted by a telemarketer offering Debt Settlements, and that this person would be coming over the next day to sign paperwork. We immediately put that on hold and asked what was going on, asking that they at least let us read over the documentation that this company had provided to make sure that it was on the up and up. This company was promising to settle debt for 35c on the dollar, and as the old adage goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. In reading over the paperwork we finally got a direct look at the debt, and found that they have 52,000 in credit card debt, spread across the total of six credit cards. They are paying out 1300 every month just servicing credit card debt, plus another 800 in car payments. Between the work he has been doing, social security, and pension, he has an income of a little less than 4000 monthly. Her mother has no income, and doesnt work. She does watch my kid 3 days a week, but we dont pay her to do it.I researched the company, as well as the debt settlement business in general and quickly came to the decision that this isnt a good option for anyone. They are fully current on all of their debts, but with 52,000 in balances the lowest a minimum payment could be on that amount is around 1000. I dont yet know exactly what the interest rates are on the cards, but at a fairly good rate of 15 we are still talking somewhere around 650mo in only interest. The bottom line is that at their current debt level they cant possibly pay down the balances. It is just a matter of time before he is no longer able to work as much as he currently is, or a new debt is accumulated medical, which makes them unable to meet their obligations.What recourse do they have? Is bankruptcy it? Surely debt settlement isnt a good idea. My understanding is that those companies have you stop paying any of your debts in favor of paying them for a period of 4 years, after which point they attempt to negotiate a lump sum settlement with the creditor. I have spent some time researching debt counseling options, and found a local non-profit debt counselor that I am going to have them talk with. They arent trying to avoid their debt, and would much rather pay off the debt than declare bankruptcy, but at the current balance and interest rate their monthly payment doesnt impact the balance. Debt consolidation seems like the best option, but now that they dont have a home they dont have the assets to get a loan for that amount. 52,000 is more than their home was worth, and had we known they had that kind of debt we never would have pressured them into moving in the first place. We want to help them, but the largest chunk of money that we could afford to give them right now without destroying our rainy day fund around 15,000, I dont feel would reduce their burden enough to be worthwhile, not to mention that we have our own retirements and a childs college to save for. We could pay it off completely, but we would have to reach into retirement funds to do it which would cost us hundreds of thousands in compound interest by the time we are retirement age.Does it make sense to contact the credit card companies directly and attempt to negotiate a payment plan? Does something like that need to go through a lawyer or a debt counseling company? Is my best recourse to sell the house they are living in, pay off their debts, and move them in with me? I just built a house with an extra bedroom and en-suite bathroom that is designed to accommodate someone with mobility issues, figuring that one or both of them would end up living with us within the next 20 years, I just didnt imagine that I would entertain that idea so soon. My wife and I both have very good jobs, we each make over 100k a year, and we just built a 360k house. Before building that house we lived in a much smaller home that cost less than 150k and could have afforded to give them 5k a month to pay off their debt quickly. Now the max we could afford to give them monthly in assistance is 2k. But doing that would mean we couldnt contribute more than about 5 monthly to our own retirements.Any and all advice would be appreciated. Anyone that has dealt with a parents debt would be especially helpful, as this is all very new and daunting for me. Her mother is very emotionally fragile, and her father is a proud man, so the last thing I want to do is force them into doing anything they arent comfortable doing, but their financial situation is simply not something that can be sustained.TLDR; Father racked up 50k in credit cards running a business as a sole proprietor, now retired and on a never ending hamster wheel of minimum payments. Almost got swindled by a debt settlement company, but now that we know the extent of the damage we need a solution.  <response>: Id say that giving them money at this point is the same as giving money to an addict. Youre just enabling them to be completely irresponsible. They make enough to pay off their debt. 