The economic meltdown this country has been living through for the last four or five years has been especially cruel to those citizens who probably won't have time to make up for their losses once the economic recovery begins to pick up steam. If life's hard for those who are in their 30s and 40s, imagine what it's like for someone in his 50s or 60s, trying to figure out how to rebuild the nest egg that was obliterated by the market crash, long term unemployment, an underwater mortgage or all of the above. That's what makes this item so disheartening:

According to AARP:

• About 600,000 people who are 50 years or older are in foreclosure.

• About 625,000 in the same age group are at least three months behind on their mortgages.

• About 3.5 million — 16 percent — are underwater, meaning their home values have gone down and they now owe more than their homes are worth.

AARP said that over the past five years, the proportion of seriously delinquent loans held by older Americans grew more than 450 percent.