There is only one thing this lady needs to do right now: STOP SPENDING!! 
A thousand dollars a month in groceries! What, are you feeding everybody in that
condo building? A $1000 a month on clothes is insane.  Stop! Buy nothing for the next year and then
budget maybe a thousand a year on clothes afterwards. Stop pampering the kids. Tell them to get a job and pay their own way through college and university. It will be the best lesson they will ever learn. There is no free lunch unless mom gives you hers and starves herself.  Find out where the missing $3,000 is going. Probably coffee, lattes and restaurant meals! Bank that $3,000 away every month and that's $36,000 a year saved, $324,000 in just the next 9 years when you retire. It is simple as that.