Boomers and seniors caught in the financial meltdown.

The economic crisis is affecting people in all income and social brackets, but America's baby boomers and seniors don't have the option to wait it out. The housing meltdown, market crash and rising costs of everything from food to medicine have taken the luster out of seniors' "golden years" or worse put them into deep debt. Some are reluctantly exiting retirement to look for jobs, while others are falling prey to predatory lending companies. NOW ON PBS travels to South Carolina, a state where many retirees and winter refugees are being forced to rewrite the last chapter in their lives, to see how they are coping and what options are left.

NOW's Web site (www.pbs.org/now ) will provide tips to help older relatives and friends cope with the faltering economy, as well as clickable state-by-state information on the economic status of America's seniors.