You didn't plan to age without a built-in caregiver. It just turned out that way ? through divorce, widowhood, distance, or simply never having kids. And now the question sits in the back of your mind: who shows up when something goes wrong?

Aging Solo is the first comprehensive, practical guide written specifically for the fastest-growing group in America's aging population ? the roughly 24 million adults over 50 who live alone, and the millions more without a spouse or child nearby to lean on.

This isn't a book about loneliness or loss. It's a field manual for building the life you actually want, on your own terms, with a support system you design on purpose instead of hoping one appears.

Inside, you'll learn how to:

• Choose a health care proxy and build a medical team when there's no automatic "next of kin"
• Set up a "just-in-case" safety net of check-ins, technology, and emergency systems
• Protect your finances and guard against fraud without a second set of eyes
• Decide who holds your power of attorney ? and how to have that conversation
• Explore villages, co-housing, and community models built for people aging without family close by
• Build a chosen family deliberately, instead of leaving your support network to chance
• Plan for cognitive decline and end of life on terms you set while you still can

Grounded in current research from AARP, Harvard Health, and the National Alliance for Caregiving, and organized into a clear decade-by-decade action plan, Aging Solo replaces vague anxiety with an actual plan ? one document, one conversation, one system at a time.

Whether you're 52 and just starting to think ahead, or 74 and ready to get serious, this book gives you what most aging guides assume you don't need: a real plan for doing it without a spouse or kids running point.