Are you a Solo?

  • Age 50 or older?
  • Currently single (widowed, divorced, separated, never married, or don’t have a life partner)?
  • Don’t have adult children who could provide help as you age, when needed?

The Soloist is a Newsletter that Addresses Your Needs. As Solos grow older, they need a plan for realizing their hopes, meeting their needs, and dealing with the challenges that often come with aging. That’s true for anyone, but it’s especially important when you’re a Solo. If you don’t have a plan, other people will have to make decisions for you, without any clue as to your preferences or wishes.

Welcome to The Soloist, a newsletter from Davis Financial Group, where we share information, expertise, interviews, and stories to help Solos live well, take good care of themselves, and make wise choices for their future.

Coming in 2024: The Guidebook to Solo Aging

Since the launch of The Soloist newsletter in 2000, we've posted more than 30 articles on what it takes to age well as a Solo. Look for new and expanded content in our forthcoming Guidebook to Aging Solo, to be released in early 2024.

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Latest Article

Solo? You're Not Alone

Sometimes Solos feel like freaks. It’s a feeling that is rooted in age-old assumptions about what constitutes “normal” adulthood.

Other Recent Articles

Patient Advocates —A New Player in the Solo Safety Net

Financial planners, estate lawyers, Aging Life Care™ Managers, accountants and daily money managers— there’s a whole cadre of professionals just beginning to awaken to the Solo population.

Life Expectancy - Estimating Your Own Longevity

When I was in grade school, I calculated that I would be age 52 at the turn of the century. I couldn’t begin to imagine living that long. But I did—and then some. Which begs the question, have I gotten any better at guessing my life expectancy?

How Long Will You Live? Part III

This article is the third in a series that can help you pressure-test your assumptions and estimate your life expectancy in a more informed way. In my first article, I talked about some of the reasons people avoid thinking about their life expectancy. In a second piece, I discussed people’s tendency to overestimate or underestimate their longevity by five years or more.

More to Explore

Where Will You Live? A Curated Reading List for Solos

“Can you recommend any good reading on living arrangements for Solos?” asked a subscriber to The Soloist. Can I ever, I replied. As a researcher (who is also a Solo), I collect everything I can about aging solo—including the factors to consider in choosing your living arrangements.

How Long Will You Live? Part II

People’s ideas about how long they’ll live are often pretty fuzzy. In fact, more than half of adults age 50 or older misjudge their life expectancy by at least five years.

How Long Will You Live? Part I

Thinking about our own mortality makes most of us uncomfortable. We hope that our lives end quickly, rather than after a long decline or a health catastrophe. Yet we all know people whose deaths—as well as the months or even years leading up to it—have been painful to witness.

Finding a Home

Deciding where to live as we age is one of the most important decisions Solos make—or sometimes postpone making. Should we stay where we are or move?  Strike out on our own or choose a community that can provide on-site care and support, if and when we need it.

“Have the Talk of a Lifetime”— But with Whom?

Frequently, my eyes drift to the display ad that appears in this section and is given an extra-large space before holidays. “Have the Talk of a Lifetime,” reads the headline. In an era when society aims to become more inclusive, these talk-of-a-lifetime ads are still stuck in the 1950s, when (heterosexual) couples and kids filled every home—or were thought to.

An Age 50+ Horror Movie—With a Twist

I Care a Lot has been streaming on Netflix for just a few months. Yet the movie has already had an impact on our clients and friends. After seeing it, you’ll never forget why having a financial safety net is so important.

Rich Solo, Poor Solo

The self-proclaimed, best-selling personal finance book of all time is Richard Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! At its core, the book has a simple message: that “regular” people can become richer by learning from the money-management practices of the wealthy.

Estate Planning for Solos

Most of us drag our heels when it comes to estate-planning. It simmers quietly on the back burner, muffled by more immediate issues. Whether we’re Solos, married, and/or have children, we’re seldom eager to contemplate our own mortality.

Solos Should Be Proactive Planners

Who will take care of me when I’m old? It’s a question that haunts many Solos. Some may push these thoughts out of their minds because, without a spouse, partner, or adult child, they see no obvious answer.

Good Reads

In our ongoing research on Solos, we often come across worthwhile articles we think you’ll find useful. Here’s an initial batch. We’ll pass along others from time to time in future issues of The Soloist.   

What to Plan for If You’re Aging Solo

Flip through any issue of AARP Magazine and you’ll see a recommended to-do list for older adults: Choose a healthcare proxy, get an estate plan and a durable power of attorney, document your end-of-life wishes, write down your emergency contacts.

Why Solos Need a Financial Plan

More than two-thirds of singles do not have a financial advisor, according to a recent survey. In fact, they are more than twice as likely as marrieds to say they hadn’t spoken to anyone at all about retirement.

Solo in the Time of COVID-19

“COVID has made me think a lot more about aging alone,” a 60-year-old widow told me. Her wife had died six years ago; they had no children. Although she has since found a new partner, she’s learned from experience that relationships don’t always last.

Solos Come in Many Varieties

Strictly speaking, solos are defined as adults age 65 or older who have neither a spouse/partner nor adult children to support them as they age. But Solos are a varied bunch. The complexities of real life, real people, and real families produce a lot of diversity under the Solo tent.

Are You a Soloist? Are You Putting Yourself at Risk?

Nearly one-quarter of people age 65 or older are “soloists”—that is, aging adults without a spouse or partner and children whom they can all on for help or support, when needed. That’s a huge portion of the population.

How We Became Passionate Advocates for Solos

Not long ago, my world view got turned on its head. I proudly showed a friend Davis Financial Group’s new print brochure, which we had put a lot of time into getting just right. She shook her head and handed it back to me. It looked good, she said, but “soloists” like her— older adults without a spouse or partner and children―were totally missing. “There’s a lot of us out there,” she said, “but you’ve forgotten to include us.”

One Solo’s Wake-up Call

I was in my early 50s when I came face-to-face with one of the dilemmas of living solo: Whom do I call in an emergency? I was crawling at 30 miles an hour in rush-hour traffic, when—bam!—the car in front of me abruptly stopped.

What’s Your Legacy As a Solo?

After my grandmother died, her choicest possessions quickly found new homes. Everything else wound up in my uncle’s basement in New Hampshire, waiting until someone decided what should go to the dump.

Self-reliance Is Overrated

I was in my mid-30s when I broke my leg in a hiking accident. For more than a month, I hobbled around in a cast and crutches, determined to continue living much as I had before: running errands, meeting friends for coffee, returning to my job at UMass, even traveling from building to building for meetings or a class.

Soloist First Post

As we enter the height of summer, the virus is continuing to wreak havoc with our economy, our sense or order and security, and for some our faith in the future. Covid-19 is certainly illuminating the fragility of life. Even those of us who procrastinate the most have been moved by our intensified sense of our own mortality to make sure our legal documents are all buttoned up.

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