Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers: A Retirement and Aging Roadmap for Single and Childless Adults

#1 Best Seller in Aging, Gerontology, and Volunteer Work. Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2018 on Aging Well ─ Over Fifty, Retiring and Childless?

Are you among the fifteen million Americans over fifty and childless? Solo aging gracefully and a happy retirement can be yours!

Baby Boomers retiring: American Baby boomers are aging and fifteen million of them never had children. Who will take care of them? Unprecedented in U.S. history, this demographic will create challenges for these individuals as well as for society. Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers is a passionate exploration of the path ahead for “Solo Agers.” It includes choices in housing, relationships, legal arrangements, finances and more – and urges the solo ager to plan for the future as though their life and well-being depended on it, as author Sara Zeff Geber believes it will!

Solo Agers aging well: In Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers, Sara Zeff Geber, a Ph.D. in Counseling and Human Behavior and a Certified Retirement Coach, coins the term “Solo Ager” to refer to the segment of society that either does not have adult children or is single and believes they will be on their own as they grow older. However, it’s not just the Solo Ager that can learn from this book. Financial advisors, elder law and estate attorneys, senior care managers, and others whose clientele is on the far side of sixty will benefit as well.

Retirement and good living: With a compelling and readable style, Geber takes her readers on a journey, starting with the choice for childlessness and why so many boomers were able to make that decision. She then reviews the role of adult children in an aging parent’s world and suggests ways in which Solo Agers can mitigate the absence of adult children by relationship building and rigorous planning for their future. Geber shares her expertise on what constitutes a fulfilling older life and how Solo Agers can maximize their opportunities for financial security, physical health, meaning and purpose in the second half of life and, finally, planning for the end game.

Retirement guide: Through stories and narrative, the author explores housing choices, relationships, and building a support system. You will learn about:

• different levels of care and independence in various types of living arrangements
• how to initiate discussions among friends and relatives about end-of-life treatment
• ‘what if’ scenarios
• who to talk to about legal and financial decisions

Geber's stories of Solo Agers are gleaned from friends and clients in a variety of circumstances. Each one demonstrates decisions and choices these people have made and illustrates the importance of thinking ahead and taking action now.

Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers is pragmatic and provocative, but softened with humor. Many of the chapters include worksheets or checklists, encouraging the reader to go beyond imagining and begin his or her own planning for the voyage ahead.