Open any retirement guide and count how fast it assumes there are two of you.
"How much will you two need?" "When should your spouse claim?" "What happens when one of you dies?"
Millions of Americans walk into retirement without a spouse. Never married. Divorced. Widowed. Or planned for two and ended up planning for one.
And the single retirement is not the couple's plan with one person deleted. It's a different plan.
Retiring alone isn't half a retirement. Some costs halve, most don't, and one job, the one the spouse used to do for free, suddenly has a price tag.
The good news: you also get something couples never have. Total control. No negotiating retirement dates, risk tolerance, or whether the money goes to Portugal or a pontoon boat.
Today: the seven places single retirement actually works differently, and what to do about each.