I live alone — what should I prepare?

When you live with someone, a hundred preparations happen by accident: they know your doctor, they have a key because they live there, they know the cat's medicine is in the blue box. Living alone, none of that is automatic. Everything your helper would need has to be deliberate. The good news: it's a weekend of work, once.

Prepare for the helper you actually have

Advice for couples assumes a spouse in the house. If you live alone, your first person might be a friend across town, a neighbor, a niece in another state, or a professional you hire. Prepare for that person: someone who may never have been inside your home, may not know your doctors' names, and may be doing this by phone for the first day. Everything below is written for them.

The five preparations that matter most

1. Choose your person, and a backup. Qualities beat titles: reachable, calm, local enough or organized enough. Then tell them. Being chosen in secret helps no one.
2. Give them a way in. A spare key with a trusted neighbor, a lockbox code, a garage code on file with your person. Decide now, while it's a choice and not a problem.
3. Write the first page. One sheet: who to call, where your directive and papers are, your medications, your pet. Printed, and a copy with your person.
4. Map the money. Banks, insurance, pension, and the bills — which pay themselves, which don't. Locations and instructions, never raw passwords.
5. Set your phone's emergency doors. Your phone can show emergency contacts and medical information on its lock screen, and the big platforms let you name who may access your accounts later. Fifteen minutes, once — see our guide on your digital doors.

What you can skip

You do not need a subscription vault. You do not need to scan every document you own. You do not need to write your passwords in a book. A clear map, kept current once a year, beats an elaborate system you abandon — the map is what gets used at 2 a.m.

Start where you are: the 48-Hour Test scores your current state in twelve questions and names what's missing, in the order it would matter.