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January 11, 2017 — Over the years our Members have told us how important it is for them to find great places to retire that are also affordable. So at this point we have quite a collection of articles with specifics on at least 50 such towns. This article has…
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 20, 2016 — Our friend and long-time member Dave E commented on one of our articles from 5 years ago today – the “Two Places Retirement” strategy. The idea of retiring to more than one place, which snowbirds are so fond of, is an interesting topic that many folks…
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Updated September 29, 2020 (originally published Dec. 14, 2016) -- This is an update to our series on Affordable Places to Retire. You can find links to the rest of the series at the end of the article. You will also find the interesting 33 comments made to 10 great places to retire in the southwest that won't break your budget.
Many boomers are looking forward to the sunshine and dry air of America's Southwest for their place to retire. The challenge is to find an affordable town in such a huge and desirable region. We included 6 states in this look: Arizona, Oklahoma, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. The 10 cities and towns we've included here will give you a place to start your retirement search for an affordable retirement.
10 Affordable Places to Retire in the Southwest - but prices have gone up since 2016
The big thing we concluded from this research is that real
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 5, 2016 — A few years back a reporter asked for our opinion about college town retirements. Her questions concerned the pros and cons, reasons why to choose one, top places to retire with colleges, etc. What we told her is that there are a lot of really good…
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Nov. 14, 2016 -- Your editor went on a golfing junket to Kiawah Island in South Carolina's Low Country recently, and here is our report on what it might be like to retire here. When added together with Judith's report on her SC visit and our recent "10 Best Places to Retire in SC" article (see bottom for links to those), we've given Topretirements Members a pretty good dose of South Carolina retirement information lately. So coming up we will move on to other areas.
This was our first visit here to this island, a stretch of coast just south of Charleston it shares with Seabrook Island. To get a picture of where it is, it's a little more than half way down SC's coast, with Myrtle Beach at the top and Beaufort and Hilton Head Island at the bottom. Rivers and wetlands occupy much of the space. Someone asked on one of our SC articles if flooding is a problem here, and the answer is definitely YES, they don't call it the Low Country for nothing. New homes must be built quite high off the ground to protect against flooding and tidal surges.{GOOGLE_AD}There are some places to retire along this stretch of South Carolina's Atlantic Ocean frontage, but not that many. Around Charleston there is Mount Pleasant and the Isle of Palms. But after you go south from Kiawah there is a fairly empty stretch of coast until you get to Beaufort and Port Royal.
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 12, 2016 — On a regular basis we update the thousands of pages at Topretirements. As part of that rotation we just updated the state retirement guides for every state in the union. The changes included tax changes all these states had in 2016 as well as other key…
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Editor's Note: Back in September we published our "10 Best Places to Retire in South Carolina" article. Its very first Comment was from Judith. She wrote that she was about to leave on a 2 week tour, and even promised to write up a report of her travels. She lived up to her promise (Thanks Judith!), and here is her report. Note that we have added a few comments from other Topretirements members at the bottom of some of the cities to try to give even more dimension. We just love these in-person reports - nothing better!
By Judith
October 30, 2016 -- I did a two week tour of South Carolina from Sept. 21 to Oct. 6, and it’s taken me two more weeks to get on top of all my home chores after such a long absence. Laundry, email, you know. But it’s a quiet Saturday morning now, and I have time to put down my thoughts, for those who asked.
Travelers Rest: I entered the state of South Carolina on the freeway from Asheville, NC, which allowed me to pass through Travelers Rest. I was
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
September 20, 2016 -- So maybe you have been thinking about retiring in The Palmetto State - but wondering where are the best places to retire in South Carolina. Here is our 10 Best Places list, formed from 10 years of experience in evaluating places to retire across the world.
As always, it is important to recognize that this is our list with our criteria - your ideal list of SC places to retire might not be the same. Here are our criteria:
- High "Popularity" ranking on our annual "100 Most Popular Places to Retire" list
- Be an interesting place to live in retirement - is it pretty, have an interesting history, or have a vital downtown?
- Things to do there - are there a lot of activities, restaurants, or cultural resources?
- How about places to live - are there different neighborhoods or communities suitable for a retirement lifestyle?
Should you retire in South Carolina
SC is increasingly a popular choice for retirement, and for many good reasons:
- Mild winter climate
- Varied places to live - from beautiful beaches to lakes to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Charming little towns and some interesting mid-sized cities
- Lower cost of living and taxes. South Carolina is a very tax-friendly state with the 9th lowest tax burden in 2011 according to the Tax Foundation. Social Security is not taxable, and people over 65 enjoy favorable tax status (see our Guide to Retiring in South Carolina).
Our Top 10
Here is our list. All of them made our annual Top 100 list - 6 of them were in the top half (ranking on that list shown in parentheses). Most of these towns have at least 10 active adult or 55+ communities to choose from. To see all of them check out our SC 55+ and Active Adult Community Guide.
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
August 17, 2016 -- Note: We are pleased that MarketWatch published a version of this story on their site with beautiful photos - "10 Prettiest Places to Retire".
Talk about job for King Solomon, how could anyone judge the 10 prettiest retirement towns in America? There are just so many pretty towns, so many different ways to judge beauty - the task is impossible. That said, we are still going to make a good effort in this article to list some incredibly beautiful towns that make good places to retire. In fact we have 2 lists for you: 10 towns that we selected on our own and using some research from CNTraveler, plus 12 more that came in as great suggestions from your fellow Topretirements members. We welcome more
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
August 3, 2016 -- Sometimes you visit a possible retirement town that is just so darn pretty you can't stand it. Edenton, North Carolina is one of those.
Here is where you can find our more detailed review of Edenton. But it proved to be such a charming place to retire on a recent visit that we wanted to give you more of a description and photos too.
Where it is
Edenton is in northeastern North Carolina, about an
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