Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 8, 2011 -- If you thought that North Carolina was the current "hot" state for retirement, you would be wrong. On the other hand, if you guessed retirees look forward to retiring on the coast or next to a lake, go ahead and grab the brass ring.
To get a handle on what people who are nearing retirement consider to be the best places to retire we recently analyzed the (anonymous) statistics from our Retirement Ranger. The Ranger is our free interactive tool that helps people identify their best places to retire, based on the criteria they select for location, weather, cost of living, etc. So far the test has been taken over 11,000 times. The analysis of these preferences reveal
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Published on November 7, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
October 4, 2011 — If you are like most people, affordability is a key consideration for your best place to retire. We know because so many of our members ask for suggestions for affordable places to live. But we also know that you are not going to choose your retirement location just because it is cheap. That's why we created this list of places to retire that are affordable, AND have enough going for them that you might actually enjoy living there. This is part II - for towns starting M-Z. Part I (towns A - M) has 10 more
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Published on October 3, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
September 27, 2011 -- A few years ago one of our members suggested that we expand our lists of "best places" for more lifestyles. We thought that was a great suggestion and our members seemed to agree. This article updates and expands those lists. We are always looking for new things to profile, so if you have suggestions, please let us know in the Comments section below:
Best Places to Retire by Lifestyle:
Top 10 Golf Towns
15 Great Biking Towns
(and don't overlook the exciting stuff Portland, OR is doing to be bike friendly)
Great Towns for Bookstores
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Published on September 27, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
September 20, 2011 -- Doing a great job of finding your best place to retire is a process. This article will focus on one of the last steps in a successful best places to retire quest - exploring different communities and forming perceptions based on what it is actually like to live somewhere.
But first, here is a quick review of the steps to help you successfully find your best place to retire (see helpful resources for each at end of article):
1. Identify your location priorities. If you have a significant other, find out and discuss how those match.
2. Work on a budget, which will help narrow your search to the best places that fit you.
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Published on September 20, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
September 14, 2011 -- If you are like most people, affordability is a big part of the equation in finding your best place to retire. We certainly get enough requests from our members asking for help finding them. But we also know there are other aspects to choosing your retirement location - you are too discriminating to settle for some place just because it's cheap. So with that in mind we created this list of places to retire that are not only affordable, but have enough going for them that you might actually enjoy living there. This is part I from towns starting A-L. Here is a link to Part 2, Affordable Towns M-Z. We also updated this series in 2012, see "More Great Affordable Places to Retire".
The selection factors we used to develop this list:
- Affordability. Median home price in the community should be at least 25% less than the U.S. median of $171,900 (2nd quarter 2011, National Association of Realtors), or $130,000.
- Lower taxes for retirees. We did not consider any of the states on our "Worst Tax States for Retirees" list.
- High culture. To avoid you getting stuck
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Published on September 13, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
September 6, 2011 – It’s pretty well known that some states are definitely harder on retirees than others when it comes to taxes. So we confess that when we set out to research this article on the worst retirement states for taxes, we had some pretty strong preconceptions. Most of the worst tax states would be in the Northeast, we assumed, with perhaps California thrown in for a little geographical balance. Boy were we wrong - all but 3 of the states on our list are west of the Mississippi.
First, a few caveats about our list of worst tax states for retirement. It is easy to generalize about taxes, but that would be a huge mistake. The more we analyzed the topic, the more complicated it got. To begin with, there are many different kinds of taxes: income, sales tax, property taxes (at the state and local level), inheritance, estate, and incidental taxes like those on cigarettes and gasoline. Depending on individual situations, one type of tax will have a larger
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Published on September 6, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
By John Durfee
I've still got a decade or two before I can retire but my father, also a veteran, is about ready to. Where my family lives is very important to me, and I don’t want to leave this decision to fate. With the help of my daughter, I did some research to find the best places to retire for military in that fit my father and me as veterans. This article will share what we found out about our top 3 locations.
Our Criteria
There are a few things in particular that I am looking for in a retirement location. First and foremost...
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Published on May 18, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 10, 2011 -- Late last year our list of the "10 Worst Retirement States" caused a surprising uproar. Much excellent discussion came from it, and the experience gave us a new appreciation for the complexity of assigning factors to any "best" or "worst" list. Six months later, and with fresh data in from the Pew Center on the States, it seems like it's time for an update. This article will list the states that are in the most fiscal trouble from the Pew Center's viewpoint. In the second part of the article we will provide a recap of how these poor performing states stack up when it comes to taxes for retirees. We will not include any rating for weather/climate, as we did in last year's list. Climate is so personal and so widely understood that we don't feel the need to rate that factor for you.
The Pew Center recently published data on the unfunded liabilities of the states, The Widening Gap, for pensions and for promised future health care. The results are frightening, and carry broad implications that could affect your retirement if you live in one of these states (but more about that later). Although a few states are beginning to take action, the vast majority of states have chosen to ignore their looming pension problems. Many of them also have large deficits, which are equally as concerning. As we will see, most but not all of the states in trouble are low-tax states; some might argue that unwillingness to raise taxes has contributed to the mess some states are in. Here are some of the Pew Center's findings:
As of Fiscal Year '09 the states had a $660 billion
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Published on May 10, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 9, 2011 — We thought it would be a good idea to put the links to our recent “Best” and “Worst” states articles in one place: – The Wall Street Journal reported on our “Best States for Retirement, 2011 Edition” article today, saying it was a “…nice…
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Published on May 9, 2011
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Update Sept 19, 2017 - We updated this article. Here is a link to the new one.
May 3, 2011 -- When it comes to selecting your best place to retire the weather, climate, and exposure to natural disasters can have a major impact on your retirement enjoyment. We think these are important factors to consider, along with cost of living, taxes, culture, proximity of friends and family, and recreational opportunities.
Before we discuss some regions and cities that rank poorly for weather, let's talk about the kinds of weather and natural issues that could be detrimental to your retirement. Some of these phenomena are inconvenient, while others are deadly serious:
- Sunshine. It's true, people are generally happier when the sun shines. Rainy day after rainy day does not...
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Published on May 3, 2011
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