Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 13, 2021 -- Thanks to everyone who answered last week's one question, instant poll on retirement location happiness. The bottom line is that the majority of people responding are happy with their choice of a place to retire. A certain minority is less satisfied, or had to move more than once. The results are shown below.
Taking out the 24 people answering who haven't yet retired, 58% of respondents said they were perfectly happy with their choice - they apparently found their best place to retire. Of those, 42% had moved and 16% did not change locations in retirement. Another 22% were "moderately happy" with their location. Almost 20% said they either moved a second time, or wished they had moved somewhere else. The answer that we hoped to see a small percentage for, "moderately unhappy", was just that, only about 6%.
more...
Published on December 12, 2021
Comments 0
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
We are curious – how happy are you with your decision where to retire? If we get a good response to this we will have a quick survey letting people tell us where they retired and how and what they like about it. Thanks for participating – you will see…
more...
Published on December 6, 2021
Comments 12
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
December 1, 2021 -- Last week in "Slanted Best Places to Retire List" we reported on the US News list of best places to retire. The creators of that one seemed to have not realized that the Mississippi is not the western border of the U.S. Many of the picks made there came in for strong criticism from our Members. This week we are happy to report on a better list of best places, one you can create yourself.
The NY Times just published an article with the headline, "Is Texas the New California". Its author, a Californian, was very surprised to find that after taking a quiz designed by the newspaper, 7 of the top picks were in the Lone Star State. They found that on characteristics like more space for your money, racial diversity, and school quality, Texas had some of the highest ranking places to live in America. Although the quiz is geared towards people of all ages, it can be tailored to reflect the priorities of people in retirement. That is, in our opinion, the best thing about this quiz - it takes into account individual priorities rather than those of the authors.
more...
Published on November 30, 2021
Comments 25
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 26, 2021 -- When it comes to lists of Best Places to Retire, one of the most consistent and "best" sources is US News. Their lists usually make sense, and rarely include bizarre choices in North Dakota or other places that don't take into account that most retirees looking to relocate want to move to somewhere where winter temperatures are warm. While their new Best Places for 2021-2022 lists uphold their sterling reputation for the most part, the fact that they left off the entire western half of the country seems like a very serious omission.
Florida came out on top on both of their new lists this year - "Best Places" and "Most Affordable Places to Retire". The Sunshine State garnered 8 of 10 spots on the Best Places to Retire list, and with 4 of the Most Affordable selections. Two of those Florida cities, Daytona Beach and Pensacola, made it onto both lists.
How they were chosen, along with our quibbles
more...
Published on November 26, 2021
Comments 12
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
November 10, 2021 -- People in retirement have different needs and abilities. So finding a place to retire that offers the transportation, housing, social activities, and health care suitable for your age is important. Fortunately there are some organizations that are working to develop and identify more communities that are age friendly. The AARP, which now has 575 cities in its AARP certified network, is one of them. Many states have also developed programs to certify as retirement communities too.
Certified communities are working to provide safe and walkable streets; age-friendly housing and transportation options; access to needed services; and opportunities for residents of all ages to participate in community life.
more...
Published on November 10, 2021
Comments 3
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
October 27, 2021 - When it comes to naming the best places to be a snowbird many familiar towns come to mind. Most are in Florida, Arizona, California, Texas, and South Carolina for the obvious reasons, as they are the warmest contiguous states in winter. But this year a list by StorageCafe´ has come up with some winners that are not exactly household names.
The company used a number of criteria that make sense - miles of beaches, winter temperature, crime, housing costs, parks, internet speed, etc. Many of the choices are unusual, but most are familiar. Some we would have picked, others not (particularly in Arizona and Texas). But in the end the best place to be a snowbird is the place that you like the best, not one picked by someone else.
The winners:
more...
Published on October 27, 2021
Comments 3
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
October 18, 2021 - Editors Note: This is part of our series comparing various states as places to retire, such as "Dueling Carolinas: NC vs. SC for Retirement". There is a list of all of "Dueling" comparisons at the end of this article. We welcome ideas for future ones.
Not everybody heads to the Sunbelt once they hit retirement age. Many people don't mind cold weather, and they love the idea of being in a state with mountains and a beautiful natural environment. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are extremely popular choices that fit that bill; each state has many admirers. Many snowbirds live in these northern New England states and get the best of both worlds by heading south in the winter (and a few people do the reverse).
This article will first compare some basic facts about retirement in each state. In Part 2 you will see the actual (slightly edited for space) words of Topretirements Members who have lived or retired in each state, so you see what they are like straight from the horse's mouth. Concerning those comments, we got a big surprise using a new tool that allowed us to see which states were mentioned the most. We assumed the most popular state in the comments would be New Hampshire, which has a reputation for being tax-friendly. To our surprise, Maine, with 287 mentions, was overwhelmingly the most discussed. Vermont had 69, and New Hampshire came in last with 56. When we looked at readership of other Topretirements pages by state, Maine came out on top there too - a lot of people are intrigued by it. So much our popularity predictions!
more...
Published on October 17, 2021
Comments 4
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
October 11, 2021 -- Moving to a new state when you retire is not a decision to be made lightly. Only a tiny percentage of retirees make a move that significant, but when they do they usually do it for important reasons. Often they trade in a valuable home in a high-priced market for a less expensive but nicer one in the Sunbelt somewhere, getting warmer winters and a friendlier tax environment in the bargain. They might move to a more age-appropriate home in a state where they can live the lifestyle they dreamed about. Or they might change states to be near family or friends.
If you choose to move or not, this is a very personal decision. Consulting lists of the “best states for retirement” might give you some ideas, but ultimately you need to choose based on the lifestyle, cost of living, taxes, politics, and culture, that will lead you to a happy retirement.
The most popular states for retirement
more...
Published on October 11, 2021
Comments 2
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
September 15, 2021 - Members in a recent Topretirements poll gave us their number 1 considerations for choosing a place to retire. Atop the list by a large margin was climate, followed by affordability, being near friends and family, and good medical. Much further down the list were taxes and political environment.
These are all important things to think about when choosing a place to retire. But there are other, less obvious considerations that are even more critical. Here are 5 overlooked considerations that we think deserve special attention.
Do you really know the area where you about to relocate?
“Rose”, who retired to Myrtle Beach (SC), listed a perfect example of this situation in our recent poll: “Never retire where you like to visit. There are so many tourists and so much traffic it is unbearable. There is very little here that I was looking for, such as classes and like minded people.”
more...
Published on September 14, 2021
Comments 35
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
September 1, 2021 -- Easy walking to town, parks, and shopping always emerges as a top consideration for choosing a retirement destination when we survey our members. Here are 10 small cities and towns in the southeast where walking is easy and a joy. Since almost every small town is by nature walkable, we have concentrated on larger places of at least 20,000 people.
These are towns where you can live downtown or close to it, and walk to everything that is important to you, day or night. In fact, in most of these towns the walking (and biking) is so good that you could even survive without a car.
more...
Published on September 1, 2021
Comments 4