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!
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Published on October 17, 2021
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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
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Published on October 11, 2021
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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.”
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Published on September 14, 2021
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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.
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Published on September 1, 2021
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
August 23, 2021 -- A successful retirement should be fun! After all, what was the point of all of those years of hard work and saving. Even more so, it is hard to be a grumpy old man (or woman) if you live in a place where fun is all around you! So here are 10 places to retire where fun is easy to find. We will concentrate here on small cities and towns, since just about every big city has plenty of opportunities for having a good time.
We found a few comparable lists on this topic, but most of them concentrated on larger cities. For criteria those sources cited nightlife, parties, and recreation. We asked some friends what would make a fun place to retire for them. Jay said fun means being able to do something different every day, or a place with good opportunities for food and theater. Ray thought fun could be just around the corner about anywhere, if you have the right attitude. Bobbie added plenty of good restaurants and regular arts walks to the list. To those we could add: festivals, culture, recreational opportunities, shows, arts, museums, civic gatherings and festivals, and ease of getting around. Being near a lake, the ocean, or mountains might mean fun for others.
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Published on August 23, 2021
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
August 10, 2021 - It is a question a lot of people nearing retirement age have - what is the best state and town for retirement? While it is a great question, the answer is not that simple - it depends on what you are looking for. Do you mean the best retirement state for taxes, the state with the best climate, the one that offers the lifestyle you want to live, or the place with the lowest cost of living, etc. Until you know what you are looking for, it is a hard to get at the right answer. (Note: This is an update to our 2018 article on "The Best 10 States for Retirement", which generated almost 100 interesting comments).
One good way to determine the best state for retirement is is to look at which states retirees are moving to. SmartAsset.com analyzed US Census Bureau data to explore which states have the highest retirement age net migration - the number of people age 60 and over moving into a state minus the number moving out. In effect, it is a measure of how people voted with their moving vans. Here is what SmartAsset came up with when examining data from 2019: (T indicates a state with no income tax)
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Published on August 9, 2021
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
July 18, 2021 -- Some people thinking about retiring to Florida might worry that they won't be able to afford it there. But the good news is that the Sunshine State is so big and has so many regions that it has plenty of less expensive places to retire. Central Florida is one of the most affordable regions within the State, where home prices are often well below Zillow's national Home Value Index of $293,349 and Florida's Index of $297,390. Home to hundreds of thousands of retirees, the area is known for its many lakes and lakeside living. The area is filled with active adult communities, many of which are quite inexpensive.
In this article we will highlight several cities and towns in Central Florida where home prices are below Zillow's Florida Home Value Index. We will include a few more towns that are at or slightly higher, because they are exceptionally nice places to retire. Unless otherwise noted, home prices are from Zillow. See map below:
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Published on July 18, 2021
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
June 26, 2021 -- Getting around on a bicycle is becoming more and more popular. People use their bikes to get to work, for exercise, or just for fun. Biking is inexpensive transportation, gets you outside, parking is a cinch, and it's a healthy activity. The growing popularity of electric bikes, with the extra help they provide on long rides and hills, has helped to get even more people into cycling. So, just as they do for every popular activity, publications are coming out with lists of the cities and towns that are "best for biking". We will highlight some of their choices here.
But first, what makes for a great biking town? The website Lawnstarter used a long list of considerations to score and rank the largest 200 U.S. cities on biking. Their multiple rating criteria fell into five categories: climate, bike lanes and routes, bike shops and bike share programs, safety, and community support. Safety features like bike lanes separated from car traffic and dedicated crossings were among the most important considerations, since biking isn't fun and can be dangerous if speeding cars get too close. Icy cold winter weather, steamy hot summers, and car traffic were negative factors used in the ratings. PeopleforBikes.com rated even more towns, including smaller ones, to find out which are the best for biking. It used similar criteria to rate the towns it considered, such as the number of bike lanes and trails, ability to use multiple routes to get to the same place, bike parking, number of bike shops, safety, and slow speeds for cars. See video below from PeopleforBikes on what makes a best biking city. When you are checking out places to retire, don't forget to keep your eyes open to what it would be like if you wanted to get around there on two wheels.
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Published on June 25, 2021
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
June 20, 2021 -- Virginia's recent Comment to our "25 Most Popular Active Communities in the Southeast" article really got things going. Many folks jumped in to help answer her question, which asked what people thought about retiring in Maryland. Since hers generated so many other Comments (and Maryland is not an active community nor is it in the Southeast) we thought we would pull everything together under a new post to keep everything in better focus.
Most of the Comments quickly got into taxes and cost of living, although just about everyone liked other aspects of the Free State. Regarding taxes, an estate lawyer once said something very wise to my mother and I. He said: "Don't let the tax tail wag the dog". In other words, if you want to do something for good reasons (like move to another state), do it. His mantra - enjoy your life; fear of taxes is not the way to live. Just as important as that thought though, you also have to act on the basis of the facts, not on what you think you know or heard from someone else.
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Published on June 19, 2021
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
June 19, 2021 -- If you are a retiree looking for a place to retire that offers superior outdoor recreational opportunities - you are in luck! There are countless towns in this country where mountains, lakes, rivers, or trails are just outside your door. In addition to traditional activities like tennis, golf, and fishing, these retirement destinations usually provide great hiking, skiing, water sports, etc.. Here are our top 10 picks for great outdoor places to retire.
10 Great Retirement Towns for Outdoor Activities
Bend, Oregon. Located on the Deschutes River on the eastern edge of the Cascades, the area offers great scenic beauty, skiing, mountains, golf, fishing, and more. Word about how nice this city is has gotten out: the population keeps increasing by leaps and bounds.
Burlington, Vermont. On the eastern shore of Lake Champlain you will find this town, home to the vibrant University of Vermont. Burlington is very popular with outdoor loving retirees who also want the youth and enthusiasm provided by a major university. Mountain bikers enjoy many great trails such as "The International", which is about 20 minutes outside of town. Nearby ski resorts including Sugarbush, Mad River Glen, Smugglers Notch, and Stowe, which now offer year round recreation. For the recreational bicyclist/walker/jogger there is the Island Rail2Trail path, which has 8 miles right along Lake Champlain.
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Published on June 18, 2021
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