The Best Read and Most Commented Articles of 2014 on Topretirements

December 29, 2014 — It’s always fun to see which of our Blog articles grab the attention of our dear Members and Visitors. Sometimes it is the unexpected ones that generate the most comments and/or readership, while usually any article that includes “Best Place to Retire” in the title does pretty well. Here is our annual review of the best of what we’ve come up with for 2014.

But first the stats
Thanks to our members, Topretirements had its highest readership ever in 2014. Over the last 12 months we had over 1.5 million unique visitors and 7 million page views. We can’t prove it, but we are pretty sure that no other website in the retirement sphere gets this kind of traffic or engagement. This site wouldn’t exist without the valued contributions of so many people who share their experiences and expertise – thank you! We also greatly appreciate our loyal advertisers, many of which have been with us for 5 or more years, who make all of this possible.

Most Read Articles of 2014
The first few articles are no strangers to this list. We write annual editions of the “Worst (and Best) States to Retire in” and these are always list toppers. Likewise our annual list of the “Most Popular Active Communities” attracts a lot of attention. But many others on our Top 10 were one -offs – and we are so glad you liked them! Interestingly enough, more than half of the most read articles in 2014 were originally published in earlier years – for example “11 Affordable Places to Retire on the Waterfront” placed 4th, but it came out in 2010! But to keep things fresh we are only considering articles originally published in 2014 or very late 2013. We list the winners here in order of popularity.

1. Worst States to Retire in for 2014. New Jersey got the dubious honor of topping the list this year. Most states were repeat “winners”. This article was viewed 77,000 times.

2. 100 Most Popular Places to Retire for 2014. This annual list article ranks in order of popularity the places that Topretirements visitors most want to read about. As usual, Asheville won the popularity contest.

3. Best States to Retire – 2014. Our annual list, on which this year we ranked states on 5 separate attributes. Texas ended up as a winner on the most lists.

4. 10 Great Places in the Mountains for Retirement. This list had some very nice choices like Prescott, AZ and Laramie, Wyoming. Don’t miss similar lists we’ve published on Best Places for Lakes, Cities, Waterfront, College Towns, Livability, etc. You can find them in the “Best Towns and States” category in our Blog.

5. Affordable Places to Retire on the Coast: Part 2.
We are happy that this followup article sparked so much interest. Heh, there are a LOT of nice places on the coast you can retire to, but finding affordable ones is a bit more of a challenge.

6. How to Find a Great Snowbird Rental for the Winter. This article was actually published in December of 2013, but it had no chance of winning last year because it came out so late. In the article we posed a number of questions to help you get started, discussed pros and cons, and gave you some suggestions.

7. Florida Dominates Most Popular Active Communities in 2014. Our annual list with new communities coming in and others dropping out. These were the 100 top out of 2800 in our database.

Most Commented Upon
We like to think we’ve done our job when an article sparks a lot of comments. Your comments add so much dimension and detail – this site would be nothing without them! So here are the articles that sparked the most comments in 2014. The first 4 also made the “Most Read” list above. All were published this year. You folks are still discussing earlier articles, so we’ve listed one of those at the end.

1. 100 Most Popular Places to Retire for 2014. Generated 297 comments!

2. Best States to Retire – 2014. 128 comments. No shortage of opinions here.

3. Worst States to Retire in for 2014. 109 comments in a wide-ranging, free for all discussion!

4. Florida Dominates Most Popular Active Communities in 2014. 103 comments, almost all of them mighty interesting.

5. 10 Great Year Round Places to Retire. This article was in 2 parts. Part 1 generated 90 comments, Part 2 added on 26 more.

6. (A tie). Tell Us Where You Are Living in Retirement. Per a Member suggestion, this article summarized some of the 745 comments we received when we asked this question in 2012. Then you added on 88 more fascinating responses.

6. (A tie). The Kids Are Through College, You Retire Next Week, and You’re Dead Broke. This article resonated with many of you, because it provoked 88 comments.

8. Best Cities for Retirement Living. In the 2 weeks since this article was published in December, 2014 it has already prompted 78 comments. Many of those disagreed with the criteria used for selection.

9. Avoid These Retirement Wrecking Mistakes. There were 69 comments to this story, which featured this as the #1 tip – Don’t build a dream house.

10. Affordable 55+ Communities and More. This article from April had 65 comments.

Best Member Submitted Story
Some of our best Blog articles were submitted by our members. The real world input provided by these folks just can’t be equalled, and for that we thank you. This year’s winner came from Rich – thanks!
This is Rocket Science: How a Space Engineer Found His Best Place to Retire

Editor’s Picks
We are very pleased with all of the member input we get to our periodic surveys. But this year we were blown away by the participation to our questions about retirement preferences – over 1800 people responded! We then summarized the results to questions like how far you are willing to move, preferred regions, and states, what your motivations are, etc. If you haven’t read it, we think you should.
See Florida and Sunbelt Top Your Retirement Preferences.

Older Article with Lots of 2014 Comments
Low Income Renting and Retirement. This article from November 2013 continues to generate comments – 138 so far!

Comments. Do you a personal favorite article that you liked the best? If so, please let us all know in the Comments section below. And of course, if you have an idea for an topic we should cover in 2015 – please let use this section to share the word.

For further reading:
Best Articles of 2013