Best and worst states to retire in the United States

Posted on by rr1455

We spend most of our lives working and planning for retirement. When it’s finally time to retire, finding the right place to live is key. WalletHub ranked the 50 states and Washington, DC. in order of best and worst places to retire. Analysts compared the states based on affordability, quality of life and health care. Within those three main categories, there were 31 additional metrics to rank the states.

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104 Replies to “Best and worst states to retire in the United States”

  1. how is florida the best state to retire in if it’s always hot and sticky, and everybody there is extremly young, wanting to party every single day. i don’t get it…

    3. Kilos Yeah and the hurricanes which knock out the power in 90%of the state. Also snakes,flying roaches and lizards everywhere.

    5. OMG, are they ever. They are also “protected.” Meaning, malpractice insurance is *not* required. Laws are put on the books for a reason.

    3. It’s closer to 90 %. Hell the governor of West Virginia got caught stealing the tires off the governors mansion and putting the on his truck. You can’t find a full set of teeth in the state, And it’s where they get all the pictures of “PEOPLE OF WAL MART”.

    4. I am fairly certain the the White House burns coal to this very day! Also elsewhere in the world a large portion of shipping by land and sea is powered by clean coal. America just is behind the times.

    2. And no Expanded Medicaid program. There’s a real lack of quality nursing homes in Texas because of that. Old people and poor people in Texas suffer a great deal from lack of health care. In Texas the cut off for Medicaid for a couple over 65 living on SS is less than $20K. For an individual it is around $13K. Texas is great for young healthy people, and the wealthy. But if you’re sick or poor, or elderly on Social Security stay away from Texas.

    4. Having a brother who lives in KY, I think that they rely on coal more than you realize, even if it’s not so obvious. IIRC, the majority of their electrical production plants use coal, because it’s local and cheap. And I’d say that people obviously rely on electricity to survive. Thus, if the electricity is produced using coal, the you actually do rely on coal, whether you realize it or not.

      In short, one doesn’t need to be in the coal industry or have a coal fired home furnace to rely on coal. It can be something important in the production of something else that causes you to rely on it, even if it’s an indirect reliance.

    3. It could be a lot better if Austin would address the out of control Property Taxes. I was disappointed when Rep. Valoree Swanson’s HB-1050 didn’t even make it to the floor for a vote in 2017. The appraisal districts have to be abolished. We are tired of paying rent just to live in our own homes. Mortgage paid off? You own your home? Guess again..

    4. Texas is gaining a lot of people..fast. After gaining almost 400,000 new residents last year, Texas is now home to 28.3 million people. Hot as hell, and within 10 years they’ll have a state income tax along with their high property taxes.

    2. ktpinnacle lower income relates to lower cost of living. Making 50K in San Diego vs a rural county in the Midwest is like comparing apples and oranges. One place homes cost 650,000 and the other 100,000. You can easily live off of 30K a year in lower cost of living states.

    4. Democrats ruined all their big cities like Chicago and Detroit. They want illegals just for votes no matter how much crime they bring in. They just don’t care and if Killary got in we’d be a 3rd world country already. Too many lunatic groups funded by Soros and son are a major danger still.

    1. I live in Tallahassee Florida, so cold in the winter isn’t unusual here, although snow is very rare. I’m finding that the older I get, the less I can stand the cold. I’m 72. I don’t move back down to central Florida, because I can’t afford to move.

    2. That’s why I feel like many old people wouldn’t want to retire up here in Minnesota. Summers are awesome in the 60s and 70s and it’s beautiful, but winters get down to -20 with -30 wind chill often

    3. Quiet Please I am a senior and I really hate hot weather. However I will probably end up in Florida since much of my family is there. Thank God for air conditioning.

    5. greets with fire I’m probably going to end up in Florida since much of my family have moved there, but I also prefer the cool (thank God for air conditioning). I’d like to move to Alaska or the Dakotas. I like cold,wet Washington state, but I cannot abide the leftist politics there. But, he’ll I may buy a shack on some isolated part of Montana.

  12. California is the worst state to live in. It has some of the highest taxes in the union including a state income tax that seniors have to deal with. It has little to attract seniors other than the weather and several beautiful state and national parks. The rents are quite high as is the cost to purchase property. California just isn’t worth it.

  13. Florida is too dang crowded, has alligators, mosquitoes, no-seeums, sand fleas, cottonmouth watermoccasins, rattlesnakes, coral snakes, hurricanes, hotter’n heck in the summer but other than that it is a fine place to live!

    1. My brother moved there in nineteen eighty-eight and on my visits I’ve had run ins with those no-seeums Ugh, and I stepped on a fire anthill in bear feet.

    3. Terrence – You DO get the cold air we send you from Wisconsin ONCE in
      a while, don’t you? We try to share a little every now & then.

    4. You Floridians need to do what you do best. Turn the pythons, boas,
      anacondas, tegus, etc. into tourist attractions! You could adopt a
      “Take a python, get a free tank of gas” policy. Many visitors would
      love to have those kinds of pets, ya know! People pay big $$$ for ’em.

    1. I’m on Reg SS and OR is sure NOT the place to be. Also CA & WA. Crazy property taxes and other things the people have voted in. Tom in Portland OR

  15. Stay away from Idaho! No, do not move here. We native Idahoans were doing just fine until the masses (yes, a lot from that “C” state by the Pacific Ocean) began to move in. I had never heard of HOA dues before. I had never heard of mandatory laws requiring you to keep your outside lights on (this has NOT deterred burglars in my subdivision). I have never gotten a letter from the HOA telling me to take care of the “weeds” in my lawn before (I’ve now received three letters on various miniscule things!). I used to not lock my door at night because, well, this is Idaho, a “friendly” state. Or, it used to be. For the first time in 30 years, I took a firearms training course last week. Idaho’s population is growing by leaps and bounds. It is said that, in about a year’s time, our population will increase to 300,000. In about 5-10 years, we will be as big as Seattle. I’ve been in Boise since 1984. I once dated a guy from Mountain Home Air Force Base. He broke up with me because he said there was “nothing to do here.” Well, in 1985, there wasn’t much to do. But we were fine with that. At least we still had our outdoor adventures. Oh, yeah, that’s another thing. We can no longer ride our ATVs or motorcycles on trails we have been riding on for as long as we can remember. Another pet peeve. I just want things to go back to the way they used to be. Well, I did learn something in my firearms training. In the state of Idaho, you don’t need a concealed weapons permit. I like the fact that I can be Annie Oakley, though, wearing my pistol openly on my hip. It’s unfortunate that it has finally come to that, though. I now lock ALL my doors at night, and I now have a guard dog due to a string of rapes and attacks and one lunatic wielding a machete in a local store. Sadly, it has come to this. I want my old Idaho back.

    1. And we all WORKED! We paid our own way. We didn’t bother others and
      we never threw garbage out of our cars. We always drove responsibly &
      courteously, even full of LSD & pot. You HAD to! If you got caught because
      of doing something stupid, you’d be crucified of course!

    2. Susan Stuck – And dandelions. After a 6 month winter (I’m sure you’re
      familiar with those) those dandelions scream SPRING! Nothin’ wrong
      with that! It’s not quite as bad in central Wisconsin as you seem to have
      it YET, but California’s a longer way from Wisconsin than from Idaho.

    3. It’s not us liberal Democrats – it’s crazy people! We hate crazy people
      giving us liberals & Democrats such a bad name. We’ve always gotten
      along with our conservative & Republican neighbors in central Wisconsin.
      We ALL work & ALL maintain our houses & yards here. We ALL contribute.

    4. It’s a different group of crazy people that give you conservatives &
      Republicans a bad name. We ALL suffer with the antics of the
      crazy numnutz extremist fools!

    5. Teet F – It’s they’re, not their. You did OK with they are. C’mon people,
      let’s get there, their, they’re & they are right!!! My God, I got atrocious
      grades in English but at least I got the T words figured out!!!
      Maybe it’s something in the air.

  16. Studies like this fail because they cannot measure the most important factor ( the ONLY factor that matters, really )…the preferences, and circumstances of the INDIVIDUAL. Every person and every retiree is different, with different likes, different needs, different family/friend/financial circumstances. The presumption that you can pick a state and say “this is the best” reflects a view that people are all the same.

    It also fails to take into consideration the reality that many of our states are HUGE, and one part of the state may be very, very different from another. For instance with the state of New York, we automatically think of the city but what is life like 300 miles away in the Champlain valley? The Adirondacks, or even 70 miles away in the Catskills or 400 miles away on the border of Canada? Same thing with Texas, how can you compare the coast to the panhandle? Completely different WORLDS.

  17. It’s hot as hell in Florida. I almost died of heat exhaustion when I went there in my twenties. I wouldn’t step foot in that state in my 80s.

    1. Blake H dude it’s so cold here lol. We are having a real Michigan winter this yr that’s for sure! When I retire I’d love to be cozy in a log cabin in the U.P. It’s my favorite place. I’m a quilter and hate the heat I’d rather be cold any day then hot. I’m only 38 so it’s gonna be a while but I can dream lol

    2. L Roach yea I loved it when I visited the upper peninsula when I was 13, Im down here in Mo, its cold enough…lol this year they even got snow in the south..crazy

    3. Blake H I think the entire country is having a good winter . We have a good foot or more in grand rapids where I live right when you think it’s over we get hit again lol. We get snow in April some years . My cousin just moved to Missouri and when my brother was in the army we went and seen him we stayed in a timeshare condo my parents had at the Lake of the Ozarks it’s beautiful! I know my cousin doesn’t regret moving lol she loves it there.

    4. L Roach yea we live just about 40 minutes west of lake of the Ozarks , by lake Truman. Retired military then worked at Whiteman air force base for years. Our retirement place in the boonies….lol

    5. Blake H Oh wow ! Very nice! Ppl in your state were very friendly when I was there. It was hard getting use to driving in the mountains lol everything’s flat where I live .It scared the crap out of me my dad was laughing so hard the big semi trucks go faster then the cars I’m panicking lol my dad’s laughing I just wanted to get there lol so glad I did it was very fun. The worst part was driving through Chicago bumper to bumper ugh you couldn’t pay me to live in a big city like that.

    2. The cold climate by itself turns me off. Other than that, I don’t know too much about it. Still, not a winter person. Very mild winters, OK, though.

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