Best places to retire: How your state ranks

[TampaYankee]

Best places to retire: How your state ranks

By Bankrate.com

People have distinct ideas about the best places to retire. For many, it's about proximity to beaches, lakes, golf courses or grandchildren.

Bankrate took a more pragmatic approach to come up with its latest, more robust, list of best and worst states for retirement. We looked at practical considerations concerning health, safety and costs. We gathered state statistics on cost of living, crime rates, tax rates, access to medical care and average annual temperatures. We then ranked the states from best to worst, with the best being those states with a relatively low cost of living, low crime rates, low tax rates, easy access to medical care and higher-than-average year-round temperatures.

Read more: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/best-places-retire-how-state-ranks.aspx#ixzz2SsIYkagp

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[TampaYankee]

Best places to retire: How your state ranks

By Bankrate.com

Out of their five top states for retirement:

Tennessee

Louisiana

South Dakota

Kentucky

Mississippi

I never retire in any one of them with the remote possible exception of Tennessee and that one only because of ancestral ties to the state.

These would not have been my top five.

[Guest EXPAT]

Cost of living seems to be driving this poll. Certainly not quality of life. And certainly not gay quality of life.

[AdamSmith]

Certainly not quality of life. And certainly not gay quality of life.

Well, even Louisiana? NO, Baton Rouge, Lafayette all seem to have reasonable quality of life, and reasonable enough gay scenes. Plus within striking distance of Houston for the weekend. Just avoid (needless to say) the state's English-settled northern tier.

As for me, I can see I may need to go live out my dotage in RA1's basement. (Attic? Madwoman in the...)

[wayout]

I find these lists and rankings both interesting and useful as I will be, relatively soon, making various decisions about where to live for most or part of the year (although I focus more on the best cities to live in more often, the state listing is very useful). So many things go into such rankings and much of it is personal choice (as alluded to in the comment above about gay life) on how it relates to our own views. To show how things can vary, here is a comparison of two rankings of bests states for retirement showing significant differences (other than Virginia and S. Dakota). All comes down to their methodology. I prefer the AARP list (from 2012)

Bankrate AARP

1 Tennessee Hawaii

2 Louisiana Idaho

3 South Dakota Utah

4 Kentucky Arizona

5 Mississippi Virginia

6 Virginia Colorado

7 West Virginia Florida

8 Alabama New Mexico

9 Nebraska South Dakota

10 North Dakota California tied with Texas

[Guest hitoallusa]

I want to retire in heaven... I think I will be working or at least do something within my ability when I get old...

[boiworship]

The Deep South states are ghastly in many ways. They are filled with squalor zones and scary churches. They usually have lower quality healthcare and, as stated, high crime rates. As was stated, Bankrate focused on cost of living, not quality of life or physical beauty.

[RA1]

Well, even Louisiana? NO, Baton Rouge, Lafayette all seem to have reasonable quality of life, and reasonable enough gay scenes. Plus within striking distance of Houston for the weekend. Just avoid (needless to say) the state's English-settled northern tier.

As for me, I can see I may need to go live out my dotage in RA1's basement. (Attic? Madwoman in the...)

That is fine with me. However, my own dotage has come and gone a couple of times (with short periods of recovery here and there) so you might have to contend with whoever is taking care of me.

Best regards,

RA1

[RA1]

I am surprised that TN is #1 but not surprised generally about these kinds of lists. Every state probably has something to recommend it and something negative so it all depends upon what you are willing to and can accept. TN is the state in which I have lived all my life although LOTS of travel during. It has tremendous variation from east to west in geography, politics and culture. Mountains in the east, river plateau in the middle and Mississippi River delta (or the beginning thereof) in the west. Perhaps the most common feature to all is that the state capital, Nashville, is in the center. All roads lead to Nashville.

I have spent at least some period of time in every US state except HI. I found good things about each an every one of them. I tried to ignore or avoid knowing any negative things unless thrust upon me, partly because I was not going to be there for very long. Why accent the negative?

I personally could "survive" any place but would not choose to retire in a place hard on my bank account or extremely cold in winter. After that, most all is relative.

Regardless, I have no plans to retire until the FAA or Mama Nature not only suggests it but requires it. Then I will worry about my options (if any).

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest tomcal]

having spent alot of time in Hawaii due to business there the past 15 years, it can get very boring after 2 weeks! the total population of all the islands together is just under 1.5 million! and honolulu is 400,000 of that! Anywhere in Hawaii is like living in a small town ...a religious small town! Great for vacation but unless u are really into surfing or fishing, really can get boring fast!

[Guest hitoallusa]

I like places I can walk quietly... I think Virginia is a nice place to live in... I lived in one of DC suburbs and it was nice since if I wanted some kind of activity I could go to DC... I don't like mean people in big cities though..so I can get away from people in my little quiet community and go for a quiet walk whenever I want to.

[Guest CharliePS]

The only state on the Bankrate.com list that I would even consider is Virginia, where my parents retired very happily (of course, they were straight and active churchgoers, which helped). The AARP lists five states that I actually visited to look for places to retire: Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, California and Texas. California turned out to be the most expensive of the lot, but money isn't the most important consideration when figuring out where you really want to spend the end of your life. For me, the most important issues were climate--no snow and ice, thank you--scenery, and social comfort. The Plains states and West Virginia didn't score on the first issue, and most of the southern states didn't score on the last issue.

[RA1]

Those Southern states probably scored but not necessarily favorably.

Best regards,

RA1