Where do you plan to retire. Here are the 10 worst states and the 10 best states
 

Here are the 10 worst states for retirement, with No. 1 being the lowest-ranked, according to Money-Rates.com:

10. Wisconsin
9. New York
8. Washington
7. Rhode Island
6. Maryland
5. Alaska
4. Connecticut
3. Massachusetts
2. Michigan
1. Maine

Here are all 10 best states for retirement according to Money-Rates.com:

10. Kansas
9. Tennessee
8. South Dakota
7. Mississippi
6. Virginia
5. Louisiana
4. Iowa
3. Oklahoma
2. Kentucky
1. Texas


I live in Minnesota, sandwiched between one of the best and one of the worst, Go figure. I can't brag or complain.

At least Montana wasn't on either list. Please spread the word not to retire in Montana. It is terrible. It is worse than anywhere in the country. The scenery is ugly. Critters are mean. Tell everyone to never consider retiring here. please :)

Six foot under. Or maybe Montana.

Another stupid internet list. What were these rankings based on? :roll eyes:

I don't know where I'll retire, but it sure as sh!t won't be in any of their "top 10"!

Don't know all but probably tax rates (income,property,sales),houseing costs, gas price, insurance regs and their costs, medical availability and cost, crime rates, Things like that.

I'm heading to Montana.....or Arizona.

George

I am strongly considering Montana myself. Funny thing is, before I read this post Montana never entered my mind! But, from the description, I would fit right in!:D

It won't be here! Local property taxes on my house now are 10k/year, at our house on Cape Cod the taxes are $1,800/year! I could live there and be happy!

We're #1 ! We're #1 ! We're #1 ! :D

Eastern Arizona in the White Mountains!

Anyone know the criteria for rating these states. I'm retired in Wisconsin and loving it!!

I have no idea where I'll retire. But I know it will not be someplace that typically measures their snow in feet.

Here is the "criteria":

For the second year in a row, MoneyRates.com has ranked the best and worst U.S. states for retirement. We based our rankings on four factors:

•Economic factors
•Climate
•Life expectancy
•Crime rate

This year, each factor was weighted according to a MoneyRates.com poll that asked readers to rate its importance in the context of retirement. Based on reader responses, economics determined 47 percent of a state's final score, climate accounted for 33 percent, life expectancy determined 12 percent and crime accounted for 8 percent.

Here is there breakdown on bottom ranked Maine:

No. 1: Maine
Why it's the worst state for retirement: Maine's low ranking was a result of having bottom-five scores in the two most heavily weighted categories, economics and climate.

Economic factors: Maine got the fifth-lowest score for economics, with its high cost of living and tax burden as the primary culprits.

Climate: Maine's climate ranked third-worst in the nation.

Life expectancy: At 77.6 years, Maine's life expectancy is about average.

Crime: If personal security is a high priority, you may want to reconsider Maine. Its violent crime rate is the lowest in the nation, and its property crime rate is below average as well.

And here is the breakdown on #1 ranked Texas:

No. 1: Texas
Why it's the best state for retirement: Despite a high property crime rate, Texas outranked all other states with its outstanding scores for economic factors and climate.

Economic factors: Texas scored very well for economics, thanks to a low cost of living and low tax burden.

Climate: The climate for such a big state varies, but overall Texas received strong scores for its generally warm climate.

Life expectancy: At 76.7 years, life expectancy for Texans is a little below median.

Crime: The only real blemish for Texas, the high crime rate--especially the nation's highest rate of property crime--might scare off some retirees.

__________________________________________________ _____________

Now for me, I would rank crime and life expectancy higher than the supposedly good climate that they refer to here. I've lived in Texas (San Angelo, back in the early 70's) and really am not interested in their climate. I actually enjoy 4 seasons.

Economic factors are important to me - but one thing they don't address here is the standard of living. Higher tax burdens often have better roads, schools, etc. Some things I'm willing to pay extra for.

They also don't take into account leisure time activities or medical care - things that are important to retirees.

Montana it is. I'm not gonna let you keep it all to yourself.

I could live in Montana if it wasn't for the cold weather. Georgia has pretty much become a hellhole with crime.Atlanta,Savannah and Macon crime has gotten so bad,Atlanta averages over 100 murders every year.

So it looks like I gotta stay in ok, 22 years down. A lot more to go.

Retirement? what's that. I never worked for a company with a pension and no one is going to hand me a gold watch. Might as well keep working.

retire?
 

Retirement, won't be doing that.

Is it a coincidence that the North East rates as it does and is primarily run be democrats ? It's a shame too, it's beautiful country.

When I retire, it's going to be in a county, in a state, with no state income tax and very few (if any) minorities. Low taxes, and low crime (or no crime) sounds just fine to me.

Yeah, I wasn't going to say anything, but I noticed that 9 of the 10 worst states to retire are radical Liberal states, and 9 out of the 10 best states to retire are Conservative.

Illinois must have just barely missed being in the top 10 worst. Sky high taxes, corrupt politicians (many end up in jail), highest murder rate (Chicago) in the nation, toll roads to get anywhere, and they'll tax you for breathing the air.

I plan to go to my garage.....And lock the door behind me.

Even though PA is likely #11 on the first list.

I would like to try the NY summer/Florida winter thing.
Then I could drive my GTO year round. ;o)

Well,to be honest the roads down here are better than pretty much all the states between here & Wisconsin,I can safely say that as I've driven back and forth many times,and I can always tell once I've left the state of Texas,as the ride gets a little bumpier almost immediately upon crossing the state line,and the further north you go,the worse it gets.

That's because any state that has harsh winters and thus salts their roads are pretty much always going to have worse roads than a state like Texas has,does'nt matter how much tax money a higher taxed state dumps in that bottomless pit,they'll never catch up,mother nature sees to that.

Wisconsin is a tax hungry state,and their roads & highways pretty much all suck b@lls,BTDT,same with Illinois.

Even Arkansas has some pretty rough highways,especially that stretch between Little Rock & Memphis,that is just horrible,though that's largely due to the high volume of truck traffic on that road,that stretch of higway is always loaded with semis,LOL.

Schools (K-12),yeah they kinda suck down here,but I dont have kids,so that does'nt necesarily directly affect guys like me much,so I dont really keep track of those sorta things,but it seems like schools are pretty much screwed up everywere these days.

I cant even begin to dream of doing 1/4 of the things that are available to do down here,and I've lived here on & off since the mid eightees,and every year it seems like there are more and more things to do,so it's pretty much impossible to do everything that's available.

You can easily schedule things every week (weekend) of the year if you wanted to.

The two negatives down here in that respect are the hot summers,and the long drives,if you can get past those two things,it's an awsome place to live as far as leisure time activities are concerned.

Lets see you go golfing,fishing,or drag racing in January-February up in Wisconsin,LOL.

And medical care here is pretty good too,definitely better than it is back where I lived in Wisconsin (Racine),that city is well known as having seriously substandard medical facillities,most folks wont even use the hospital there,they go to Milwaukee (Froedert) or down into Illinois instead.

Just cause a state takes in a ton of taxes does'nt mean that money is actually making it back to the taxpayers,fact is most of ends up going to the non-taxpayers that the state ends up supporting.

They dont do nearly as much of that down here as they do up there.

As for the crime statistics,those look that way because states like Texas have more than just one major metropolitan area to factor into those numbers,Texas being a really big state has like 4-5 major metro areas to take into account,so that tends to stack up the numbers somewhat compared to less populous states with only one or two metro areas to account for.

Texas has like 25.6 million people.

Next closest state in the top 10 has like 8 million (Virginia).

So it's not all that surprising that a state with 1/3 less people would have less crime as well.

There are only like 2 states in the "worst" states that have populations between Texas and Virginia (New York & Michigan),and those two both have big metro areas that are known for having relatively high crime rates.

So I can kinda see why crime rate is at the bottom of the list of criteria.

Anyhow,a person could do a whole lot worse than retiring down here,that I'm sure of.

My folks did,they loved it.

But me,I'm like a few others mentioned,I doubt I'll ever get a chance to retire completely,closest I seem to get are some extended periods of unemployment,LOL.

FWIW

Bret P.

Yep, Montana for me too. :) Gonna raise some lonely dental floss.

I'm suprised that California is not listed as one of the worse.

Golfing does slow down in the winter, but ice fishing and snowmobile drags get a lot more popular.

Only if your into freezing your @ss off. :snow:

I've been ice fishing enough times to say f*ck that...

And there's gotta be a decent amount of snow to snowmobile,lately I've heard thru the grapevine that SE Wisc. snow has been kinda spotty most years,it'll be there for a while,and then poof it's gone,most of my friends there say you gotta go further up north to find decent snow for true snowmobile fun.

So where does that leave a fella during the cold weather months?

IME usually warming a bar stool doing 12 oz. curls,LOL-JK.

It's kinda the opposite of the hot summers down here,some folks here tend to hide inside with the AC on from say late June-July untill the cooler weather comes back around this time of year.

I do miss fall up north though.

Some years fall lasts all of about a week or two down here,LOL.

Bret P.

Lots of truth there. A few years ago I drove from coast to coast and back again. By far, Arkansas had the worst roads I traveled. As a general rule, stay in the left lane and you don't get beat up so badly.

Montana for me also, way up in the woods somewhere in a private, remote cabin all by myself. I'll spend my days sending care packages to all my" friends" and growing an awesome beard!

I gotta admit that the roads in Ark. have gotten a little better since B.C. was pres.,I guess he must've gotten some extra highway funding sent their way or something.

But they still not anywhere as nice as the Texas roads are,I guess that's because we had LBJ building us a load of new roads back in the sixties or something like that.

But that stretch from LR to Memphis,it's so busy that any construction on that highway just becomes a major PITA as it backs up a ton of traffic.

From Texarkana to Little Rock is getting better,but it's still not all that great.

Thumpa,thumpa,thumpa,you can hear & feel every expansion joint between the slabs.

And if it rains hard while on the highway in Arkansas,forget it,you gotta pull over,man -o- man I've never seen it rain like it rains there,that $#!t is like a biblical flood or something,wipers are useless,even on high with rainX,it's almost unbelieveable unless you've experienced it.

Anyhow I digress on Ark. for now,not trying to start a inter-state feud or something,LOL.

I just had some input because I lived in both a top ten and a bottom ten state,and thought I could add some perspective to the discussion.

Bret P.

I've been thinking about buying a cabin in the NC mountains for when I retire. The realtor I was talking with said I should consider Tennessee. It's only 20 miles farther, but has no state income tax and fairly low property tax rates.

NC is working on becoming the Massachusetts of the South. We now have toll roads and some of the highest gasoline taxes in the nation. I'm seriously considering moving to SC or TN.

Mike

sounds cool and all but im worried more about IF im going to be able to retire, and not where..lol..the way things are going, when you get too old and sick to work anymore, youll have to sell everything and live under an overpass! especially my generation (im 42)

In a van, down by the river.

:D

You be in luck with MANY choices; Alaska, North Dakota, South dakota, Montanya

I'm picturing Ted Kaczynski. ;)

Brian
Would that be Delaware, at least you won't have far to drive LOL.

Problem with that theory is that it leaves the cops with no one to hassle but your kids. Our cops are.so bored they have switched to "regulators" they don't protect us, they "heard" us with every picky minuta of the law. Bunch of aholes!

Steve

Cant agree with this more. Tax, tax, tax. Property taxes are crazy, winters get the mix of everything from sub zero temps to mounds of snow (tons of crazy weather coming off Lake Mich), roads are super congested (some of the worst in the country), terrible government, and did I mentions the taxes? IL should be the worst place to retire.

Not sure where I want to live out my old days but it wont be here.

in a box residing in a hole in the ground.

screamingchief...

Not sure why you make so many points about WI in responding to my post - I live in Southern MN - close to IA - one of the top rated states...;)

You may not have kids, but you have to deal with the kids that are attending schools that "kinds suck" (your words, not mine).

How did that Super Bowl in Dallas work out for you...;)

First of all - Racine is basically part of Illinois.... Secondly - I live 25 miles from the Mayo Clinic in MN - which is my standard of care. Having had the benefit of getting in on Mayo's 2 for 1 surgery special back in 2006 (first surgery I was brought in in an ambulance and as a result of that one they discovered I had cancer) - I really appreciate quality health care. FWIW - on November 6th I will celebrate my 6th anniversary of being cancer free.


Crime rates are calculated on a per capita basis. Texas has more people to spread the crimes over.

And let's see you try to go downhill skiing, snowmobiling, sliding or ice fishing down in Texas any time of the year...;)

Every state has pros and cons. And what is a positive for one person can be a negative for another.

I lived in Texas. IMHO it was merely "OK". I have no desire to live there - but that's me. Obviously many people choose to live there - good for them.

Find a deserted island Brian..:D

We own acreage in the mountains next to the North Umpqua River. That is my retirement home!

Shanw

Never going to retire...my kids get the business but I have to make sure they're getting along...I call it "semi-retirement"...doing what I do now...SF Bay Area in the winter/Lake Tahoe in the summer months until the first significant snow.

Michigan is right up there! :mad:

We live in the state of taxes.

Colorado is the place I call home.
Why leave?

It was because you seemed to suggest that states with higher tax burdens automatically had better services & infrastructure as a result of such,and I just dont see that having lived in a state with an overall lower tax burden (Texas) and one with a much higher overall tax burden (Wisconsin).

Despite not having a state income tax,Texas still pulls in a ton more cash than other "tax hungry" states like Wisconsin or Illinois.

We also pull in more taxes than Minnesota does too,,,sorry...

Texas is no. 3 in total state taxes.
Illinois is no. 6 in total state taxes.
Minnesota is no. 12 in total state taxes.
Wisconsin is no. 17 in total state taxes.

That's because we have a whole bunch more people down here. ;)

But that's OK,we got lots of room too!

Yeah,but you conveniently left out the fact that I also said the schools everywhere are screwed up nowadays,so that's gonna largely be the case most anywhere in the USA right now,one is just as likely to run into that deal in any state of the USA.

Sad but true.

Not my kinda leisure time activity,,,so what's the point here???

Thinking about going to the F1 race here in Nov. though... :p

Well,you would'nt wanna go to Racine and say that to anyones face! LOL...

Reminds of that scene in the movie Stripes:

John Winger: C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin.

Russell Ziskey: Well I got the **** kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it!


Lemme first say this,congrats on beating the big C man!

Yep,and we have MD Anderson in Houston (among others),matter of fact I got kinfolk that work there in the research dept.

A bit further to drive no doubt,but as I already said that's one of the few things a person has just gotta get used to down here.

But that just completely ignores all the other dynamics that deal involves as well.

Like I said,more metro areas typically means more areas with large concentrations of people with lower incomes,which often includes a given percentage of folks that are prone to commiting crimes,and that can tilt the numbers against those states.

States like New York,Michigan,and Illinois all get "hit" there simply because they have big metro areas in them (NYC,Detroit,Chicago).

Waving the magic "per capita" wand does'nt fix the grey areas of crime reporting statistics,there will always be some things that the "by the numbers" statistics wont account for.

Again,IME I've experienced far less crime down here than I ever did up in Racine,that city has pretty much turned into a real $#!thole these days as all the Chi-town derelicts are moving north looking for greener pastures.

Again,you have to be the type of person that enjoys doing those things.

Some do,some dont.

True,and that was kinda my whole point,so we agree here.

You said San Angelo,right?

And that was when,,,back in the early 70's,,,no???

Well,lemme be the first to say that the state of Texas has come a looonnnggg way since back then.

And that would'nt necessarily be the first place I'd recommend to someone planning on moving down here either,LOL.

Honestly,,,ask me that's kinda not even fair to judge the whole state from living there,,,I mean San Angelo is pretty much in the middle of F'n nowhere man...

And way back then to boot,wow I cant even begin to imagine what it was like.

Anyhow,that would be kinda like me Judging the whole state of Minnesota by my last visit to my relatives in Red Wing,nice town mind you,but it's not like it's the bustling hub of current culture or anything of that sort.

BTW,did I forget to mention we got family in Minnesota too?

Yeah,got some kin in Minneapolis/St. Paul area,St. Peter,Red Wing,BTDT a few times,also been to Grand Marais way up north once/twice as well.

So it's not like I dont know squat about Minnesota either.

I like it,dont get me wrong,it's nice enough,beautiful scenery and such,at least in the summer.

Lots of sights driving thru too,I remember Gooseberry falls as being a very scenic stop.

But I also know what the winters are like too,and that's not necessarily my cup o' tea.

So yeah,we end back at the point where we agree,every state has it's pros and cons.

I just tend to play the devils advocate from time to time,it's a hard habit to break.

Fact is I'm likely going to end up back in Wisc. soon enough,and I'm not necessarily looking forward to it either,but there are forces in play that are largely outta my control right now,so I've gotta do what I gotta do.

To me,winter is mostly the time of year for updating & upgrading race cars,LOL.

That or catching up on my computer gaming habit and such.

:Peace:

Bret P.

Mike, here's a nice little cabin In Tennessee for sale. My family used it for vacation a couple of years ago.

http://jane.janeterrell.com/homes/42...7738/26203404/

I will stay in Michigan on the work till I die retirement program:old:, at least the crusin is good around here.:D