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You made the point earlier about the importance of locality in comparing living places. Well, for us it is almost a wash in cost of living between Seattle and Maui. Seattle is very expensive. Raising a family in Hawaii would definitely be more expensive, but surprisingly, retiring is about the same. For us at least.
no state has better or more medical facilities than nyc.. nyc has one of the lowest crime rates of a major city. nyc has a public transportation system that can get a retiree anywhere they want to go in the dead of winter.
a retiree can find work if need be and not just cleaning up aisle spills.
nyc has endless things to do to occupy a retirees time.
who ever put the criteria together for this survey was pathetic.
Escort Rider, anifani821 and others make an excellent point about intra-state variability (climate, taxes, congestion, crime, …)! A far more useful ranking would be of metropolitan areas. Instead of comparing NY-CA-TX, or small towns vs. major cities, compare NYC, LA and DFW.
Also mentioned was the fact that cost-of-living calculations differ greatly depending on a person's financial wherewithal. Poorer retirees whose main source of income is Social Security would presumably be more concerned about sales-tax and prices of consumer staples. Middle-class retirees would worry about property tax and cost of local health-care options. Wealthier retirees would mainly be concern about state/local taxes on dividends and capital gains. Some states are comparative havens for one class of retirees, while being awfully costly for another – and vice versa.
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Originally Posted by augiedogie
South Dakota is one of the most popular states to register in. Residency requirements are not the severe, and taxes are very low. So they register as residents there, but live mostly someplace else in their RV.
Interesting! Maybe there should be a list of "Top 10 states in which to claim titular residency for tax purposes, while living somewhere else"?
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Originally Posted by TwoByFour
...for us it is almost a wash in cost of living between Seattle and Maui. Seattle is very expensive. Raising a family in Hawaii would definitely be more expensive, but surprisingly, retiring is about the same. For us at least.
From what I gather, there is no state or local income tax in Seattle (see for example If there's no state income tax...). Is this correct? Evidently we have another example of how cost of living differs substantially depending on the individual's financial situation.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Is this correct? Evidently we have another example of how cost of living differs substantially depending on the individual's financial situation.
Oh, yeah... very dependent on each individual situation.
"generically"... AK is as good as it gets tax wise in the USA (no income or sales tax).
But you can do 'variations-on-a-theme'... I.e. live and work in a Income Tax free state and drive 5 minutes across the state line to a no-sales-tax state for shopping (not too helpful to your local merchants in the Sales tax state..., thus I do not do this as a habit).
SD (no income tax) has the LEAST restrictive domicile rules (one overnight stay, not necessary to repeat annually).
MT has no Sales tax or emission requirements, so many SD RV'rs have a MT LLC own their RV.
WY (income tax free) is nearby as well, but has a residency requirement (annually).
Gotta be very careful of getting income in CA, as they just might declare you a resident!
Thus... for RV PT jobs... you work in NV (Income tax free) (at Amazon fulfillment Center).
If you are a 'consumer', you visit one of the 5 Sales tax free states. (Add NH and DE to MT, OR, AK).
then there is Property tax...
I have 2 homes in WA, less that 2 minutes apart, and same cost basis... $14,400 for one (Property taxes); $1200 for the one I recently bought. (smaller, older, less view, different county, different schools, different fire district...). The house across the street from the inexpensive one I was gonna buy too (for a rental), It's the same value; but... 2x the taxes, (different school)....
Income tax free states are very beneficial during your accumulation phase. As you age / and if earnings is not a big tax hit.. then a tax neutral state can be better fit. Since I am not keen on filing state taxes, I keep my investments in income tax free states.
Inheritance tax can be the KILLER at our age! so make sure your trust (that holds your large assets) is in an inheritance friendly state (does not have to be your domicile). I gave all my appreciated assets away to my family foundation while I was still in my peak earning yrs... so no inheritance tax issues for me.
BTW... US Protectorates are pretty good tax shelters too, and many are quite nice retirement spots! (ie, Guam )
Last edited by StealthRabbit; 05-11-2014 at 10:36 AM..
From what I gather, there is no state or local income tax in Seattle (see for example If there's no state income tax...). Is this correct? Evidently we have another example of how cost of living differs substantially depending on the individual's financial situation.
There is no state or county income tax for Seattle. But property tax is about 1.2% (it varies a lot) and sales tax is about 9.5%. Contrast that with Hawaii where there is an income tax, but it excludes retirement income derived from SS, pensions, and IRA distributions. Sales tax in the County of Maui is 4% and our property tax is 0.5%. This is why it is so silly to only look at whether a locality has an income tax.
We pay about $5000/year less in total (income, sales, property, vehicle) taxes in Maui than we did in Seattle since we retired. Preretirement, taxes would be higher for us here in Maui.
Anyway, as they say, the devil is in the details so I hope nobody actually chooses where to retire based on one of these articles. They are really misleading.
Inheritance tax can be the KILLER at our age! so make sure your trust (that holds your large assets) is in an inheritance friendly state (does not have to be your domicile).
Inheritance or estate tax is only a killer to your heirs, not to you.
At least the capital gains basis gets reset to the day of departure.
It is important to distinguish between estate tax and inheritance tax. Estate tax is against the deceased's estate. Inheritance is paid by the recipient. The laws for each vary widely and are different. You really need to check.
Inheritance tax can be the KILLER at our age! so make sure your trust (that holds your large assets) is in an inheritance friendly state (does not have to be your domicile). I gave all my appreciated assets away to my family foundation while I was still in my peak earning yrs... so no inheritance tax issues for me.
I think you mean estate tax. There is a difference between inheritance tax and estate tax. Your state does not have an inheritance tax.
Inheritance tax is imposed by state governments and the tax rate depends on the person (beneficiary) receiving the property, and in some jurisdictions, how much they receive. Six states have this - Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.
Estate tax is based on the net value of the property owned by the deceased. When the assets are transferred to the beneficiary, estate tax comes into play. This tax has nothing to do with the person who inherits the assets.
no state has better or more medical facilities than nyc.. nyc has one of the lowest crime rates of a major city. nyc has a public transportation system that can get a retiree anywhere they want to go in the dead of winter.
a retiree can find work if need be and not just cleaning up aisle spills.
nyc has endless things to do to occupy a retirees time.
who ever put the criteria together for this survey was pathetic.
All true, but the survey was ranking NY state, not NYC. All those great NYC amenities (endless things to do, jobs, public transportation, etc.) don't do much for someone living in Buffalo.
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Originally Posted by TuborgP
For being so useless and hated, best places to live list seem to always get a lot of posts
For being so useless and hated, best places to live list seem to always get a lot of posts
Lists generally stir controversy instead of being useful.
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