Surprises in retirement to KY or TN?

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by M3 Mitch

Offhand since TN has no income tax, and I think generally lower electric rates, why go to KY when TN has about the same climate with a bit better financials?

Full disclosure, I have never lived in either state, but have visited TN from time to time (Oak Ridge).

Tennessee still has a tax on dividends and interest income. It's called The Hall Tax. Right now it's 5%. It's supposed to go away in 2022.

"The Hall income tax is a Tennessee state tax on interest and dividend income from investments. It is the only tax on personal income in Tennessee, which does not levy a general state income tax. The current tax rate is 6 percent, applied to all taxable interest and dividend income over $1250 per person ($2500 for married couples filing jointly). Revenues are shared with the government of the municipality or county where the taxpayer resides. As of 2016, the state has reduced the Hall income tax to 5% and intends to eliminate it completely."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_income_tax

"Despite earlier misgivings, Gov. Bill Haslam signed into law Friday a bill that reduces Tennessee’s Hall income tax on some dividend and interest this year and eliminates it in 2022. The bill cuts the income tax rate from 6 percent to 5 percent for tax year 2016 on tax returns due next April. The bill says it is the “legislative intent” that the tax rate be reduced by 1 percent annually starting next year. It eliminates the tax entirely for 2022, regardless of whether the annual reductions occur."

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news...-law/84044810/

[NY Annie]

We retired to SW TN from NYC 4 years ago. I had originally wanted to move to NE TN where I went to college (not far from Tri-Cities) but we weren't finding the flat land we wanted and it does get a decent amount of snow most years. We were done with snow. So we searched further and further west to the Jackson area. We are about 2 hours from Memphis and 3 from Nashville. So far, Jackson doctors seem to have our needs covered. I have some very unusual conditions with my eyes and the doctor I use is first-rate. My husband is covered with the VA so that means trips to Memphis. So far, we've only had 1 and 1 more coming up soon. It gives us an excuse to spend the day and overnight.

While searching for a property (we bought long-distance, sight-unseen), we ruled out north of I-40 for weather reasons. We also didn't want to be in tornado alley, so we wanted a reasonable distance from the Mississippi River. There have been tornadoes in our county (5) since we moved here and only 1 was anywhere near our home. Still, we decided we needed a shelter and bought one just last year. Unused so far, but stocked and ready always.

Tornadoes have been increasing across the mid-south and south, so that is a consideration for you with climate change. We had our first "snow-storm" last month that required us to sweep off the deck and it lasted 2 days before the roads were completely dry. A big change from - it'll be gone by noon.

We are in the country so any major shopping gets done up in Jackson. With all the ways we don't spend, higher prices for groceries has negligible impact on our budget including the extra mileage on the cars to get to that shopping. And there's always farmer's markets and fb groups for finding low-cost veggies/fruit and even meats.

If you're looking to stay near any major city (including Knoxville and Johnson City), staying north of I-40 will be the least expensive assuming prices haven't changed much since I was house shopping - but one of the reasons we didn't like it was colder weather, more snow, and more hills/mountains.

Good luck in your search and your future move.