Retirement On A Budget (relative, milk, years, husband)
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Unless I'm mistaken Tucson is the only "Blue" city listed, so not so fair a choice culturally, it's like the magician's trick of "forcing" a card onto an unsuspecting participant. And Bakersfield CA is the only other one that isn't in the midwest or southeast.
I'll vote Tucson.
What major city (population over 150000) with a cost of living index below 90 is best suited for retiring Americans without substantial savings?
Birmingham, AL
Little Rock, AR
Tucson, AZ
Bakersfield, CA
Jacksonville, FL
Rockford, IL [/SIZE]
Indianapolis, IN
Wichita, KS
Shreveport, LA
Grand Rapids, MI
Kansas City, MO
Jackson, MS
Lincoln, NE
Cincinnati, OH
Tulsa, OK
Sioux Falls, SD
Nashville-Davidson, TN
San Antonio, TX
I would choose Grand Junction CO. At present, it is not over 150k, and I believe that combining all the cities in the area is only about 100k population. However, two major players have come to town recently, and with them, more flights, etc, so the place is about to take a serious uptick.
If you're a sports person, the college is trying to go D1 (they should be now, but do not have the room to expand their football stadium) and they have the AA or AAA team for the CO Rockies.
We stayed in the Tucson area for 3 winters. COL was generally low, crime wasn't bad, especially outside the city, health care was excellent. We might have stayed, but we don't like the long hot summer, and find the area kind of boring.
Really depends on what kind of climate you want, and how well you can adapt to each area. There is no "mathematical" answer to your question, it depends on what you like.
Only a few of your proposed cities would present me with an even acceptable climate - probably Tuscon is the only one *for me* on your list because I hate Midwestern weather, I strongly prefer a dry, Western type climate. Bakersfield would work if it was not in Cali. But, that's just me. Every area of the country has its charms, although some of them are only charming certain times of the year.
Cost of living will vary with people's preferences and lifestyle. Take Mississippi - back when I lived there, they taxed new cars (tabs) pretty heavily, but if you wanted to own 40 or more acres of forest land, the property taxes were quite low. And that's just one aspect of one state's tax structure.
Why wouldn’t you pick a blue state where you can get elderly housing, all the services, and good public transportation?
Not wanting the high taxes, not wanting various restrictive laws particularly about guns, in general valuing freedom and being left alone over being taken care of.
That's a good chart for the average working person, but in retirement your tax liabilities change. There are many perks given by some states to seniors that change the order shown on the chart.
For example, some states give significant tax savings on retirement income, pensions and some also give seniors homestead status on their homes reducing the property tax burden.
For some people, moving to a state just because it doesn't have a state income tax is not always the wisest move when you take everything else into account.
That is a very good point. Many states exempt up to a certain amount of retirement income and only tax higher income retirees. Also note that the chart referenced just gives total tax burden but does not take into account median income or real disposable income which is very low in Tennessee, so of course their tax burden is low. Jay
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