Best state to retire to based on cost of living

[Winelover]

Wow, interesting thread. My wife and I have two kids in High School now, and we are considering moving away from Texas for retirement - primary reason is the summers, as we get older (been here since 1996) we don't tolerate them as much any more. Plus property taxes keep going higher and higher, and our 8.25% sales tax is not that great either.

We have talked about a more moderate weather state, of course friendly to outdoors, firewarms, camping, etc.. We lived in Indianapolis, In for 7 years and don't want to ever have that much snow/cold weather either!. We like the areas of Northern Arizona (Flagstaff), Southern Colorado, etc., but we are still in the "looking for a place to retire".

Our sales tax is as high as yours, almost to the penny............then add in Clinton's sin tax on spirits.

We moved here from Michigan. The only realized savings is on automobile insurance. We cut ours in half. License plates are much cheaper but when you combine them with the personal property tax, it's a wash.

Tax on vacant land is dirt cheap, until you build on it. My house taxes are comparable to what I was paying in Michigan, granted I have three times the house. However, there are no city services. No garbage pick up, no water or sewer, no police or fire department. We rely on volunteer fire and sheriff departments.

Natural gas is not available, so the more expensive propane is the only option. Electricity isn't any cheaper, even though we have plenty of dams producing hydroelectric power................unless your coming here from someplace like California.

Cost of food, is pretty much the same. Restaurants charge about the same, but nice establishments are limited.

Now don't get me wrong................we love it here. People are friendly and crime is low. What little we have, is drug related. As in most of rural America. Beautiful countryside and plenty of things to see and do, if that floats your boat. Recreation abounds.

I hunt out my back door.............57 acres. I can shoot anytime I so desire. Fishing is ten minutes away, lake or river. The Twin Lakes area is well known for it's trout, bass and striper fisheries. The lakes never freeze. Turn 65 and that is the last hunting or fishing licence you will need to purchase...........it becomes lifetime.

Weather wise, we still have the four seasons. Winter is mild, snow is minimal but we are subject to ice storms. Tornadoes are a distinct possibility, as in most of the south.

I think we made a good choice, relocating here.

 

[Rick]

On the list of states cost of living John moved here from Michigan which was 10th best and 12% below the national average. Most likely not a huge difference in the cost of living for him. However . . . I and now Smokey moved here from CA and the difference in the cost of just about everything is remarkable. My combined home auto insurance here is less than auto insurance alone on a 10 year old car with a perfect driving record was in CA. My home/auto insurance and property tax per year combined is only slightly more than auto insurance alone in CA. Just about everything else is comparably less expensive here too.

 

[462]

Woefully under-funded public employee pension funds -- state and municipal -- will demand perpetual tax increases.

 

[Rick]

Another point to consider with CA is . . . Los Angeles County alone has over 7 million cars on the roads EVERY DAY. Traffic alone is reason enough to escape CA. Of those 7 million cars over 50,000 are stolen every single year in L.A. County. Statewide in one year . . . 187,000 stolen cars. That's just auto theft and does not take into account all other rampant crime. L.A. City has over twice the violent crimes as the national average.

 

[JonB]

You also need a state with enough of a winter to send the homeless bums packing.
Bill

32. MINNESOTA
Cost of living: 4% above the average in U.S
Population: 5.5 million
Best city: Osseo
HIGHLIGHTS: Minnesota is a good place for health-focused seniors. It is ranked as the "healthiest state in America for seniors", according to the United Health Foundation. It is also home to the popular Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. If you have complicated health problems, this might be an excellent choice for you.
CHALLENGES: It has got the not so great combination of more than average cost of living and below average yearly income. The state also taxes Social Security as much as the Feds do. Other retirement incomes are not free from taxation either.

Years ago, I had visions of leaving MN. I really liked WY when I vacationed there and considered moving there many times. Now that I'm retired and could move to WY or somewhere else, I just can't imagine leaving MN...too many good friends and family here, and I have learned to love MN and it's seasons, including the cold/snowy winter.

The Article doesn't go too deep, but we are taxed pretty high when you take into effect everything, usually we are just behind CA and NY for Highest taxed in those type of LISTS. I like how the article 'spins' that MN as "good place for health-focused seniors" ...LOL, you do need to be pretty healthy to live in this climate...Walkers don't work well on icy frozen sidewalks.

 

[Ian]

We have a culture ranking of 50 and weather ranking of 4. Considering we have culture clear up to our ears and some of the worst/most unpredictable weather around I'd think those numbers are rather backwards.

 

[popper]

Winelover - You near Harrison?
All big texas cities have BIG gov. liability for public retirement accounts so taxes will INCREASE. Property tax is a game. Increase evaluation on odd years, increase taxes even. Some have capped valuation and tax rate but the school stuff is ridiculous. Residence has gone from 1k sq.ft. homes to 4-5k as it gets more tax money! Construction hasn't improved, actually is worse - developers rule! Rural locations that aren't taken over by MJ growers aren't too bad but housing choices are poor. You can build a barniminum and keep taxes low for a while. Gov. isn't much different from other mid-west/plains states, getting worse though.

 

[Bret4207]

Woefully under-funded public employee pension funds -- state and municipal -- will demand perpetual tax increases.

Only if the state carries through with it's promises. A few years back there was an idea floated here of abandoning the promises (that's really all they are) to NYS employees and raiding the solvent retirement funds to fund state projects. Didn't get much traction, but.......

 

[Ian]

I bet NY realized real quick that a whole lot of those retired employees are rural and have pitchforks.....and torches.

 

[Rick]

I bet NY realized real quick that a whole lot of those retired employees are rural and have pitchforks.....and torches.

hehe . . . Yep, and hot tar and feathers and . . .

 

[Ian]

Property tax is a game. Increase evaluation on odd years, increase taxes even. Some have capped valuation and tax rate but the school stuff is ridiculous. Residence has gone from 1k sq.ft. homes to 4-5k as it gets more tax money!

Yep. Values went up last year, average about 250% here, but oddly no one I spoke with had any of their improvement values increased at all, including people who had built entire buildings and done other major improvements. So guess what's gonna happen next year.....

 

[462]

Problem with raiding the public employee retirement funds is that they are lawful contracts, and raiding them would surely bring about lawsuits. Most likely, though, lawyers on both sides would relish the idea.

My wife accepted a cash buy-out, from the phone company, which included free lifetime medical coverage. Starting in 2015, Obamacare screwed all the country's retirees, so covered, by negating the companies from paying the premiums. Now, we have to pay the premiums up front, then get reimbursed. Problem is, the phone company's premium bank contains fewer dollars than what our premiums cost. Seemingly, Obama and the phone company's answer was to buy a lower cost policy with less coverage. That Ol' Barry stuck his wrench in the works gave the phone company a way out of the no premium cost contract.

 

[RicinYakima]

• Problem with raiding the public employee retirement funds is that they are lawful contracts, and raiding them would surely bring about lawsuits. Most likely, though, lawyers on both sides would relish the idea.

  I am in a Law Enforcement/Firefighter pension system that has been closed since 1977. There are less then 3000 of us left alive, when the last one dies, the State will get about $400 million excess money. They have tried to raid the surplus for years but so far have been unsuccessful.

 

[462]

Ric,
Be the last one living, and even outlive the state!

 

[Bret4207]

I bet NY realized real quick that a whole lot of those retired employees are rural and have pitchforks.....and torches.

No. They couldn't give a fig about anything outside NYC/LI. Unions scare them a little, court case scare them more. In the end, Cuomo just took billions in debt and mandates and slid the costs over onto the counties. You can only pull the pin on that grenade so many times.


The trick to violating a lawful contract is to word the changes properly and to make it appear the State is acting out of compassion for the poor retirees. "It's for the elderly! Do you want them eating dog food?!!!" If Obamacare can violate a contract, it' a cinch NYS can too.

 

[Winelover]

Popper: Not close to Harrison, which is in Boone County. We're in Baxter County, two counties east of. Largest city is Mountain Home. However, I'm rural, even though I have a Mountain Home mailing address.

Building permits are required in the city, none in the rural areas. Only permit/inspection, required when I built, was the septic.

 

[Pistolero]

When I built my vacation home in Colorado, the very rural county had no building codes at all. I wrote a letter to them
asking, never got a reply. I asked around. Nope - no codes. So, I built to code on things that mattered like the
propane piping system and the septic system. The roof and walls are massively over engineered by me.

The roof is good for 75 lbs per square foot. That is about 12 ft of wet, dense snow.....never going to happen.
IIRC, it cost $150 more (total) for the 75 lb/sq ft trusses than the 30 lb/sq ft trusses. Pretty easy choice. Trusses,
delivered, were about $1300 total.

That was 25 years ago. Now they have a building code.

I always assumed that my company pension would be eventually taken away, as would SoSec. My wife and I
put away enough to survive if both my pension and SS are gone....so far, not happened, but I don't trust them.
Have a bit extra now to fund grandkids college education funds, that is nice. I never trusted the SS folks or
my company pension. They cut the pension system a lot and eliminated the "lifetime free medical care" which was the
promise when I signed on. They are still paying the pension, we'll see how long that lasts. And how long before SS says, "Hey,
you have money in IRAs, you "don't deserve/don't need" SS"......waiting to get the letter one day.

Bill

 

[462]

I've never been a gambler, so when I turned 60 I took advantage of a cash lump sum payment, rather than a guaranteed, though paltry, monthly payment that some actuary's abacus deemed appropriate. Several years later, the company eliminated the lump sum option.

 

[Pistolero]

Hope you found a good financial advisor to help you make that lump sum even lumpier.
If there was ever any single "smart" thing that I did, it was finding a good, honest financial advisor
and listening to him for 35 years. THAT made more difference in my retirement than anything
I ever came up with on my own.

Bill

 

[462]

First hired a financial advisor 8 years prior to that. And, YES, he made it grow!
He retired 3 years ago, and the guy he recommended has made us money, as well.
We're at that stage in life when bonds are the investment of choice.