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Jamelia Todd
Time to read: 1 minute
Cost of living is on a lot of peoples’ minds these days, and it’s especially important to those about to leave the workforce and finally start living for themselves. Now just as ever, a great way to get the most out of your life savings is to pick up and move to a place that has more of what a retiree actually wants.
To find the best places in the country to retire, personal finance website WalletHub compared the fifty states on their affordability, quality of life, and healthcare merits. They used 47 different indicators, including adjusted cost of living, taxes, mildness of weather, museums per capita, golf courses per capita, crime, obesity rates, and healthcare access.
Virginia is the second best state in the nation to retire in, according to WalletHub. The commonwealth had a quality of life rank of 7 out of 50, an affordability rank of 9, and a healthcare rank of 13.
The most important of the three categories in the study was affordability, and here Virginia beats out 41 other states. As costs vary throughout a state, though, a more helpful comparison is between a Virginia city and one from another state.
According to Bestplaces.net, New York City’s cost of living index is 63.2% higher than that of Virginia Beach. Median home cost here is half what it is in New York ($321,000 vs. $654,000), while utilities cost 55% more in New York, and food costs 16.3% more. Healthcare costs are 21.3% higher in New York, and transportation costs 84.8% higher.
It’s no wonder we have so many transplants from the Big Apple here.
According to WalletHub’s study the best state to retire in is Florida. The third best state is Colorado.
Best State To Retire In
- Florida
- Virginia
- Colorado
- Delaware
- Minnesota
- North Dakota
- Montana
- Utah
- Arizona
- New Hampshire
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Jamelia Todd
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