Best and worst states to retire rich

Cameron Huddleston

With little to nothing in savings, more than half of Americans could retire broke, GOBankingRates' 2017 Retirement Savings Survey found. In fact, most baby boomers might not even be able to retire — at least not in the traditional sense. To leave the 9-to-5, they'll need to take steps now to catch up on retirement savings.

However, soon-to-be retirees might be able to stretch their retirement savings far depending on the state where they choose to retire. That's because factors that affect how far your money can go — such as taxes and living expenses — vary greatly from state to state.

To help you find the best states to retire in, GOBankingRates surveyed all 50 states on these four factors:

  • Taxes: average state sales tax, state tax on Social Security benefits and average property tax

  • Living expenses: average home listing price, median home value and cost of living index

  • Banking: average savings account interest rate and average two-year CD account interest rate

  • Health and Social Security: average health insurance premiums, average Social Security benefits and Medicare spending per capita

Do you live in one of the best states for retirement?

Click through to see the best and worst states for retirees who want to keep more of their money and retire rich.

Methodology: GOBankingRates ranked all 50 states based on four main factors affecting retirees: taxes, living expenses, banking and healthcare and Social Security. These four factors were broken down into sets of data points.

In the taxes category, we examined: (1) average state sales tax rates, sourced from The Tax Foundation; (2) average property tax rates, sourced from The Tax Foundation; and (3) state taxes on Social Security benefits, sourced from Kiplinger and weighted twice as much as other tax factors.

In the living expenses category, we examined: (1) the average home listing price, sourced from Trulia the week ending May 10, 2017; (2) median home values, sourced from Zillow's April 2017 data; and (3) each state's cost of living index value, where the U.S. average is 100, sourced from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, which was weighted twice as much as average listing price and four times as much as median home value.

In the banking category, we examined: (1) savings account interest rates, sourced from GOBankingRates' database; and (2) 2-year CD account interest rates, sourced from GOBankingRates' database, with both data points weighted one-quarter as much as other factors.

In the health and Social Security category, we examined: (1) average health insurance premiums, sourced from the Kaiser Family Foundation; (2) average Social Security benefits, sourced from the Social Security Administration; and (3) Medicare spending per capita, sourced from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Advertisement