Retirement Watch Lighthouse Logo

Worst States for Retirement

Last update on: Feb 02 2017
Topics:

Some states are better for retirees than others. Each retiree is different, of course, and I’ve long discouraged people from simply going by a list of which states are best and worst for retirement. The features that are most important to you might be different from those preferred by the raters. But ratings and surveys can provide information and perspective.

This rating, The Financial Security Scoreboard, by the National Institute on Retirement Security isolates eight factors that it believes are important to retirement security. Then, it narrows them down and concludes that two are especially important: the cost of housing and taxes on pension income. It finds that three states are especially bad on one factor and three on another factor. None of the six is good on either of the two key factors. The fact is that most people don’t move in retirement and probably shouldn’t. But you might want to if you live in one of the unfavorable states, and you might want to check out the scoreboard before considering a move.

Most states experienced an increase or decrease
in their score over time. Only a little over one
third—35 percent—of the 50 states and the District
of Columbia maintained the same score from 2000
to 2012.
Changes in state rankings occurred in all three
scorecard categories—whether through faster-
deteriorating savings, more quickly rising costs, and/
or sharper labor market declines compared to other
states.
A state that did well relative to others on one or more
of the key dimensions of economic security for an
aging population in one year may very well find that
it is falling behind other states in subsequent years.

bob-carlson-signature

Retirement-Watch-Sitewide-Promo

Log In

Forgot Password

Search