The best state for retirement – cue the drum roll, an oil rig and a cowboy hat, please – Wyoming.
Well, we didn't say so. But according to an assessment by Bankrate, the state ranks so high in key factors for retirement that it is the number one place to go when your wage-earnin' days are done.
The study calculated rankings from a range of sources on six factors: cost of living, taxes, healthcare, weather, crime and residents’ overall well-being.
With that region of the country scoring so high in measures of “well-being,” and so low in cost of living, Wyoming’s neighbors South Dakota, Colorado and Utah ranked second, third and fourth, respectively, according to Bankrate.
Georgia ranked only 33d.
But then, according to this one-off study, when measured objectively, some of the stereotypical retirement zones really aren't so attractive at all. Florida came in 28th, thanks to a high crime rate and what Bankrate called "below-average healthcare quality."
Hawaii came in 45th, although it wasn't the weather that dragged down its ratings, it was because it has the nation's highest cost of living.
Bankrate describes itself as a “publisher, aggregator and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet.” The company operates a number of money and finance-oriented web sites, including Bankrate.com, CreditCards.com and Caring.com.
Coincidentally perhaps, the lowest ranking of any state for retirement was New York, according to Bankrate: it has the nation’s highest tax burden and a very high cost of living.
It is also, perhaps coincidentally, where Bankrate is based.
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