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Originally Posted by dhdallas
I found this article on the GOBankingRates website:
GoBankingRates created a list of the best and worst destinations for retirement when you have no savings. They analyzed the 100 largest cities in the U.S. with a large population of adults ages 65 and older. These cities were then ranked based on the following factors:
- Average 2023 home value and property tax, sourced from Zillow
- Whether the state taxes Social Security benefits, sourced from the AARP
- Annual homemaker services costs
- Annual home health aide costs
- Annual grocery costs
- Annual healthcare costs
- Annual utilities cost
- Annual transportation costs
- Annual necessity costs
After compiling all the data, the team named Foley, Alabama, the best place to retire for those with little to no savings. Joining Foley on the top 10 list is Mountain Home, Arkansas, in the second-place spot, followed by Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, in third, The Villages, Florida, in fourth, and Bella Vista, Arkansas, at No. 5. Rounding out the top 10 is Pinehurst, North Carolina; Green Valley, Arizona; North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Fredericksburg, Texas; and Punta Gorda, Florida.
Best Places To Retire If You Have No Savings | GOBankingRates
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The link is to a company trying to get you to give it your money. If you click on the “Worst Places to Retire” page, what you get is how you can retire if you have less than $500,000 in savings. That’s a LONG way from NO SAVINGS. Here’s what it says about The Villages, the #4 best place to retire with no savings:
4. The Villages, Florida
Percentage of population 65 and older: 85.7%
Average 2023 home value: $418,926
Average 2023 property tax: 0.91%
Whether the state taxes Social Security benefits: No
Annual homemaker services costs: $57,200
Annual home health aide costs: $57,200
Annual grocery costs: $4,591.44
Annual healthcare costs: $6,882.37
Annual utilities cost: $4,124.89
Annual transportation costs: $3,454.73
Annual necessity costs: $19,053.43
A lot of people who only have Social Security get under $20,000 a year. If they are a couple, that may be under $40,000, and it will be cut in half when one dies. How are they supposed to pay $57,000 for a home health aide if they need one? Looks to me like they can’t afford to even stay alive.
The fact is, unless you can sell your home where you came from for enough to pay cash for a home here and maybe even bank some, don’t even look. You can’t afford to make mortgage payments here plus live, even with two Social Security incomes or one and a pension. If you can pay cash for your house here, you can scrape by unless one of you gets very sick. However, there are plenty of older homes within driving distance of here that you can buy for half as much as the average home here, or even a quarter. True, you won’t have access to our clubs or pools or executive golf courses, but you can scrape by, like most retired people.
The alternative is moving here and supplementing Social Security payments by working until the end. I have a friend who is 78 and does okay by working three days a week as an RN at a nursing home. Another is 80 and works as a self-employed home health aide in The Villages and has a reverse mortgage.