Money - By Dan Kadlec
7 hours ago
Where do I begin and will my post ever end?
:-)
To start with
Why Florida Is
Losing Its Grip on Retirees
A greedy Florida House of Representatives for many years.
A greedy Florida senate for many years.
A greedy governor for far too many years.
A greedy Florida States Attorney.
A puppet setup in every committee in every county in the
state of Florida.
High taxes!
Low employment unless you choose to work two or three, no
benefit, jobs, just to pay rent or mortgage, put food on the table.
Every roadway in the state of Florida is quickly becoming
toll roads, a lot of toll!
Tens of Thousands of drunk hit and run drivers a year in
the state.
No housing for the poor and middle-class.
Crime is extremely high in every county in the state of
Florida.
Yet Floridians keep on sending the same greedy useless
people into office!
That is just the tip of the preverbal bucket, so to
speak.
Are retirees looking
for their dream home in all the wrong places? Florida, which helped popularize
the notion of a snowbird retirement, has the most residents age 65-plus. Yet it
now ranks near the bottom of a new list of states deemed most desirable for
folks contemplating retirement. Virginia tops the list, while another
long-standing retirement haven, California, comes in dead last. The Midwest
generally shows well.
Quality of life,
including weather, is just one of six components in the calculation. The
others: financial health of the state and its residents, access to healthcare,
affordable and age-friendly housing, employment and education opportunities,
and residents’ overall wellness. The report from LPL Financial is designed to
help pre-retirees, defined as those 45-64, choose a state now that they will be
happy with when they retire.
The criteria may
explain why Florida comes in at No. 38. It scored poorly on housing as well as
on employment and education. Incredibly, the sunshine state also scored poorly
on community and quality of life, which looks beyond weather to the impact of traffic
patterns and crime rates. Florida is home to 11 of the nation’s 100 most
dangerous cities.
At least among
pre-retirees, who may still have kids in school and 20 more years of career,
the weather in retirement seems almost irrelevant. These people may change
their tune when they finally get to age 66 and tire of snowstorms. But at this
point their life, the research shows, South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona and New
Mexico clock in at Nos. 43-46, respectively, joining California as among the
least attractive places to call it quits.
Arizona and Nevada
scored an F in health care; New Mexico scored an F in both quality of life and
employment and education. The biggest problems with California are the state’s
fiscal mess, which raises the specter of more tax hikes, and its high cost of
living, which translates into stratospheric real estate costs. California is
home to nine of the 10 most expensive housing markets in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the upper
Midwest—known for cold, snow, rain and tornadoes—is the top-ranking region.
South Dakota, Wyoming and Michigan claim 2, 3, and 4, respectively. They rate
average, at best, in employment opportunities and wellness. But the region has some
of the best scores on financial health, quality of life and housing. Evidently
there is something to be said for down-home neighborliness, a low cost of
living and downright affordable housing. An average four-bedroom two-bath home
in Rapid City, S.D., lists for $194,199, vs. $2.1 million in Palo Alto, Calif.
Virginia seems to
have it all—it is one of 12 states with no grade lower than a C. The state was
a standout in the quality of life and financial categories, helped by a high
median income, low cost of living and below-average tax burden.
Financial data get
the heaviest weighting in the LPL report. But if your personal finances are in
excellent shape, you may still want to consider more expensive destinations,
such as New York (No. 49, but has an A for health care) and California (A for quality
of life). Or even Hawaii, which ranks ranks No. 41 largely because of its
oppressive costs but gets straight A’s in quality of life, employment and
education, and wellness.
Calculator:
In the end, where
you will want to live in retirement depends a lot on how well you prepare
financially. It’s easy to discount warm weather and emphasize employment
opportunities and low costs when you are still going into the office every day
and building a nest egg. But if all that hard work pays off, and you can afford
to find a safe beach somewhere at age 66, the weather just might matter after
all. Only time will tell.
Mon, Apr 4, 2016
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