Florida remained a very retirement-friendly state in 2024, with five locales in the Sunshine State appearing among WalletHub’s 10 best retirement cities.
Orlando, which is located in central Florida, nabbed the overall first-place title on WalletHub’s “Best & Worst Places to Retire” ranking this year.
The personal finance website indicated factors like its activity options and elder health care helped Orlando earn the title of best city to retire. Florida’s tax policies also played a major part, according to WalletHub.
The city’s total score was 61.49.
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This year, five other states had representation in the top 10 in addition to dominant Florida.
The list included a total of 182 U.S. cities. To determine the overall position of the cities on the list, WalletHub said it relied on several dozen metrics within the categories of affordability, activities, quality of life and health care.
According to WalletHub, 2024’s 10 locales most favorable for retirees included:
1. Orlando, Florida
2. Miami
3. Minneapolis
4. Tampa, Florida
5. Fort Lauderdale, Florida
6. Scottsdale, Arizona
7. Cincinnati
8. St. Petersburg, Florida
9. Casper, Wyoming
10. Atlanta
“It’s important to choose wisely when picking where to retire, as many retirees are on a fixed income,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said. “As a result, the best cities for retired people are those that minimize taxes and expenses, as well as have good opportunities for retirees to continue paid work for extra income, if they choose to do so. In addition, the top cities provide high-quality health care and offer plenty of enjoyable activities for retirees.”
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Of the top 10 best retirement cities, Miami received the highest rank for the main activities category, at No. 2.
Two of the other top-10 cities landed No. 3 placements for different main categories that WalletHub looked at to help formulate its list. Scottsdale came in third-place for quality of life. Meanwhile, Casper received that ranking for affordability, the personal finance website found.
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WalletHub’s best cities to retire comes after the personal finance website identified Florida, Colorado, Virginia, Delaware and Wyoming as top states for retirement earlier in the year.
In April, Northwestern Mutual found Americans think they must have $1.46 million set aside in order to “comfortably” retire. That was up 15% from the prior year.
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