I live in Kentucky...plan to retire here. Cost of living is low in west kentucky. The stats about life expectancy don’t apply if you take care of yourself with diet and exercise. Sure there’s a sales tax. Weather though is great...hot summers and warm winters. But you do get some winter for about two weeks and four season are nice. Land is cheap here at least compared to up north.
If I were an American, I would retire to Utah or nearby portions of AZ, NV, CO, to be close to numerous opportunities for back country enjoyment. Golf in southern Utah is fairly good also if you’re into golf, also mesquite, NV is nice. If you wanted a place without a strong mormon presence, Kanab UT would be recommended. Personally, I don’t find the mormon influence to be a negative, even though I am not open to being converted.
St George UT is a fairly large place (pop. 125,000) but does not seem to have a lot of crime, and small town Utah (or nearby locations) are pretty much crime free, according to local media that I sometimes look at from “up north.” Not that they report “we are crime free” I just don’t see stories about crime very often.
In Canada, BC is by far the preferred province for retirees moving west from the frigid interior. Kelowna, Osoyoos and parts of Vancouver Island, as well as White Rock (near Blaine WA) are locations with a lot of retired people.
Towns near Calgary are also popular especially with those who want to live in a socially conservative area (that is not easily found in BC but like WA there’s a sort of libertarian vibe under the socialist veneer).
Not saying where I live, don’t want to give it all away.
I thought the same thing. What does the life expectancy of people there now have to do with people that retire there, or a healthy person that already lives there?
We’ve lived in KY for 3 years. We did considerable research before we moved. One big factor was that we could live on about 55% of what we’d need in NY or MA, where we’re from. We could have purchased 2 nice homes for what we got in MA when we sold. Property taxes are reasonable, we’re used to sales taxes anywhere, gasoline is cheaper, and they welcomed us with our guns. (We actually called the sheriff’s office in the county we were considering. I wanted to be completely legal and aboveboard. They said: “No problem!
Bring ‘em on in.”) Also, the folks here have welcomed us “recovering Yankees” with open arms.
One of our relatives exclaimed: “WHAT ABOUT HEALTH CARE???” when we told her about the move. We’re no farther from a hospital than we were in NY, and our hospital in MA was the now infamous Milford Regional Medical Center. There are ample doctors from which to choose, unlike our area of MA. So far it has been win-win. Lesson: don’t base your retirement decisions on anyone else’s list. Do your own research. Visit the area (we made 2 trips to KY, one summer and one winter).
Warm winters???? I did BCT at Fort Knox during the winter of ‘69/’70.It was cold enough to freeze a witch’s eyebrows!! And I grew up in New England!