Best and Worst Cities for Early Retirement

Thinking of retiring early? Good for you! It’s certainly not an easy task, and where you’re located plays a big role in your ability to do so.

MagnifyMoney, a website that offers consumers a way to comparison-shop for financial products, evaluated 217 U.S. cities to discover the best and worst places to retire early. Each city was evaluated based on its cost of living, quality of life, and employability.

Each category looked at several different elements:

• Cost of Living: Groceries, housing, utilities, transportation, health care, and other goods and services
• Quality of Life: Weather, walkability, and access to arts and entertainment services
• Employability: Minimum wage, unemployment rate, average commute time, and state income tax for each metro

Each city was given a score from 0 to 100 in each category, and then a final score was determined after tallying the results.

The results showed that an overwhelming number of the best cities for retirement were in the south—specifically Tennessee and Texas. The best northeastern city on the list was Pittsburgh because of its reasonable cost of living and high quality of life.

The worst cities? High cost of living and low quality of life combined to put Arlington, Virginia and Washington, DC at the top of the list. And if you’re living in certain parts of California, you may want to consider moving if you want to retire early; 3 cities in the Golden State were listed among the worst.

Here’s the breakdown of the 10 best and 10 worst cities for early retirement. For rankings by region, click here.

^{Credit: MagnifyMoney}