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Forget pristine beaches and palm trees. When the work wheel stops spinning, the best two cities in the U.S. to retire early are both in Kentucky – Louisville and Lexington, according to SmartAsset.
That’s hardly a surprise considering the personal finance website ranked Kentucky as the second-best state for an early retirement last year. (Wyoming came in first.)
Not only is the Bluegrass State tax-friendly, but it also lures retirees with its low cost of living and average house costs of only $8,600 a year. What’s more, the state is a nature lover’s paradise, offering a plethora of hunting, fishing, hiking and biking opportunities.
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When crafting its list of best cities for an early retirement,the personal finance website considered 10 factors: quality of medical care, unemployment, violent and property crime rates, average income, property and sales taxes, the cost of living, home prices and health care costs.
AJ Smith, a personal finance expert at SmartAsset, acknowledged that Kentucky doesn’t typically show well on lists of “best retirement spots.”
“But both Louisville and Lexington have low costs of living and affordable health care,” Smith said. “Additionally, first-place Louisville provides an average effective retirement income tax rate of only 12 percent for folks ages 55 to 64.”
The site’s ultimate list of 11 best cities skews away from the Northeast, dotted by some of the most expensive locales in the country, and toward cities mostly in the South and West.
Scroll below to see which cities made the cut and why.
1. Louisville, Ky.
Although the country’s bourbon capital ranked 48th in SmartAsset’s study of number of medical facilities per resident, Louisville punches above its weight when it comes to housing prices and cost of living. It also offers an average effective income tax rate of only 12 percent.
2. Lexington, Ky.
The horse capital of the world is Kentucky’s second-largest city, located about 80 miles east of Louisville. Both cities have a lot in common, including affordable health care and a low cost of living.
