These Are The Best And Worst States For Retirement In 2018

When it comes to retirement, settling on where can be the most important step in the process and according to a new set of rankings, Florida is the best state for retirement in 2018.

According to the rankings, Florida, Colorado and South Dakota are the top states for retirement, while Rhode Island, New Jersey and Kentucky rank at the very bottom.

The rankings, compiled by WalletHub, looked at affordability, health-related factors and overall quality of life. WalletHub says they compared all 50 states across 41 key indicators of retirement-friendliness. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale and assigned a weight. WalletHub then calculated each state's weighted average across all metrics to determine overall scores.

According to WalletHub, the 10 best states for retirement in 2018 are:

1. Florida
2. Colorado
3. South Dakota
4. Iowa
5. Virginia
6. Wyoming
7. New Hampshire
8. Idaho
9. Utah
10. Arizona

The 10 worst states for retirement are:

1. Alabama
2. Hawaii
3. New Mexico
4. Louisiana
5. West Virginia
6. Arkansas
7. Mississippi
8. Rhode Island
9. New Jersey
10. Kentucky

Looking at specific factors, states like Massachusetts, New York, Alaska, California and Hawaii had the highest adjusted cost of living while Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma had the lowest adjusted cost of living. However, Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi also had the lowest life expectancies while Massachusetts, California and Hawaii were among the states with the highest life expectancy, according to WalletHub.

You can read more details on the rankings and more about the data sources and methodology used by WalletHub here.

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