2017's Best and Worst States to Grow Old

[FIREd_2015]

Interesting article for those looking to relocate in retirement. The study considered "everything from affordability to quality healthcare access, long-term care options, a variety of senior care services, and overall quality of life." Utah was ranked #1, Oregon, Washington and California all made the top 10.

https://www.caring.com/articles/best-and-worst-states-to-grow-old-2017

 

[48Fire]

Seems like it is geared towards assisted living. I am sure if we're still kicking, we will live near our daughter, and who knows where that will be in 20 years

 

[braumeister]

I'm willing to bet that in every one of the "best" states I can find areas that would be terrible, and in every one of the "worst" states areas that would be great. On such a large scale, those kinds of lists are useless.

 

[Red Badger]

I'm willing to bet that in every one of the "best" states I can find areas that would be terrible, and in every one of the "worst" states areas that would be great. On such a large scale, those kinds of lists are useless.

+1. See below two caveats on ND from article. High nursing home cost? Big whoop when ND is tops in income. Lack of social life? ND residents consider the neighbor a mile away entirely too close. It's the expats that move there, can't take the isolation (or the winters) and repatriate in about 12 to 18 months. I grew up there - first hand knowledge.

For most residents, it's a great place to retire. Like braumeister said, articles like there are pretty useless argle-bargle.

North Dakota came in fourth, mostly because it’s quite expensive for nursing home costs, with private rooms running a median $129,276 per year. It ranked last for senior home care costs of services or home health aides at $63,972 a year.

Older people there reported good overall well being, though, and even topped the list of all 50 states for financial wellbeing. People also reported enjoying their community and what they did every day, though the state scored poorly for having a rewarding social life.

 

[braumeister]

The problem with all similar lists is that the basis for comparison is invalid.

I mean, can you really compare California with Wyoming with Mississippi with Rhode Island on any meaningful measure? They are all political subdivisions of a country, and they each have two Senators. That's pretty much it.

Now if you were to make such a list using standard statistical areas, it might have some real validity. But that would make the list so long as to be unwieldy.

 

[W2R]

The article says Louisiana is the 2nd best state in the country as far as costs (after Alabama), but 46th on "quality of life".

I guess their criteria for quality of life, differ drastically from ours because we love it here. Things could change, but unless they do we plan to stay where we are.

 

[Nightcap]

Massachusetts seems to rank at 38 overall, 49th in cost. I'm reminded of the sign in the old Baskin-Robbins: "There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person's lawful prey."

There's a lot that money can't buy. Like-minded neighbors are priceless. I could no more live in Utah than I could on the moon.

 

[RunningBum]

+1. See below two caveats on ND from article. High nursing home cost? Big whoop when ND is tops in income.

How does that income stat help retirees?

For most residents, it's a great place to retire. Like braumeister said, articles like there are pretty useless argle-bargle.

I agree with that.

 

[Koolau]

I guess the cost issues must have significantly lowered the ranking for Hawaii. It is the sate with the longest life span. I've always thought people lived longer in Hawaii because they WANT to. YMMV

 

[Dawg52]

The article says Louisiana is the 2nd best state in the country as far as costs (after Alabama), but 46th on "quality of life".

I guess their criteria for quality of life, differ drastically from ours because we love it here. Things could change, but unless they do we plan to stay where we are.

Yeah. They have MS 49th in quality of life. I guess I'm too dumb to realize how bad I have it. It is hot..... so I will give them that.

 

[W2R]

Yeah. They have MS 49th in quality of life. I guess I'm too dumb to realize how bad I have it. It is hot..... so I will give them that.

It's hot here, too, most of the time. But nobody here has to shovel snow, scrape ice off the car, and so on.

 

[ER Eddie]

Yeah. They have MS 49th in quality of life. I guess I'm too dumb to realize how bad I have it. It is hot..... so I will give them that.

And yet in their write-up: "Older Mississippians don’t report having a poor quality of life, however. It ranked second for liking what you do each day and seventh in having a good social life."

Pretty contradictory. And I don't know the value of pulling satisfaction ratings from caring.com members. Seems rather random.

They confound poverty and health outcomes. You're naturally going to have worse health outcomes for states with high levels of poor, relatively uneducated people (e.g., MS, LA), because those two go hand in hand.

That says nothing about what my experience would be like, moving to that state for retirement. I ain't poor and I gots me some edumacation.

Here's more misleading info: "There’s a lot of financial stress, though, as the state ranked last for older Americans’ financial well being."

Well, yeah, no kidding. MS, like a lot of southern states, is filled with poor people on Medicaid. It ranks near the bottom in resident "financial well being." Having lots of poor people tends to do that.

Again, that says nothing about what the experience would be like for one of us moving there. They're telling us about average financial status of the current residents, not about what it would be like for us to relocate there.

p.s. In related news:

https://www.caring.com/articles/best-adult-diaper

 

[CaptTom]

I call BS on most of these so-called studies. First of all, they're usually little more than click bait - a headline designed to grab attention followed by some filler trying to justify the headline.

Second, as almost everyone above has pointed out, they totally miss the point for most of us. There's really no way to come up with a one-size-fits-all answer.

For example, I'm pretty sure an extended nursing home stay would have me bankrupt and on medicaid pretty quickly, so the cost of long-term care becomes moot. The cost of living values have some merit, although at the state-wide level those can only give vague approximations of any particular town or neighborhood.

And, of course, we all have our own strong preferences. Mountains or oceans, cities or rural areas, warm or cold winters, etc.

It would be fun to create (maybe someone already has) a web site where the visitor can assign a weight to each of a number of different factors and come up with a personalized list.

 

[flintnational]

It looks like this survey is heavily focused on elder/nursing home costs/quality and not really a broad retirement survey.

"About This Study
In addition to analyzing Caring.com data—which includes nearly 150,000 reviews of senior care facilities submitted by its readers in all 50 states and this year’s list of top-rated senior living facilities and in-home care agencies on Caring.com (Caring Stars)—our study also incorporated Genworth’s 2016 Cost of Care Survey, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, and the Long-Term Services & Supports State Scorecard, which is a joint effort between AARP, The Commonwealth Fund, and the SCAN Foundation."

FN

 

[Bamaman]

I have yet to find any top.10 list worth.the.paper.it.is.written on.
After living in Utah awhile, I found the people just a little.different. Pretty place though.
Oregon and Washington get too much rain.
And California in top 10? Forget that. Ever notice how so.many people there have to work two jobs and still.don't get ahead?
Certain cities in some of the state's low on the list offer a big bang for the buck. I especially like small towns with universities that have great football and basketball teams.

 

[braumeister]

I call BS on most of these so-called studies. First of all, they're usually little moreIt would be fun to create (maybe someone already has) a web site where the visitor can assign a weight to each of a number of different factors and come up with a personalized list.

I've seen and used a few websites that did exactly that. Don't have links saved, unfortunately.

When I got through going through all the various criteria that mattered to me I wound up with a list of twenty or so places that best met my wishes.

The problem is that maybe one or two actually interested me enough to explore further, but my prior travels had already convinced me that most of them held no real interest for me.