WalletHub recently published its 2018 rankings for best states for Retirees, and Colorado came in at #2, behind only Florida.
Wallethub’s methodology compared the states across 3 main categories: 1) affordability 2) Quality of Life and 3) Health Care
With the staggering statistic that almost 30% of non-retirmenet adults have not saved any money for retirement, affordability is critically important. While Colorado and Denver’s Real Estate prices have appreciated massively since 2010, Colorado and Denver in particular still has some of the lowest property taxes of any city in the country. Additionally, Colorado has a relatively low, flat state income tax rate, and a generous retiree exemption on social security earnings. In general, Colorado is a very tax friendly state.
Quality of Life here has always been a big selling point, and not just for millennials. For retirements, we have a mild climate (at least in the Denver metro area), and access to world-class outdoor recreation including skiing, hiking, leaf-peeping, hot springs, National Parks, etc. In Denver, we have every major sports franchise, Opera, and wonderful theatre complex, music, fantastic regional shopping destination, and a thriving downtown arts and cultural scene.
Lastly, Colorado ranked #2 in their Health Care ranking which propelled us to #2 overall. Colorado is widely known for world-class medical facilities and care-availability.
Additionally, although Denver is a bit isolated from other large metro areas, we have one of the best airports in the world at our doorstep, to fly non-stop to just about anywhere in the US and lots of locations internationally.
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