The Best Places to Retire

NBC's Rory O'Neill reveals the best American cities to retire to, but almost half of us feel we will never be able to retire.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Like Elliott Columbus's Morning News. Let's go over to the
Legacy Retirement Group dot Com phone line and say good
morning to NBC News Radios. Rory O'Neil. Rory, I know,
I've got a couple of years before I really start
thinking about retirement. But I don't know where you are
on that spectrum. But there are better places than others
to call it a day. And you've got a list

(00:20):
on where those places are well right.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
And the folks over at Wallenhub that did this survey
that looks at multiple factors in generating you know, some
of the best places where you should finally hang up
your hat for the last time for that retirement. And
you know, Orlando, Florida actually comes in at number one
on the list. Thank you very much. But you know,
and you said you're not too close to thinking about retirement,

(00:44):
but that's the whole point you should be. It's this
idea that you know, saving money now or committing to
it now has such great benefits in the long term,
and that's why you should be making those plans as
early as possible. You know. Overall, I'm looking Columbus come
in one hundred and third on the list of the
best places to retire. Where did you do well on

(01:07):
this coming in forty five on quality of life rank
of about two hundred different cities across the country. Yeah,
and a lot of it has to do with access
to medical care, the general cost of living overall, and
a lot of these places you'd expect. Yes, Orlando's number one,
but Scottsdale, Arizona, Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale all there in

(01:28):
the top ten sort of expected retirement places. The one
that surprised me being as high as it was number
three was Minneapolis. Really that's a large part though, because
of the medical facilities, of course that are available.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
There, which surprises me because we have nothing but hospitals
in Columbus, and the hospitals we have are only getting bigger.
I mean, there's constant construction on hospitals here, right. I
feel like that we should have been ranked a little
bit higher there. So you've got Orlando at number one.
Are there are places that people should avoid that are
the lowest on the list of favorability?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, a lot of them are going to be in
California just because of the high cost of living. Bakersfield,
Rancho Cucamonga, I think if you're eighty five, you can't
say Cucamonga. That's why they say you avoid it. Stockton,
California and Sam Bernardino, California comes in dead last. Hawaii
is also in the mix for the cost of living. Bridgeport,
Connecticut gets the same. So yeah, it's a lot depending

(02:23):
on the on the cost of living and some of
the activities. Other places get hammered for having bad weather
stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
So you're in Orlando, the number one place to retire,
So what where do people in Florida retire? Do you
just stay put?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Right? We just stay put? You know this. Wallace if
also found two disturbing numbers. Half of Americans fifty percent
don't think it's realistic for the average American to expect
to retire comfortably.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, that's not good.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
No, And forty three percent said they expect to work
until they die forty three percent.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
That's yeah, that's that's a big number. And I hope
I'm not in that bucket. I'll tell you that much
so far. All right, Rory, thank you for that information.