{"id":61134,"date":"2025-10-08T11:49:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T11:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/61134\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T11:49:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T11:49:26","slug":"bankrate-says-this-southern-state-is-the-4th-worst-for-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/61134\/","title":{"rendered":"Bankrate Says This Southern State Is The 4th Worst For Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

When planning for retirement, people often consider\u00a0where they’d like to retire a top priority.\u00a0Bankrate<\/a>\u00a0releases an annual survey that specifically ranks states based upon their suitability for retirees to help people make this decision. Of course, everyone has different wants and needs, so\u00a0the website provides rankings for each state’s various attributes in addition to an overall ranking. If sunny weather matters to a retiree, for example, Arkansas could be a good choice as that Sun Belt State comes in at No. 9\u00a0in the weather category. Meanwhile, it ranked\u00a0No. 26\u00a0in terms of retirement-aged population \u2014 and that was one of its higher scores.\u00a0In every other category considered, Arkansas ranked mediocre at best, landing\u00a0dangerously close to the bottom overall at No. 47.<\/p>\n

For 2025, Bankrate modified its methodologies to better reflect retirees’ concerns. Relying on 15 data points, Bankrate investigated how much value the survey respondents placed on each of the attributes. For example, people deeply care about affordability in retirement years. In fact,\u00a0most Americans worry that their retirement savings will run out<\/a>.\u00a0So, Bankrate gave more weight to the affordability category. It also prioritized weather, safety, and healthcare, while giving factors like local taxes, similarly aged\u00a0people, and recreational activities less influence on rankings. So, why did Arkansas rank so poorly overall?<\/p>\n

Read more: Retirees Be Warned: These Are The 12 Worst Vehicles You Can Buy<\/a><\/p>\n

The problems with retiring in Arkansas\"The<\/p>\n

The Broadway Bridge in Little Rock, Arkansas – Derek Broussard\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In the Bankrate survey, Arkansas ranked No. 33 in affordability, a red flag for retirees. To be fair, though, this state is also one with some of the cheapest assisted living costs for seniors<\/a>, which could appeal to some retired demographics.\u00a0According to a study by\u00a0Genworth and CareScout<\/a>,\u00a0the median monthly cost to live in an assisted living community in Arkansas in 2025 was\u00a0$4,724, while the national median was $5,900.<\/p>\n

Bankrate ranked Arkansas\u00a0No. 36 in local taxes, which can also add to expenses. It landed at\u00a0No. 42 in healthcare, which some may see as a big red flag because healthcare can be a major expense during retirement<\/a>.\u00a0According to a 2025 Fidelity Investment<\/a> report, someone retiring in 2025 at the age of 65 can anticipate spending an average of $172,500 on healthcare expenses during retirement years. As an even worse ranking, Arkansas comes in at No. 46 in the safety category, ranking fourth from the bottom\u00a0in the subcategory of violent crimes. Even in the more minor category of arts, entertainment, and recreation, it landed the dismal\u00a0No. 48\u00a0slot. Even worse: In the “other” category, which includes walkability, community well-being, and some environmental factors, Arkansas ranked lower than every state except Mississippi. In short, retirees should take some serious caution before they decide to post up in The Nature State for their golden years.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on Money Digest<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When planning for retirement, people often consider\u00a0where they’d like to retire a top priority.\u00a0Bankrate\u00a0releases an annual survey that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[19205,45235,114,268,85,46,266,267,688,6300,45236],"class_list":{"0":"post-61134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-arkansas","9":"tag-bankrate","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-retirement","17":"tag-retirement-savings","18":"tag-sun-belt-state"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}