{"id":191613,"date":"2026-03-14T16:40:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T16:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/191613\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T16:40:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T16:40:30","slug":"these-are-the-top-3-best-places-to-retire-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/191613\/","title":{"rendered":"These Are the Top 3 Best Places to Retire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Key Points<\/p>\n<p>This list is based on what retirees tell The Motley Fool they&#8217;re looking for in a retirement spot.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s no single location that&#8217;s right for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Home to the oldest city in the U.S., Florida offers a little of everything.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, The Motley Fool surveyed 2,000 retired Americans, with the goal of learning what matters most to them in retirement. Here&#8217;s what emerged as retirees&#8217; top preferences:<\/p>\n<p>healthcare access and quality (15%)<\/p>\n<p>housing affordability (13%)<\/p>\n<p>weather and climate (12%)<\/p>\n<p>state and local taxes (11%)<\/p>\n<p>non-housing affordability (6%)<\/p>\n<p>While there&#8217;s no single spot that&#8217;s perfect for all retirees, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/research\/best-places-to-retire\/?utm_source=AolDailyFinance&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=e3fcdc2b-4a80-4a1d-b4b9-3d4b1ee3bb64\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Motley Fool&#039;s 2026 Best Places to Retire;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">The Motley Fool&#8217;s 2026 Best Places to Retire<\/a> report reflects the qualities most desired. Here are the top three spots, which are all in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Will AI create the world&#8217;s first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an &#8220;Indispensable Monopoly&#8221; providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. <a href=\"https:\/\/api.fool.com\/infotron\/infotrack\/click?apikey=35527423-a535-4519-a07f-20014582e03e&amp;impression=56cdba11-e8ee-4c79-9760-ad108102b1b2&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fa-sa-ai-boom-nvidias%3Faid%3D10891%26source%3Disaediica0000068%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-ai-boom%26ftm_veh%3Dtop_incontent_pitch_feed_partner%26ftm_pit%3D18906&amp;utm_source=AolDailyFinance&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=e3fcdc2b-4a80-4a1d-b4b9-3d4b1ee3bb64\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Continue \u00bb;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">Continue \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A view of a Florida skyline and Atlantic Ocean, taken from across a canal.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/7d5249123c4df5fcdc08ffa1a336d316.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A view of a Florida skyline and Atlantic Ocean, taken from across a canal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Image source: Getty Images.<\/p>\n<p>1. Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida<\/p>\n<p>Total retirement score: 64\/100<\/p>\n<p>Often referred to as the Venice of America, the city enjoys an average of 246 days of sunshine each year. With long stretches of waterfront, including boating canals and the Atlantic Ocean, it&#8217;s a draw for water-lovers from around the world.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s to love: Even if you&#8217;re not into long days under an umbrella on the beach, paddleboarding, or walks in the warm sun, you don&#8217;t have to worry about shoveling snow. While you&#8217;ll have plenty of cultural activities to enjoy, Fort Lauderdale has a laid-back vibe, perfect for chilling. Plus, there&#8217;s no state income tax.<\/p>\n<p>Potential challenges: Housing and property tax costs in Fort Lauderdale tend to be on the high side, and crime rates are higher than in other South Florida cities. If you&#8217;re not into tourists, you may need to find some of Fort Lauderdale&#8217;s less &#8220;touristy&#8221; spots (and they do exist). Traffic can be a bear at certain times of day, and humidity could cause you to spend more than usual on no-frizz hair serums.<\/p>\n<p>2. St. Augustine, St. Johns County, Florida<\/p>\n<p>Total retirement score: 59\/100<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s to love: Unless you find weeks of sunshine tiresome, you&#8217;ll adore the weather in St. Augustine. If you&#8217;re into history, there&#8217;s nothing quite like St. Augustine, the oldest city in the U.S. You may also love the number of music venues and creative eateries in town.<\/p>\n<p>Potential challenges: With all that sunshine comes heat, and summers can be brutal. However, if you don&#8217;t mind getting out early or waiting until the end of the day, you can enjoy the ocean breeze while taking a long walk. If your hair reacts negatively to humidity, you might want to invest in hats to hide what&#8217;s sure to happen.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the number of &#8220;best places to live&#8221; lists it has made, St. Augustine tends to attract tourists over most of the year. And thanks to all the tourists, traffic can snarl, making it tougher to run errands than you might imagine.<\/p>\n<p>3. Quincy, Gadsden County, Florida<\/p>\n<p>Total retirement score: 59\/100<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s to love: Quincy still carries that old-time Florida vibe. If you&#8217;re considering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/retirement\/relocation\/?utm_source=AolDailyFinance&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=e3fcdc2b-4a80-4a1d-b4b9-3d4b1ee3bb64\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:relocation in retirement;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">relocation in retirement<\/a>, you&#8217;re likely to adore the below-average cost of living and Quincy&#8217;s historic downtown. And if you&#8217;d feel right at home in a small town, Quincy has fewer than 8,000 residents.<\/p>\n<p>Potential challenges: Given the limited number of restaurants, retail establishments, and healthcare options, you may need to drive to a larger city (like Tallahassee) to find what you&#8217;re looking for. Also, cooling your house on hot, humid days may cost more than you&#8217;re accustomed to spending.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in retiring in the South but not necessarily in Florida, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/research\/best-places-to-retire-south\/?utm_source=AolDailyFinance&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=e3fcdc2b-4a80-4a1d-b4b9-3d4b1ee3bb64\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Motley&#039;s Fool&#039;s Best Places to Retire in the South;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">The Motley&#8217;s Fool&#8217;s Best Places to Retire in the South<\/a> may spark your imagination.<\/p>\n<p>The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re like most Americans, you&#8217;re a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known <a href=\"https:\/\/api.fool.com\/infotron\/infotrack\/click?apikey=35527423-a535-4519-a07f-20014582e03e&amp;impression=96b909b3-06d7-4eb5-9a6d-1da558c4c692&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-sa-social-security%2F%3Faid%3D10953%26source%3Disaeditxt0010931%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-retirement%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch_feed_partners%26ftm_pit%3D15161&amp;utm_source=AolDailyFinance&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=e3fcdc2b-4a80-4a1d-b4b9-3d4b1ee3bb64\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:&quot;Social Security secrets&quot;;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">&#8220;Social Security secrets&#8221;<\/a> could help ensure a boost in your retirement income.<\/p>\n<p>One easy trick could pay you as much as $23,760 more&#8230; each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we&#8217;re all after. Join Stock Advisor to learn more about these strategies.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/api.fool.com\/infotron\/infotrack\/click?apikey=35527423-a535-4519-a07f-20014582e03e&amp;impression=96b909b3-06d7-4eb5-9a6d-1da558c4c692&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-sa-social-security%2F%3Faid%3D10953%26source%3Disaeditxt0010931%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-retirement%26ryr-ss-intro-report%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch_feed_partners%26ftm_pit%3D15161&amp;utm_source=AolDailyFinance&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=e3fcdc2b-4a80-4a1d-b4b9-3d4b1ee3bb64\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:View the &quot;Social Security secrets&quot; \u00bb;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">View the &#8220;Social Security secrets&#8221; \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Motley Fool has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/legal\/fool-disclosure-policy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:disclosure policy;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\">disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Points This list is based on what retirees tell The Motley Fool they&#8217;re looking for in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,28,249,251,250,58876,75709,88769,12297,76569],"class_list":["post-191613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-housing-affordability","tag-motley-fool","tag-oldest-city","tag-retirement","tag-retirement-income"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}