The Financial Planning website, SmartAsset.com earlier this month, released their list of top places to Retire in Alabama. Greenville and Attalla topped the list. Tallassee was listed third (up from seventh a year ago) and ahead of Wetumpka, Guntersville and Fairhope.
Harvest, Boaz, Roanoke and Florence rounded out the top 10.
This is the sixth study by the New York-based SmartAsset. In the 2020 study, Wetumpka was sixth and Tallassee was seventh.
From the SMARTASSET.COM release: “Achieving retirement is a life goal for almost every, and each person has a different idea of how they’ll spend their non-working time. Some want to travel the world, while others want to relax by a lake.’
Given Tallassee’s proximity to the interstate, major highways and three unique fisheries the city of around 4,800 seems the perfect spot to live that life.
The study was conducted, and results determined by measuring tax friendliness, availability of medical care and social opportunities for seniors.
You can see the study results, methodology and interactive map here:
https://smartasset.com/retirement/retirement-calculator#Alabama
Methodology (FROM SMARTASSET.COM)
To find the best places to retire, SmartAsset gathered data on three separate regional factors that affect the quality of life for retirees, including tax-friendliness, medical care, and social opportunities.
First, we looked at state and local tax rates, considering two types of taxes: income and sales. We calculated effective rates based on a retiree earning $35,000 annually (from retirement savings, Social Security, and part-time employment). We subtracted income taxes paid from the gross income to determine disposable income. Sales taxes paid were calculated based on the disposable income being spent on taxable goods.
Next, we determined the number of doctors’ offices, recreation centers and retirement centers per thousand residents in each location. Finally, we measured the number of seniors in each city as a percentage of the total population.
In our final analysis, we ranked each location on these three factors. Then we calculated an average ranking for each area and weighted the three factors equally. The areas with the highest average ranking were determined to be the best places to retire.