(The Center Square) – A new survey from personal finance company WalletHub reveals 43% of Americans expect to work until they die. The same survey found 50% of people don’t think it’s realistic for the average American to expect to retire comfortably.
WalletHub also ranked the best and worst U.S. cities for retirees and Washington state’s major metro areas showed up near the bottom.
WalletHub compared the retiree-friendliness of more than 180 U.S. cities across 45 key metrics including the cost of living to retired taxpayer-friendliness to the state’s health infrastructure.
Orlando, Fla., came in number one for best city to retire in.
“One big reason for this is the lack of taxes, as Orlando is one of the most tax-friendly cities, and Florida does not have an estate or inheritance tax (or even income tax). In addition, Orlando provides a plethora of recreational activities for retirees,” according to WalletHub’s report.
Scottsdale, AZ is the second best city to retire in according to WalletHub.
San Bernardino, California, came in last place of the 182 cities in the rankings.
The California cities of Stockton, Rancho Cucamonga and Bakersfield rounded out the bottom four.
Seattle came in at 141. Vancouver at 155. Spokane at 164 and Tacoma at 170.
While Seattle scored well (25th) for activities for seniors, the city ranked near last (178th) for affordability, dragging down the rank.
Tacoma also ranked low for affordability at 172nd and 150th for quality of life.
“It’s not surprising because we do a separate study for best and worst states to retire and Washington is 47th out of 50 states,” said WalletHub Analyst Chip Lupo in a Tuesday interview with The Center Square.
Given Washington has no income tax, Lupo said you would think Washington cities would rank higher for retirement potential, but for all the other tax burdens.
“It [Washington] ranks close to the bottom in things such as taxation on retirement income, property purchases, tax breaks for seniors, and it ranks equally as poorly on tax friendliness on estate taxes,” said Lupo.
When it comes to affordability, Seattle ranked 178th, Vancouver comes in 151st and Tacoma at 172nd.
“It’s not taxpayer friendly. It’s not retired taxpayer friendly,” said Lupo. “Seattle sadly has devolved in the last 30 years when it went from this Mecca, from this boomtown and people were flocking because the weather was overall nice and there was a lot to do. And then almost overnight, it just deteriorated from within.”
In WalletHub’s retirement survey, 50% of people said they don’t think it’s realistic for the average American to expect to retire comfortably.
Americans worry about retirement. Nearly 2 in 5 people feel anxious when thinking about retirement.Many people lack a plan. More than 1 in 4 Americans don’t have a retirement plan.Many people may never retire. 43% of people say they expect to work until they die.Debt takes precedence. Most Americans (53%) think paying off debt is more important than making retirement contributions.Dependency risk. More than 1 in 4 Americans are counting on family members to support them financially when they retire.
Lupo said many Americans expect to be working part-time jobs after leaving their full-time positions.
“These negligible cost of living increases don’t even come close to keeping up with the rate of inflation,” said Lupo. “Even if you’re retired from your full-time job, many people are still going to have to look at some other income stream, like a parttime job.”
He noted that 30 years ago in 1995, people on average planned to retire at age 60. According to Newsweek, the average retirement age nationwide in 2024 was 64.
“So, you can imagine that’s probably going to go up a little bit more. There’s a lot of people that are digging themselves out of holes from this inflationary economy we’ve been in for the last four and a half, five years,” said Lupo. “So, that’s put a lot of people’s retirement plans on hold.”
