51 Best Cities to Retire on $3,500 a Month

This article takes a look at the 51 best cities to retire on $3,500 a month. If you wish to skip our detailed analysis of the struggle of American workers, you may go to 10 Best Cities to Retire on $3,500 a Month.

The Struggle of American Workers in an Unstable Financial Landscape

According to retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci, the retirement system in the United States of America has left behind the bottom 90% of workers. Unable to support themselves on Social Security benefits and savings, these people often find themselves working into old age. Credit Karma, a financial services firm, reveals that an estimated 27% of people aged 59 or older have no retirement savings at all, further reinforcing the need to work post-retirement to support themselves. These findings are noteworthy considering the Social Security trust fund is all set to be depleted by 2034, resulting in a cut in benefits for the millions of Americans who depend on it.

Of the 67 million retirees depending on Social Security, a depleted trust fund implies that each beneficiary ought to receive only 77 cents for every $1 in benefits- with the poorest Americans being affected the most. However, it’s not that Americans don’t want to save for retirement, but rather that they don’t have an option otherwise. As noted by a retirement survey by The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW), a growing number of US workers are finding it hard to save for retirement altogether. As of 2022, 47% of the respondents in the The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW) survey revealed that they believed they were “very likely” to reach their retirement goals. However, this percentage went down to 37% in a year.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) accurately captures this phenomenon in what they consider to be a “financial vortex”. Due to this financial vortex, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) warns that workers fail to understand what to prioritize, and this is in turn pushing back their retirement by many years. This is true despite many Americans having improved their level of savings in the past year. However, the complex financial landscape, characterized by competing responsibilities like credit card debt, saving for college, and providing financial support to family members, has disrupted savings strategies. This has resulted in a delay in retirement plans by four or more years for 21% of respondents, according to a Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) retirement report.

Story continues

While the above scenario may be true for the bottom 90% of American workers, Empower, a financial services company, reveals that more than half of Americans may be in the job market post-retirement and open to work “indefinitely”. This report implies that while a majority of workers do work for the money after retirement, many more do so for reasons such as personal fulfillment \. Nevertheless, one reality for a large portion of retirees in the US is that they live on fixed incomes. For this reason, they must learn to live on either their social security benefits or an amount that includes their minimal savings. For a certain portion of retirees, this figure is near about $3,500. Having covered lists for the best places to retire on $3,000 a month, best places to retire on $2,000 a month, and even best places to retire on $1,500 a month, let’s see what the best places to retire on $3,500 a month are.

Copyright: sepavo / 123RF Stock Photo

Methodology

To compile the list of best cities to retire on $3,500 a month, we updated our previous list of best places to retire on $3,500 a month. Next, we added more cities from sources such as Nasdaq, US News Real Estate, and a few others. After compiling a list, we ranked the cities on their cost of living index, average rent, median home price, and livability scores. Livability scores have been taken from Area Vibes, the cost of living index is from Best Places, rents are from sources such as Zillow and Zumper, while the median home price is from Redfin, Realtor, etc. Scores were summed up for each place and places were ranked in an ascending order from the lowest to the highest scores.

By the way, Insider Monkey is an investing website that tracks the movements of corporate insiders and hedge funds. By using a similar consensus approach, we identify the best stock picks of more than 900 hedge…