In response to a question at the Carolina Living message board a couple of weeks ago, I suggested that some people focus too much on tax rates when considering where to live. Taxation is just one piece of the cost of living equation, and the most appropriate thing for any of us to do before considering a particular state and town is to assess the entirety of our finances and lifestyles, and then look at the entire cost of living equation.
For example, Tennessee and Florida are no-income-tax states, but if a retiree isn't generating a lot of income, why should he care about a state income tax (especially if she hates traffic jams and wouldn't want to pay higher insurance rates in coastal Florida, for example)? On the other hand, a retired CEO may have large pension and capital gains income and would be foolish not to look seriously at a no- or low-income-tax state.
The point is that total cost of living, or COL, is the more relevant piece of data. There is a particularly helpful chart in the latest issue of Where to Retire magazine, a pleasant surprise since most of the publication reads like a marketing brochure for its advertisers. Page 234/235 of the August issue contains a "Chart of Living Costs," a comparison of 100 cities in the U.S. It is set up like one of those mileage charts on a road map; you find the city you live in currently on the vertical axis, and the one you might move to on the horizontal axis, and the intersection of the two tells you how much higher or lower (by percentage) your cost of living will be. For example, if you are moving from Pittsburgh to Myrtle Beach, your COL will decrease about 5 percent. Move to Wilmington, NC, from Pittsburgh instead, and your COL will increase 5 percent. (Note: Move virtually anywhere from Honolulu and New York City and your COL will drop dramatically.)
The chart was compiled from data supplied by the research firm ACCRA and cross-referenced with chambers of commerce statistics. At ACCRA's web site, you can purchase one single comparison of two cities for $7.95; every comparison after that one, assuming you use the same origination city, is $4.95. The entire August issue of Where to Retire, which includes the chart, is just $4.95 at newsstands (I bought my copy at a Barnes & Noble). The chart is missing some key southern cities for retirement like Savannah (but, oddly, includes Valdosta, GA), and Aiken, SC, but the chart is still a substantial bargain.
Just don't take too seriously the other 260 pages of the magazine. In a few days, I will explain how much of the rest of the August issue of Where to Retire does a disservice to its readers.
