Minneapolis Ranked #8 for Best Place to Retire, But Should It Be?

The majority of Americans do not feel comfortable about retirement. Many feel they will be working long after "retirement age." That's not a good sign. That means a lot of folks will either retire living paycheck to paycheck as they say, just like they did most of their lives, or they will die trying to work too hard well past retirement age.

Wallethub did a study of the best places to retire. They looked at four categories: Quality of Life, Affordability, Health Care, and Activities. Then they did a crazy math laden deep dive into those categories and came up with a score.

According to that score -- Minneapolis came in at #8 as the best city to retire in (check out Wallethub's methodology).

There are a couple of those categories listed that ranked high for Minneapolis, that would work well for a retired person.

Activities (Mpls #3):

Naturally, Minneapolis was high on that list. There are tons of museums, music, art galleries, theaters, and sporting events to see.

Health Care (Mpls #9)

Again, of course, it's Minnesota we're talking about here. We have a pretty damn good health care system. Don't believe me? I can give you a list of states to go live in for a while. Let me know what you think of Minnesota's health care after that.

Here's where the issue lies with me.

Affordability (#153):

Wallethub's "deep dive" showed that living in Minneapolis is pretty high. And given that a whole of people that worried about the affordability of retirement. How are they going to afford all those activities that rank so high?

Quality of Life (#42):

According to their breakdown, quality of life factors into employment for retirees. That tells me post retirees are probably having to work more than they should after being retired. Other things didn't convince me that Minneapolis is the place to retire.

But are they just talking about Minneapolis specifically, or are they talking about the surrounding communities/suburbs as well?

I've lived in Minneapolis. I owned a house there in the 1990s. I don't think I would ever want to retire there. Minneapolis is not even in my top 100 cities I would like to retire in -- let alone the top ten.

[source: wallethub.com]