The 10 Worst States for Retirees in 2012 suggests retiring “up north” may have its drawbacks.
For Minnesotans, retiring “up north” means Canada. How’re things up there?
pfft The article is just one long complaint about taxes. If you have nothing more in your life than to say that a place is “worst” because of taxes alone, then you have some seriously messed up priorities in life.
Yes! Finally. A “Bad state” list that doesn’t contain Michigan.
What are retirees supposed to complain about, if not taxes? The quality of the schools?
Pretty good, actually. 
Who the hell retires up north? I thought everyone moved south or snowbirded when they retired?
Me and my wife. Lived all our lives in San Diego, retired after 30+ years in our respective careers, retired 7 years ago and moved to northern Idaho. We love it.
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Are you near Kamiah? Say hi to my Mom.
Idaho has been doing outreach to California retirees for decades, now.
We’ll be retiring up north. We live in southern MN now and hope to get some land up in the Arrowhead (the pointy northeastern part) and retire up there. It gets too hot here for us and there aren’t enough trees or lakes.
The climate isn’t enough?
A lot of Minnesotan’s retire “Up North” I can think of two or three retired people I know living permanently “at the cabin.”
And for most of them, they don’t make enough money to get hit with Minnesota income tax. Having to worry about your state tax rate when you retire is one of those problems for the 5%.
News flash: Elderly people with limited incomes don’t want to retire in cold or expensive places!
Why thank you, article, for pointing this out to me.
That’s what we did: moved south from Alaska to Oregon.
All these rankings are bogus. Marketwatch chooses what to put in the rankings and what weight to give them. The slightest change to these gives wildly inconsistent results.
Not to mention the fact that there are intangibles that can’t be quantified. And that some people like cold climates.
But kushiel, without this article, how would I ever have known that those cold and expensive places turn out to be northern metropolises?
Well, it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of people moving TO cold and snowy when they retired before this.
That’s one of the reasons we’re doing it ;). We don’t want to live around a bunch of old people. They’ll complain about our dogs and send inspectors over to make us rearrange our junk.
Tons of people live on lakes in northern Minnesota (and Wisconsin) for half the year and spend the other half in Florida. Best of both worlds. I’ve spoken to plenty of people who live in Canada or New England in the summer and Florida during the winter too.
The list is correct but the reasons are wrong. Its bad to retire in the North because its fucking cold
No kidding!
Actually “up north” here in Michigan means…further north, even the UP (Upper Peninsula.) And I do know people who retire “Up North” here; it’s not that uncommon. Extremely cheap real estate and property taxes, very clean air and water, decent access to medical care.
I assure you that if I decide to move somewhere after retirement, it’s not going to be somewhere hot, buggy or filled with other old people!