Best State To Retire

Lots of factors go into the best state to retire in but for the purposes of this article, lets look at property taxes.  When you retire, hopefully your house is paid for and after that, depending where you live, your property taxes could very well be your biggest annual bill.  Here are state property tax rates.  The lower the better so while Texas is a great place to make your money with no state income tax, it is a lousy state to retire to with the highest property tax in the nation.  A $400,000 house will pay over $10,000 annually in property tax!

State-by-State Property-Tax Rates

State Average Property Tax Rate United States 1.38 Alaska 1.80 Alabama 0.65 Arkansas 0.88 Arizona 1.21 California 0.68 Colorado 1.08 Connecticut 1.72 District of Columbia 1.31 Delaware 0.68 Florida 1.20 Georgia 1.52 Hawaii 0.40 Iowa 2.15 Idaho 1.42 Illinois 1.79 Indiana 2.12 Kansas 2.09 Kentucky 0.96 Louisiana 1.02 Massachusetts 1.07 Maryland 1.06 Maine 1.75 Michigan 1.91 Minnesota 1.27 Missouri 1.42

State Average Property Tax Rate Mississippi 1.44 Montana 1.65 North Carolina 1.10 North Dakota 1.84 Nebraska 2.15 New Hampshire 2.21 New Jersey 1.78 New Mexico 0.72 Nevada 0.83 New York 1.76 Ohio 1.81 Oklahoma 1.03 Oregon 1.22 Pennsylvania 1.70 Rhode Island 1.52 South Carolina 1.38 South Dakota 1.96 Tennessee 1.07 Texas 2.57 Utah 1.31 Virginia 1.12 Vermont 2.06 Washington 1.13 Wisconsin 2.09 West Virginia 0.95 Wyoming 2.18

Investing Overseas Is Dangerous

I am asked on occasion about investing overseas in both established markets and emerging markets.


While it is tempting to invest in markets such as China, India, Brazil, Korea etc, it is also quite risky.


Besides the obvious risk inherent to investing in companies in countries outside the US that have much less stringent reporting requirements, there is also a currency risk.


The news lately has centered around established countries within the Euro zone and that has turned out to be a very dangerous place to invest.

I tell people that when you invest in a broad based US index fund, see VTI, then you are already getting some international and emerging market exposure since the companies within such as Caterpillar, IBM, McDonald's, Exxon & GE are already investing in those countries.
Stay tuned.