Sorry Retirees, This Is Not The Place

Every once in a while, a friend or associate will ask me when are you going to retire? I'll admit it, sometimes the idea of shutting down the alarm clock and waking up with the sun at least giving off something more than first light does sound appealing. Leave it to another “list of” story to ruin that.

I've written before about how I should just stop looking at these endless and sometimes mindless compilations and of best for this and worst for that listings, but it's like a moth to the flame.

So, what list has me considering working until I assume room temperature. Well, according to Wallet Hub, if I want to retire in the Beehive State, my best options are Salt Lake City or West Valley City. In fact, those were the only two locations in Utah to make the list.

Sorry, hard pass.

In putting together the list, Wallet Hub used four key dimensions that were affordability, activities, quality of life and health care. They then applied 45 metrics to these dimensions to compile the rankings.

They looked at the 150 most populated cities in the U.S. along with at least the two most populated cities in each state. This might be a factor in why southern Utah was a no show in the rankings.

Now looking at the first five cities on the list, you might think, o.k. That makes sense with four from Florida and one from Arizona. Climate and comfortable weather make those reasonable listings.

But at number six Casper, Wyoming? Look, I love the Cowboy state and the rugged individualism that is there. And, it is the affordability that was the primary factor for Casper to make the list in that higher ranking (affordability also was the leading factor for Cheyenne making the list). That's all well and good but then there's winter.

Peruse the list as you will. Maybe you'll find that bit of heaven for you to put down your final roots and enjoy your leisure time. But for me it won't be San Bernardino, California which also made the list at 179.

Maybe Wallet Hub did us all a favor by ignoring southern Utah. We know how good we have it here, and if we end up keeping it somewhat to ourselves, that might not be such a bad thing.

While Wallet Hub may have given southern Utah the cold shoulder in terms of a place to retire, the ranking and review site Niche.com gave southern Utah a lot of love in ranking the best places to retire within in Utah. Scroll down to see their top 10 places to retire in Utah.