Looking to retire?
You might want to consider selling your house in Nevada and moving to Florida or Colorado.
Personal finance site WalletHub says Florida and Colorado with their relative abundance of doctors and low tax burden top the list of best states to retire.
Nevada, well we’re 35th in the latest rankings.
The Silver State gets high marks for affordability, but ranks near the bottom in terms of quality of life and medical care.
"With Nevada, there is a little bit of a doctor shortage. So, that is no good for anyone - especially the elderly - not a lot of home health aids per capita, no top-rated geriatrics hospitals, even the quality of public hospitals, in general, could be a lot better," said Jill Gonzalez with WalletHub.
As far as quality of life, WalletHub looked at the number of retirees in the community, the number of seniors living in poverty and those struggling with food insecurity, which were about average for the state.
"Even things like shoreline mileage, museums, theaters, golf course per capita, all of those numbers are just a lot higher in a lot of other states," she said.
Another area where Nevada is lacking, according to the survey, is in the elderly-friendly job market. Gonzalez said many seniors aren't really sure how far their retirement savings is going to get them and they should look for a place that has opportunities for employment - if needed.
Trying to figure out how much money you'll need to live during retirement can be one of the trickiest parts of the process.
Paul Couch is a financial advisor for City National Bank. He told KNPR's State of Nevada that a good rule of thumb is to be prepared to have access to about 80 percent of your pre-retirement salary.
"You kind of want to work it backwards," Couch said, "We want to determine what are our monthly expenses going to be in retirement. You want to take in a number of factors... health care is a big part of that. You want to take a look at your social security benefits or other retirement benefits that are going to be available to you and get a general ballpark figure of what you're going to need on a monthly basis."
He said once you have that number you need to decide what nest egg is available to generate the money to pay for those expenses. He said the ideal situation is to use the nest egg to generate income, but to preserve the principle, you shouldn't plan on taking more than 4 to 5 percent annually.
Couch said it is vital to start saving as soon as possible. Even a few dollars a month will add up over time. For workers who can access a 401K retirement account through work, he encourages people to use it and get the maximum match from the company.
Most larger businesses do offer retirement plans, but for smaller businesses, the AARP would like the state to help set up a public-private partnership to create auto-401Ks that any business owner can sign up for but don't have to set up themselves.
"If people can save through payroll deductions, it is an easy way for them to do it and they do it," said Barry Gold, director of advocacy at AARP in Nevada.
He said only about 5 to 6 percent of people on their own set up a 401K account but when it is set up for them and the money comes directly from their paycheck the number goes up 60 to 70 percent.
AARP is planning to lobby the Nevada Legislature to create the program and he believes small businesses will support it.
"We did a business survey and small business owners overwhelming said they would like to do that," Gold said, "They would like to offer this because they can't do it on their own. They can't afford it. They don't have the time and it would let them compete with those big businesses that do offer something like that."
RESOURCES
Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Retirement
Jill Gonzalez, analyst, Wallet Hub; Paul Couch, financial advisor, City National Bank; Barry Gold, director of advocacy, AARP in Nevada.