Free tool · for anyone weighing where to retire
Where-to-Retire Web Scorer
Compare two places you might retire to side by side, weighted by what matters to your household. Every “best places to retire” list ranks somewhere for an average retiree who does not exist — yours has your grandchildren in it, your doctors, and your actual tax situation. This free scorer turns that into something you can see. It handles the money differently from everything else, on purpose: cost and taxes are the two criteria where LOWER is better, so it will not let you hand-rate them. Enter what a year in each place would cost you and what the state and county would take of it, and the scorer converts both onto the same 1–5 scale as healthcare, family, climate and lifestyle. Use it right here in your browser, or download the starter scorecard to keep.
The money — enter dollars, not ratings
Cost and taxes are the two criteria where lower is better, so this tool won't let you hand-rate them. Enter what a year in each place would cost you all in — housing, insurance, utilities, everyday spending, healthcare, taxes and the trips home — and it converts them onto the same 1–5 scale as everything else.
| Criterion | Weightyours to set | Near the grandchildren | Warm and coastal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of Living (auto)Rating computed from the annual cost above — never guessed. The weight is still yours. | 5.0 | 1.0 | |
| Tax Burden (auto)Rating computed from the tax bill above — a slice of the cost, not separate money | 1.0 | 5.0 | |
| Healthcare Access & QualityThe care you'll need at eighty-five, not sixty-five | |||
| Proximity to Family & FriendsHow often you'll really make the trip — both ways | |||
| Climate & WeatherThe whole year, including the month nobody visits in | |||
| Lifestyle & Sense of PlaceWhether you'd actually enjoy an ordinary Tuesday |
Weights total: 100 — balanced.
A note on comparing only two. With two locations the cost rows can only come out as 5 and 1 — there's nothing in between for them to land on. Add a third candidate and the ratings spread out on the real size of the gap instead, which is usually where the answer changes. The full workbook holds five, works out each one's annual cost for you from a built-in reference covering all 50 states and DC, and names what your best-fit place costs over your cheapest.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the files.
What it does
- Computes the Cost of Living and Tax Burden ratings from the dollars you enter — never from a guess — so a cheap place can't win the comparison just by being cheap.
- Lets you weight all six criteria by how much each matters to your household, then scores two locations across all of them at once — you set every weight; only the two cost ratings are computed.
- Applies the same 3% materiality floor the full workbook uses: if the two annual costs are within a rounding error of each other, both score 3 rather than manufacturing a five-point swing.
- Opens on a worked example where the cheaper place carries the heavier tax bill, so you can see why the two have to be counted separately.
- Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere, and nothing is saved.
Own it, don't rent it
Weighing more than two places?
This free scorer weighs two locations, and you supply the money yourself. The full Where-to-Retire Decision Helper compares up to five — including staying exactly where you are — across ten criteria you weight, and works out each one's annual cost for you: property tax at that state's own rate, insurance, HOA fees, utilities, healthcare, state taxes, the trips home and the one-time cost of moving. A built-in reference covering all 50 states and DC does the property-tax, sales-tax and retirement-treatment lookups — for the states with a graduated income tax it hands you the top rate and asks for your own effective rate rather than inventing a bracket. Results & Ranking then names what your best-fit place costs over your cheapest, per year and across your whole horizon. An 8-tab workbook you keep (Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice) plus four guides.
With only two candidates the cost rows can only come out as 5 and 1 — add a third and they spread out on the real size of the gap, which is usually where the answer changes. A one-time purchase you keep and rerun in three years when something does.
A decision aid, not tax, financial, legal or real-estate advice, and not a substitute for a tax preparer or a state's revenue department. A weighted score is a tool for thinking, not a verdict. The example locations are fictional. Free to use; please don't resell or redistribute.