It's time to get the heck out of our hometown...
Stansberry Research is located in Baltimore, Maryland. It's our hometown. Most of our employees live here and have called the Old Line State home their whole lives.
But in every edition of my report, "Best States for Your Retirement," Maryland has ranked near the bottom or dead last, as it did in 2022.
I'd like to imagine we're here suffering on your behalf, so you don't have to retire here. Luckily, I'm the only one on my team even close to the possibility of retirement... and it won't be in Maryland! (The state has made some progress, though... It's still in the bottom 10, but it's no longer among the very worst.)
Longtime readers might be familiar with my report on where you should retire. For the 2026 edition, my team spent months analyzing data on nine major categories, including:
- Taxes on retirees
- Health care costs
- Housing rates
- Crime
- Livability
- And more...
And while we're looking for the states that are worth your retirement years, we also detail the five worst states for your retirement...
While my team is happy that Maryland only made it into the bottom 10 of this year's list, there are five states that, if you live in one, you need to take a hard look at where you want to spend your golden years:
- California
- Mississippi
- New Jersey
- Oregon
- Washington
Three of these states – California, New Jersey, and Washington – have some of the highest tax rates, health care costs, and costs of living in the country.
Oregon is another expensive place to live, and it has more polluted air than every other state but California (and without the mitigating factor of its southern neighbor's warmer weather).
And while Mississippi's low costs might be tempting, there's a good reason it's cheap to live there. It ranked last in health care quality and health behavior, and it scored in the bottom 10 in livability.
Take a look...
Across the board, these states were low in nearly every category (most just missing ranking in the bottom 10 in each category). Mississippi, New Jersey, and Oregon all ranked dead last in two categories.
If you live in one of these worst states, get out before retirement.
Whatever your situation for retirement, making a move is a big decision. This will likely be the last move of your lifetime. Whether you make the decision as a way to save money, move to a climate you like better, or move closer to the grandkids, you want to make sure you have as much information as possible to make the best choice.
That's why my team and I began publishing our Best States to Retire report in 2014. I constantly travel around the country, so I can give you a boots-on-the-ground opinion. Additionally, my research team has spent months crunching the numbers on crime rates... hospital quality... taxes... and much, much more. We pored over research and data on every state to compile our list of the best states for retirement.
Retirement should be a time to relax and enjoy your time without worrying about money. That's why taking the time to weigh all your options is worthwhile. We've done all the legwork for you. We want you to use the data in this report to figure out what's most important to you and make the best decision for you.
Click here to get your copy of the 2026 edition of our "Best States for Your Retirement" report.
What We're Reading...
- Something different: Science has found even more ways coffee is good for you.
Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
May 7, 2026