Long Island Retirement: An Expensive Proposition

By Richard Bambrick

Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com

An annual retirement income of $34,000 in Charleston, SC will go as far as $50,000 a year will take you in Nassau County on Long Island. In St. George, Utah, a desert community near Zion National Park, it only takes $32,000 a year to get as much as $50,000 will buy in Nassau.

So, why would anybody retire in Nassau County?

The decision to retire on Long Island or move somewhere else is largely a financial one. The cost of living on the island is formidable. In fact, using a CNNMoney.com “Cost of Living Comparison Calculator,” it is difficult to find it is difficult to find places more expensive to live. Manhattan is one. You will need $71,400 to match the lifestyle $50,000 gets you in Nassau. In San Francisco, it takes $60,200 to match the $50,000 Long Island life, while Los Angeles is just a touch more espensive than the Island’s computed cost of living at $52,100. Washington, DC and Boston are lower at $47,100 and $46,600 respectively, and Palm Springs, Calif., a high-end retirement mecca, is only $41,000, but you can usually get a tee time at the golf club.

Charleston and St. George were not selected here simply because of the dramatic differences in cost of living contrasted with Nassau County. Both cities appear on AARP’s annual list of the top five “Dream Towns” in which to retire. The list also includes Las Cruces, N.M.; Rehoboth Beach, Del.; and Memphis, Tenn. According to AARP: “these are five cities that offer culture, cachet, or, in some cases, just peace and quiet.”

The AARP website can be a valuable tool in finding a suitable place to retire. Along with articles such as “Dream Towns,” there is a location scout tool which gathers your preferences for such things as climate, region, affordability, lifestyle, recreation, healthcare, and even the availability of retirement jobs. It then spits out 10 suitable cities or towns for you in America.

Used in combination with CNN Money’s cost-of-living calculator, these tools can quickly offer a breakdown of the financial realities of staying on Long Island as compared to retiring to some other specific community. For instance, in Las Cruces, N.M., one of AARP’s retirement “dream towns,” a retirement income of $34,000 will match $50,000 in Nassau. The CNN cost-of-living calculator tells you that groceries in Las Cruces will average 22.6 percent less than in Nassau, and housing costs will be 51.4 percent less. Moreover, utilities in the New Mexico town are 23.4 percent less, transportation 19.1 percent less, and healthcare is 19.1 percent less.

In the few areas like Manhattan and San Francisco where the cost of living is higher than Nassau County, it is always the housing category that pushes the number up. Housing in Manhattan is 93 percent higher than in Nassau, and in San Francisco it is just over 50 percent higher. The other categories are relatively comparable.

Clearly, it is an expensive proposition to retire on Long Island, particularly in Nassau County. Suffolk County is a little more affordable, but if you grew up or raised your family in Nassau, Suffolk is simply “out east.” If you’re going to move anyway, it might make sense to research the rest of the country.