Lincoln County leads Maine in retirement readiness
Lincoln topped Maine's 16 counties in its residents' readiness to retire, according to a recent study by financial technology company SmartAsset. Cumberland County, by comparison, ranked sixth in Maine and 832nd nationally in terms of residents reaching their retirement goals on time.
SmartAsset assembled the rankings by first calculating a wealth-to-expenses ratio, which added the median household wealth and average Social Security income. It then divided that number by the cost of basic expenses. SmartAsset then indexed the resulting ratio to 100, which represented the highest national wealth-to-expenses ratio.
The calculation then gets more complex, as SmartAsset created a tax index for a person with $50,000 to spend each year in retirement, and assumed that $22,000 of that would come from retirement savings or a pension, $19,500 from Social Security and $8,500 from work income.
And, finally, it added the wealth-to-expenses and the tax indexes to get a final number.
The company's website said the indexes reflect how easily county residents are able to accumulate wealth given their cost of living, and where people may have to be concerned about taxes after they retire.
SmartAsset found Lincoln County residents had a median household wealth of $51,341. Some $17,751 would be attributed to Social Security income, while the cost of living would be $19,240. Income tax as a percentage of gross income is 0.85%. The final retirement readiness index for the county is 53.62 out of a total possible score of 100.
Knox County followed with a 48.21 score, Hancock with 46.67, York with 46.64, Kennebec with 44.43, Cumberland with 43.80, Sagadahoc with 43.58, Oxford with 42.99, Waldo with 42.28 and Androscoggin rounded out the Top 10 Maine counties with 41.45.
The remaining Maine counties followed in this order: Piscataquis with 39.97, Somerset with 39.35, Washington with 38.60, Aroostook with 38.15, Franklin with 37.97 and, in last place in Maine, Penobscot with a readiness score of 37.25.
Nationally, Maine's counties didn't do especially well, with Lincoln the top state county ranked at 206th, followed by Knox at 462nd. Penobscot again was last at 1,629th.
In terms of median household wealth, Lincoln again topped Maine's county list and was 151st nationally. Cumberland nudged up to 4th place in that ranking and 494th nationally. Waldo joined the Top 10 at 7th place in Maine, but 749th nationally. And Piscataquis rounded out the Top 10 at 10th in Maine and 1,352nd nationally.
Aroostook County had the highest cost of living in the state, followed by Somerset, Oxford, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Washington, Knox, Franklin, Piscataquis, Penobscot, Hancock, Waldo, Lincoln, Cumberland, York and the lowest, Sagadahoc.
SmartAsset noted that regional and financial factors can influence retirees' planning and goals for retirement.
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