States are ranked by health metrics across the population aged 65 and older, including obesity, smoking, arthritis, mental distress, disability status and more. Read More...
Personal Finance Studies
To further our mission of empowering people to make smarter financial decisions, we regularly produce personal finance studies. Our data experts analyze the numbers on topics related to retirement, investing and wealth. We hope to get people thinking and talking about these topics so they are able to take action and meet their specific financial goals.
Nearly 5,800 firms registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are ranked according to their average account balances. Read More...
While flight price increases have flattened relative to some of the most recent quarters, some airports continue to see fares continue to rise – including 25 major airports that saw fares rise as high as 10% in the last year. Read More...
An aging population in a city has different needs from small businesses and local governments. Dollars are spent differently, and sometimes, imminent retirement also includes planning to move elsewhere – taking those dollars out of the local economy entirely. Read More...
Despite making up only 7% of the adult population in the United States, veterans of the armed forces play an important role in the economy, with higher incomes and lower unemployment than their civilian counterparts. Read More...
Across U.S. states, ultra wealthy Americans have in excess of 10 million dollars net worth. But how much are the wealthiest Americans really worth? Read More...
The child poverty rate fell to an all time low of 5.2%, thanks in large part to federal initiatives like expanding the Child Tax Credit. But an average of 22.51% of children were living below the poverty line across 38 major American cities in 2021. Read More...
Flights can be delayed for a variety of reasons. In May 2023, between 12% and 30% of flights were delayed, depending on the airport. Read More...
To find the best places for those looking for the best of all worlds in the job market, SmartAsset examined employment, income, commute, benefits and affordability data for 340 of the largest U.S. cities. Read More...
To find out where retirees are most and least financially secure, SmartAsset examined poverty, housing, income and government assistance data for the population aged 65 and older for 37 of the largest U.S. cities. Read More...
As the financial advisor field continues to grow, clients have more choices than ever. SmartAsset reviewed thousands of registered investment firms to find the fastest growing firms based on changes in client accounts and assets under management over the last few years. Read More...
Renting in many cities is still significantly more expensive than it was a few years ago – even when the price of buying a home in many of those places has fallen. To see where rent has increased most, SmartAsset examined the most recent available data and compared it with the same data from a year ago. Read More...
A stock market crash can be a scary time for anyone who has their retirement savings invested. We go over some strategies you can use to protect your 401(k). Read More...
Certified financial planners (CFPs) and chartered financial analysts (CFAs) are financial advisors who focus on financial planning and investing, respectively. Read More...
If you're eligible for disability benefits, you may be wondering whether taking them or Social Security benefits is the better option. Learn more here. Read More...
When you're saving for retirement, it can be helpful to know how your peers are doing to see where you stand. Here's the average retirement savings in the U.S. Read More...
If you need nursing home care later in life, asset-based long-term care lets you leverage your death benefit to pay for it. Here's how it works. Read More...
Vanguard and Fidelity are two popular brokerage options. While their fee strucutres are similar, there are some differences between their investment selections. Read More...
A revocable living trust is an estate planning tool that allows you to keep your assets separate and have them managed on a fiduciary basis. Learn more here. Read More...
By using a family trust in your estate plan, you can help protect your wealth for your family's benefit for years to come. Here's how they work. Read More...
If you're planning out your financial future, having $500,000 ready to invest and manage is a great head start. Here are some strategies you can use. Read More...
There are many different types of annuities, including their payout options, return methods, riders and more. We review the pros and cons of each type here. Read More...
If you're looking to speak with your advisor more sporadically, you might want to schedule less frequent one-time check-ins with them. Learn more here. Read More...
Financial advisors who help with investing are investment advisors, but financial advisors do much more than that. Learn about their differences here. Read More...
The ultimate goal for people who have $100,000 is to make that into $1 million so they can comfortably retire. Here's how you can do it. Read More...
The most common fee structures used by financial advisors are fee-only and fee-based. We go over the vital differences between them here. Read More...
Financial planning is often a large part of a financial advisor's job. Here's how to decide whether you need a financial advisor or financial planner. Read More...
Wealth managers are often financial advisors, but the opposite isn't always true. We break down the differences between wealth managers and financial advisors. Read More...
Knowing how much your required minimum distributions, or RMDs, are is a vital part of retirement planning. Learn more here. Read More...
Having $100,000 at your disposal leaves you with many options for helping your finances. We break down how you should go about investing $100,000. Read More...
If you receive an inheritance, one of the first things you'll want to determine is if you'll owe any taxes on it. Learn how much inheritances are taxed here. Read More...
Retirement is the premier goal of most Americans, which makes the services of retirement advisors vital. Learn how to pick a retirement advisor here. Read More...
Christian financial advisors offer very specific types of services that abide by Christian principles. We go over who these services are meant for. Read More...
When you meet with a financial advisor about signing up with them, there are a number of important questions to ask. Here's what you need to know. Read More...
The costs and fees associated with long-term care insurance are largely dependent on the specifics of your situation. Here's how LTC costs vary by age. Read More...
The gift tax is a federal tax on the transfer of assets or property from one person to another for less than full value or no value at all. Learn more here. Read More...
Financial advisors all have their own fees and rates, but there are a few clear types of financial advisor fee structures that most firms use. Learn more here. Read More...
The most important factor in choosing a financial advisor is making sure they're a fiduciary. This will ensure they legally must act in your best interest. Read More...
If a financial advisor is fee-only, that means they receive all of their income directly from clients, as opposed to earning commissions from third parties. Read More...
The average family size decreased by 5% over just two years in major U.S. cities. To see where recent changes in family demographics are most drastic, SmartAsset examined data among 37 major metro areas. Read More...
Nearly one in five Americans 65 and older remained in the labor force. As employment becomes a common component of retirement planning, SmartAsset set out to identify the places where seniors are working most. Read More...
To see where financial advisors earn the most, SmartAsset compared data for 126 cities and ranked them by the median annual income in each – as well as how far those wages go after accounting for taxes and the local cost of living. Read More...
To measure cost changes for basic medical care needs, we compared prices for a basic medical basket, which includes uninsured visits to the doctor, dentist and optometrist – as well as the cost of prescription insulin and a bottle of ibuprofen – in more than 200 U.S. places in 2023 and 2022. Read More...
Retirement income can get taxed like regular income and local costs of living may further dent a fixed cash flow. So where retirees rake in the most money doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story – it’s how far those dollars stretch that make one comfortable throughout retirement. Read More...
The COVID pandemic led to some of the wildest swings in asset values the nation has ever seen. In particular, assets earmarked for retirement – like pensions, IRAs and 401ks – experienced major turbulence, causing a wide spread of results for recent retirees. Ultimately, the value of retirement savings underwent a lasting divergence from the cost of living due to events of the last few years. Read More...
Smaller cities and towns across the country have seen significant population growth in recent years among people aged 65 and older, turning them into up-and-coming destinations for retirement. Read More...
The number of financial advisors is on the rise nationwide. Employment for financial advisors is projected to grow by 15% from 2021 to 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. But some places have higher concentrations of available financial advisors than others. To find out which metro areas have the most financial advisors per capita, SmartAsset crunched the numbers. Read More...
Early retirement may be an aspiration for many U.S. workers, but the COVID-19 pandemic has also forced many Americans to leave the labor force for good prematurely. SmartAsset crunched the numbers to uncover the most affordable cities for an early retirement. Read More...
SmartAsset analyzed the numbers to see which metro areas in the U.S. are seeing the sharpest growth in investing in recent years. Read More...
You work hard to earn your income, but where do you stack up against others in your city and across the country? SmartAsset crunched the numbers to find out where residents need to make the most money to be considered among a city's top earners. Read More...
To find the cities in America where retirees rely most on Social Security, we looked at data for the 100 cities with the largest 65-and-older populations and examined two metrics: Social Security income and Social Security income as a percentage of total retirement income. Read More...
A relatively small proportion of the U.S. population is selling securities like stocks or bonds to make money. Of the roughly 140 million tax returns reporting income and filed with the IRS in 2017, only about 24 million reported capital gains, which is income earned through selling investments or property. This indicates that, whether from lack of savings or information, the majority of Americans do not actively invest. Read More...
The average retirement age for men and women in the U.S. has risen compared to 20 years ago. Between 1995 and 2016, the average retirement age for men rose from 62 to 65 while for women it rose from 60 to 63, according to data from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. These increases stem from a variety of factors, including changes to Social Security, the shift from defined benefit to 401(k) plans and longer life expectancies. However, despite these shifts, many people continue to hope for an early retirement, which is often more feasible with some strategic financial planning and sound guidance from an expert advisor. Read More...
Behind housing costs, travel is often the second-biggest expense for healthy retirees who have a desire to explore. With more spare time, retirees are able to take advantage of visiting both domestic and international destinations. In fact, according to September 2018 survey data, the AARP found that baby boomers expect to take four to five leisure trips in 2019 and plan on spending more than $6,600 on their travels. Read More...
To find the best places in America to start a new business, we analyzed data for the 50 largest metro areas across the following metrics: Read More...
To find the metro areas where residents earned the most from their investments, we looked at data for 200 of the largest metro areas in the U.S. by population. Specifically, we compared them across the following four investment types: taxable interest, ordinary dividends, qualified dividends and capital gains. In each of these investment types, we compared data for three metrics: number of returns with the investment type as a percentage of all tax returns reporting income, the average income for tax returns reporting each type of income and the total amount of income earned from each type of investment as a percentage of all income earned in the metro area. Data for all metrics comes from the IRS and is for 2016. Read More...
To rank the most affordable cities for an early retirement we looked at data for the 80 largest cities in the U.S. Specifically, we compared cities over the following 10 metrics: Read More...
To determine which cities are the best for an active retirement, we analyzed data across 544 of the largest cities in the U.S. based on full data availability. More specifically, we examined seven metrics. The first four metrics focus on metrics relevant to all retirees, while the other three metrics measure how easily a retiree can live an active lifestyle in that location. Read More...
SmartAsset considered 345 cities to find the best place in America for worktirement. We compared the cities across the following nine metrics: Read More...
To determine which states rich people are moving to, we looked at data for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and defined "rich" as individuals with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $100,000 or more. We specifically examined two metrics: Read More...
To determine the rate of return you would need in order to meet your retirement savings goal, we started with a few assumptions: Read More...
In order to determine the best cities to become wealthy, we looked at data on the 100 largest cities in the U.S. We compared those cities across seven metrics. Specifically, we looked at the following: Read More...
To create the final rankings, we found the weighted average of the life expectancy for every Census Tract in the most populous 250 counties. We then ranked the counties from highest to lowest. Data comes from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Read More...
In order to find the places with the most passive income, we looked at data for the 100 largest metro areas. We compared them across the following two metrics: Read More...
In order to rank the places where seniors are prepared for retirement, we looked at data for the 100 cities with the largest 65-or-older population. We then ranked them using the following seven metrics: Read More...
In order to rank the cities that need to plan for retirement the most, we looked at data for 100 cities. Specifically, we ranked the cities across the following five metrics: Read More...
In order to find the states most dependent on the federal government, we looked at data for all 50 states. Specifically, we looked at the following four factors: Read More...
In order to find the places where seniors most rely on Social Security, we looked at data for the 100 cities with the largest 65-and-older populations. Specifically, we looked at the following two metrics: Read More...
In order to find out how much you need to earn to be wealthy in America, we looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2017 1-Year American Community Survey for 100 of the largest cities. We found the minimum income a household could earn to be considered part of the top 20% of earners and ranked the cities from high to low based on this figure. Read More...
In order to rank the places where residents are investing in their IRAs the most, we looked at data for the largest 100 metro areas. Specifically, we compared these metro areas over the three following metrics: Read More...
In order to rank the places where residents are investing the most, we looked at data for the 100 largest metro areas. Specifically, we compared them over the following three metrics: Read More...
To create our ranking of the healthiest pension systems, we looked at data on all fifty states. Specifically, we looked at the following four factors: Read More...
In order to rank the states that use trusts the most, we looked at data for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Specifically, we looked at the three following metrics: Read More...
In order to find the best states for an early retirement, we analyzed data for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Specifically we looked at data for the following seven factors: Read More...
In order to rank the places with the most six-figure earners, we looked at data for the largest 100 metro areas. Specifically, we looked at data for the following two metrics: Read More...
In order to find the savings needed to fund your retirement without Social Security, we looked at data on 25 of the largest metro areas in the U.S. Specifically, we looked at the following two metrics: Read More...
In order to rank the best cities for seniors who love to travel, we looked at data on 54 cities. Specifically, we looked at the following 11 metrics: Read More...
