If living the beach life is your retirement dream, but you don't want to spend a fortune every month, you'll be glad to know it's still possible to make it happen without leaving the U.S.
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To determine the best beach cities to live on a budget, GOBankingRates used Sperling's Best Places to research the cost-of-living index scores for groceries, utilities and healthcare. Next, it used 2020 customer expenditure data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find the annual cost for these expenses in any given city, coming in at $2,600 or less.
Average monthly rent for each of the best beach cities was sourced from ApartmentList, whereas livability scores, which had to be 65 or higher, were gathered from AreaVibes. Also, cities had to have a population that included 10% or more over the age of 65, according to the Census Bureau.
A few cities -- such as Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia -- would have made the list, but their livability scores were just below the minimum of 65. Other cities, like San Diego and Virginia Beach, were excluded because their total monthly expenditures exceeded $2,600.
Read on to find out more about the best beach cities to retire on $2,600 a month -- most of which are located in one particularly sunny state.
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