Choosing the right place to retire is crucial, as it can have a significant impact on your financial stability and overall quality of life in your golden years. While saving for retirement is essential — Fidelity recommends having three times your annual salary saved by age 40, six times by age 50, and ten times by age 67 — where you choose to retire can either safeguard or jeopardize those savings. Many seemingly idyllic retirement spots come with hidden drawbacks that can strain your finances and wellbeing. Factors such as extreme weather, high cost of living, inadequate healthcare facilities, and limited access to essential services can turn a dream retirement into a stressful ordeal. WalletHub recently determined the best and worst cities to retire in the U.S. using criteria including:

• Affordability
• Taxpayer-friendliness
• Annual cost of in-home services
• Annual cost of adult day health care
• Available recreation, including senior centers, fishing facilities, golf courses, museums, theaters, art galleries, book clubs, music venues, bingo halls and volunteer activities
• Elder-friendliness of the labor market
• Share of population aged 65 and older living in poverty
• Walkability
• Weather
• Available health care
• Crime rates
• Strength of elder-abuse protections

In the slideshow above, we'll look at the cities WalletHub has determined are the worst spots in the U.S. for retirees to settle down.

Related:

• The most retiree-friendly U.S. cities
• The retiring agency owner's guide to EBITDA
• Best states for military retirees in 2024