Mississippi Certifies Retirement (MS)

www.mississippi.org/retire

The State of Mississippi would like everyone to consider Mississippi an ideal place for retirement. Specifically, it would like you to consider retiring in any of its 19 "hometown" communities that have everything from winding roads, shade trees, lovely plantation architecture, golf, top-notch medical facilities and welcoming neighbors to draw you in.

Screenshot

A Retirement Haven

Mississippi Living Hometown Retirement, a program of the Mississippi Division of Tourism, is one way the state is attracting visitors. The others are more conventional: group and convention travel, film and video locations, and tourist destinations such as sports events, entertainment, gaming, blues music concerts and cultural heritage sites.

With comparatively low cost of living rates, low housing prices, health care costs that are 11 percent below the national average, and exemption from taxes on qualified retirement income, Mississippi is economically attractive to retirees. An average annual temperature of 65 degrees and year-round recreational activities help too!

Furthermore, colleges and universities in certified retirement cities waive or reduce tuition for retirees, and some have Institutes for Learning in Retirement that offer courses for nominal annual membership fees, luncheon lectures and other cultural activities.

Certified Retirement Cities Facts and Figures

To qualify as a Certified Retirement City, a community has to pass an extensive, three-month screening process that evaluates it on the basis of the following criteria judged important to retirees. These include:
Among those certified thus far are communities, including some recognizable names, offering a wide variety of landscape and characteristics:
An overview page provides links to a page on each of the cities. There, you'll read highlights of what each city has to offer and see a table of relevant "facts and figures." An interactive map showing all the cities links to the same community overviews.

Aberdeen, for example, has been named one of the "10 Great Small Towns for Retirement" by Travel 50 and Beyond magazine and boasts over 220 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. The average cost of a new, 2000 square foot brick home on a half acre of land is only $90,000.

Recipes "Seasoned to Perfection"

Each month, the Hometown Retirement program posts "Secrets of Mississippi Kitchens, a selection of recipes from cooks in certified retirement communities. This month you'll find recipes for curried fruit, buttered pecans, ambrosia dessert, cream cheese and bacon ring and a blue cheese log. You have to capture these while they're online because there appears to be no recipe archive.

Posted by WWC: January 17, 2005   Permalink