12 Kentucky Towns Where Retirees Live Like Millionaires on Social Security

Kentucky takes nothing out of your Social Security check. In this video we run twelve Kentucky towns on one modest check, $1,600 a month, and count down to the town where that margin is still wide and you would actually want to spend it: Carrollton, Winchester, Danville, Berea, Morehead, Corbin, Middlesboro, Monticello, Campbellsville, Glasgow, Mayfield and Murray. Living like a millionaire on Social Security is not about a pile in the bank. It is margin: the gap between what lands at the start of the month and what is gone before the end of it. Kentucky subtracts Social Security from your state return, gives pensions, annuities, IRAs and 401(k)s an exclusion of up to $31,110 per person, taxes what is left at a flat 3.5 percent in 2026, and at 65 knocks $49,100 off your home's assessed value through the homestead exemption. Sales tax is 6 percent. Every figure comes from the Kentucky Department of Revenue's own forms and pages. Every town gets the same treatment. The 2024 median home value from the census tables (from about $110,000 in Middlesboro to about $232,000 in Berea), the yearly property tax, one named hospital, one earned detail you would not find on a brochure, and the honest part: the poverty rate, the town that is still rebuilding after the December 2021 tornado, the town built inside a meteorite crater, the town that calls itself the Houseboat Capital of the World, and the soft drink bottled in the same Bluegrass town since 1926. Then number one: the town the judges named the Friendliest Small Town back in 2012, with a hospital carrying the county's name, a public bus for the day you hand over the keys, and a ballgame worth the ticket. Kentucky Secrets is the channel for people thinking about moving to Kentucky, retiring in Kentucky, or arguing about their own state. Small towns, lake towns, hidden history and county fights, every fact sourced and every place name pronounced the way the locals say it. If you are enjoying the video, subscribing helps us keep driving these roads. Which Kentucky town did we get wrong, and which one did we miss? Put your county in the comments. Keep watching for the best places to retire in Kentucky on Social Security, cheap small towns in Kentucky with a hospital, Kentucky retirement taxes explained, Kentucky property tax and the homestead exemption at 65, affordable Kentucky lake towns, and the Kentucky towns retirees are choosing instead of Tennessee. CHAPTERS 0:00 Tennessee is full 0:50 The tax talk, said once 1:42 12. Carrollton 3:19 11. Winchester 5:13 10. Danville 6:45 9. Berea 8:08 8. Morehead 9:27 7. Corbin 10:57 6. Middlesboro 12:31 5. Monticello 13:43 4. Campbellsville 14:51 3. Glasgow 16:21 2. Mayfield 18:08 1. Murray #kentucky #retirement #socialsecurity #retireinkentucky #smalltowns