(mellow guitar music)
- [Briggs] Do you like the heat,
the humidity and saving money?
Keep watching.
What is going on, everyone?
Welcome back to the "World According to Briggs,"
and another video on where you can live
in the United States for under $1,500 a month.
This is the third video of the series.
If this is your first time to the series
I'll give you the rundown
of why we settled on $1,500 a month.
Plenty of Americans are going into retirement
where their only source of income
is a monthly social security check,
which is in the neighborhood of $1,500 a month on average.
The average worker in the United States
makes about double that.
If you retire from the military after 20 years,
you see about $2,500.
If you were enlisted and on the officer side,
you see about $4,700 a month on average.
So $1,500 being the lowest,
if you slip into any of those categories,
which most of you should fall into one of them,
living on $1,500 a month is doable.
Today's list is decent towns in the Southern United States
where you only need about $1,500 to live comfortably.
Let's see what we found.
Number 10, Kingston, Tennessee,
Kingston has its roots in a fort called Southwest Point,
which was built just south of present day Kingston
in 1792 on the Clinch River.
At the time, this was as far southwest
legally the white man could go.
And stop typing, I just said, white man.
I could have said Euro Americans, European settlers,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Everyone knows what I'm talking about.
Being offended isn't a skill.
I just had some jackaloon cry,
because I said having to wear a Chuck E. Cheese outfit
and dance for minimum wage was humiliating.
He failed to understand that is humiliating.
Ask any 18-year old whose friends found out
that that's what they do for a living.
It is humiliating.
Coincidentally, there's no Chuck E. Cheese in Kingston.
You gotta go towards Knoxville for that kind of action.
Kingston has about 6,000 residents,
low crime, good schools, a livability score of 84,
and a very low cost of living.
Rent here for a one bedroom,
there's not a bunch of apartments,
but on average it's $702 a month
for a one bedroom apartment.
And you only need about $1,490
on average to live comfortably here.
Number nine, Frankfort, Kentucky.
Frankfort is the capital of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Yes, they're a commonwealth, not a state.
It's not much of a difference.
If living around people from your generation
that remember black and white television matters to you,
I got good news.
Almost 20% of the population of Frankfort is over 65.
Frankfort isn't just for retirees though.
They have plenty to do,
the crime isn't terrible,
and neither are your job opportunities.
They're not the best, but they have some work there.
Frankfort has about 25,000 residents.
And rent on a one bedroom apartment will run you about $697.
That's not bad for a capital city.
Your total monthly expenditures on average is $1,470.
That's not bad.
Frankfort's a nice town.
I was there years ago, but it's been many years actually,
probably over 20.
But it was a nice town, I'm sure not a lot has changed.
Number eight, Englewood, Florida.
Englewood is another city that's heavy on retirees.
It's in between Fort Myers and Sarasota on Lemon Bay,
which is on the west side of Florida, on the Gulf side.
Over half of the city's residents are retirees.
That's how a lot of the towns in Florida are.
They have a livability score of 77,
and the rent on a one bedroom apartment on average is $800.
They have some that are so much more expensive,
but they have a lot that are lower, so the average is $800.
That's a little bit higher than other rents on this list,
but thanks to low taxes and other factors,
you only need about $1,461 a month
to live comfortably in Englewood.
Now what's weird about this place,
I wanna call it Inglewood.
I grew up in Southern California.
We have a place called Inglewood, it's spelled with an I.
I see this Englewood and it's weird.
I've heard several people call it Inglewood
and I've also heard other people call it Englewood.
Yeah, I don't know if you can tell the difference.
There's a difference there to some of them.
Who knows? Moving on.
Number seven, Benton, Louisiana.
Benton is about 30 minutes north of Shreveport, Louisiana.
This is a nice, rural town
with great stats other than employment.
So if you're retired or you're bringing a job with you,
you know, work remotely, this is a perfect place.
If you're looking for a job, probably not so much.
There's no apartments in Benton,
but this area on average a one bedroom
goes for somewhere around $684 a month.
They did get a good tornado here about 20 years ago,
so that's kind of scary.
On April 3rd, 1999, a powerful F4 tornado
made its way through town,
killing six people and injuring 90.
A mobile home park, located south of town,
was hit pretty hard.
I don't know what it is,
but whenever you see a tornado
it's always a mobile home park just got trashed.
They've got some kind of thing
that draws in tornadoes, who knows?
Anyway to live here comfortably
you're gonna need about $1,420 a month, not bad.
Number six, Russellville, Arkansas.
Okay, once you get past the fact you're living in Arkansas,
this is a nice option to relocate and save some money.
It doesn't have the best crime stats,
but it's not crazy bad and it's getting better.
Their year-over-year numbers
are trending in the right direction with crime.
This is one of the bigger cities
you can live in for under $1,500 a month.
They have almost 30,000 residents
and Russellville is right on the Arkansas River,
not too far from the Ozark National Forest.
Rent here is only $672 a month on average,
and you can live comfortably on $1,400 a month.
Number five, Dalton, Georgia.
Dalton, Georgia is almost
an hour and a half north of Atlanta
and almost 30 minutes south of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
So you have two good options
if you wanna go to a bigger city for some reason.
Dalton is a good sized city with almost 35,000 residents.
And it's not a good place to be looking for a job,
that's one of their only knocks
is they don't really have jobs.
Their crime is decent.
Schools are okay.
Their cost of living is very low.
And if you're looking for cheap rent,
you've come to the right place.
The average rent here for a one bedroom is $647 a month.
That's not bad.
You only need $1,375 to live here comfortably.
Number four, Calhoun, Georgia.
Staying in Georgia, we have the town of Calhoun.
Calhoun is home to about 17,000 residents
and some well-preserved,
turn of the century, southern architecture.
This is a nice looking place.
They got some really nice buildings on the main street.
Calhoun has gained population every single census
since they showed up on the census count
in 1880 with 510 people.
Most of them were related to a dude named Jebediah
and he had a really cool beard.
Calhoun is in between Dalton and Atlanta,
and they have nice middle of the road stats
until you get to the cost of living and housing.
Those are both great rent.
Here will run you about $632 a month on average,
and you'll need about $1,370 here to live comfortably
and enjoy Calhoun and their livability score of 73.
Number three, Mocksville, North Carolina.
Right off the bat, I gotta tell you
both the Carolinas were hard to get on this list.
They have some really cheap cities and towns,
but almost all of them suck pretty bad.
The good ones are too expensive
and both states have some incredibly nice,
but they're just a little too spendy for this list.
Mocksville, on the other hand, is a solid choice.
Stats are good across the board,
nice American main street,
and the standard issue old folks
in front of the ice cream place, America.
If you wanna live in this Norman Rockwell type town,
rent will run you about $613 a month on average.
And you're looking at about $1,350
a month to live comfortably.
Mocksville is about an hour north of Charlotte.
Mocksville has a livability score of 71.
Number two, Decatur, Alabama.
Decatur is one of those cities that make you wonder
where all those Alabama stereotypes come from.
Like if you just landed in Decatur
and no place else in Alabama,
you're all, "What is everyone talking about?
The people aren't hicks."
Decatur's a nice southern town that is growing and advancing
while not getting too far from its southern roots.
In other words, this town doesn't have many rednecks.
If you do see 'em, they're probably just in town
to pick up some hog pellets.
This is the first place on this list
to get below $600 in rent.
You can expect to pay around $590
for a bedroom apartment in Decatur.
Throw in very low grocery costs,
and this could be a good place to save some money.
To live comfortably in Decatur, Alabama,
you need about $1,340 a month.
Rent is $590, like I'd said.
And the livability scores?
74, not a bad choice.
(upbeat music)
And before we get to number one,
don't forget to hit that like button,
hit that subscribe button, join our community.
It really helps out the channel
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All right, on to number one.
And number one, Columbia, Mississippi.
I'll wait for you to get back into your chair
and close your mouth.
In case you think you misheard something,
I did say Mississippi.
The Magnolia State is in the number one spot
for a few reasons.
Columbia's another nice southern town
with the main street lined with old,
well-kept brick buildings, for the most part.
They have some stinkers along main street,
but for the most part it looks pretty nice.
Columbia was officially incorporated on June 25th, 1819,
becoming the fourth municipality in the entire state.
It served as the temporary capital of Mississippi
from November, 1821 until early 1822.
This is also the birth place
and where Walter Payton was raised.
Sweetness, one of the greatest running backs
ever to play the game.
Yeah, he was born and raised here.
Columbia is about 45 minutes west of Hattiesburg
and not too far from the Louisiana border to the south.
The average rent in Columbia is $585 a month.
And to live comfortably here,
you only need $1,250, that's it.
There's a lot of things wrong with Mississippi.
Being expensive isn't one of 'em.
I mean, yeah, sure, down by the Gulf,
you can get into some expensive places,
but Mississippi is a very inexpensive state to live in.
(upbeat music)
All right, that's our list.
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Hope you got some information out of it.
This is number three of this list.
We're gonna do at least three more of these videos,
so stay tuned for those.
I really hope these videos are helping some of you out.
I mean, there's a chance this country's gonna be heading
into some tough financial times
and this might help some of you,
and I really hope it does.
All right, everybody have a great day.
Be nice to each other.
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