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by Olivia Hughes - January 17, 2021

Cities With the Best Work-Life Balance â 2021 Edition

For most people, working is inevitable: You need a job to afford your lifestyle. The trick, of course, is to find a balance where you can earn the money you need without spending all of your time in the workplace. Some of that depends on what the work culture is like in your city, how much you need to earn to pay for housing and how long you have to spend getting to work. To that end, SmartAsset analyzed 100 of the biggest cities in the country to find the best cities for work-life balance for 2021.

To do so, we considered data on the following metrics: walk score; arts, entertainment and recreation establishments as a percentage of all establishments; restaurants as a percentage of all establishments; housing costs as a percentage of income; average weeks worked per year; average hours worked per week; average commute time; percentage of workers with a commute longer than 60 minutes; October 2020 unemployment rate and labor force participation rate. For details on our data sources and how we put all the information together to create our final rankings, check out the Data and Methodology section below.

This is SmartAssetâs fourth study on the cities with the best work-life balance. Read the 2020 version here.

Key Findings

Big city commuting blues. On average in our study, just 7.2% of commuters spend more than 60 minutes getting to and from work. In the biggest U.S. cities, though, that number can be much higher. For instance, 15.7% of commuters have a commute of at least an hour in San Francisco. In Boston, that figure is 11.9%. The city where the most commuters spend at least an hour on the go? New York City, where relatively packed subways and busy streets mean 27.2% of commuters spend at least an hour on travel alone, leaving even less time for recreation. New York also has the longest 2019 average commute time, at 41.7 minutes.
Midwest consistency up top. Four Midwestern cities â Madison, Wisconsin; Lincoln, Nebraska; Omaha, Nebraska; and Columbus, Ohio â also made the top 10 in this study last year. Three of these cities â Madison, Lincoln and Omaha â excel because of their low unemployment rate, finishing in the top 10 this year. Columbus finishes a bit lower (20^th) in that metric, but it does particularly well in terms of low housing costs as a percentage of income, ranking sixth.

1. Madison, WI

For the second year in a row, Madison, Wisconsin is the best city in America for work-life balance. Madison doesnât lead in any categories, but it does finish in the top 10% of the study for six out of 10 metrics. This includes coming in second-lowest for average hours worked per week (36.4), third-lowest for October 2020 unemployment rate (3.9%) and sixth-highest for labor force participation rate (73.2%).

2. Virginia Beach, VA

Virginia Beach, Virginia ranks in the top 10% of this study for two metrics: fourth-highest for restaurants as a percentage of all establishments (10.10%) and sixth-lowest for October 2020 unemployment rate (4.7%). The beach town also ranks in the top 20% of the study for two other metrics: 14^th-best for labor force participation rate (71.9%) and 17^th-best for arts, entertainment and recreation establishments as a percentage of all establishments (1.88%).

3. Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis is the first Minnesota city to make this list, and it does so on the back of finishing in the top five for two different metrics: third for a strong labor force participation rate (74.9%) and fifth for a low October 2020 unemployment rate (4.5%). Minneapolis also places 12^th-best in terms of housing costs as a percentage of income at 29.43%.

4. Lincoln, NE

Lincoln, Nebraska has the lowest October 2020 unemployment rate in the study, just 2.7%. Lincoln also finishes second for the best commute time, an average of just 18.4 minutes, and places sixth-lowest for the percentage of commuters with a commute of longer than 60 minutes, just 2.7%. Lincoln finishes near the bottom of the study, though, in terms of the average weeks worked per year, at 39.65.

5. Omaha, NE

Another Nebraska locale is next â Omaha. The unemployment rate there in October 2020 was 3.3%, the second-lowest in the study â giving the top two spots in that metric to Nebraskan cities. Omaha also places eighth-best in terms of average commute time. The average commuter in Omaha spends just 20.1 minutes in transit, a far cry from the traffic-packed streets of some bigger cities. Omaha residents do work much of the year, finishing in the bottom quartile with 38.47 weeks worked per year.

6. Arlington, VA

Arlington, Virginia is a suburb of Washington, D.C., and it has the highest labor force participation rate in this study, 78.0%. Arlington also ranks second-lowest in the study for housing costs as a percentage of income â housing costs make up just 26.14% of income on average. People do work a lot in the town, though. Arlington ranks dead last in both the metrics measuring how much people work â an average of 41.3 hours per week and 41.80 weeks per year.

7. St. Paul, MN

St. Paul, Minnesota joins its twin city, Minneapolis, on this list and ranks in the top 10% percent of this study for three different metrics:

Fourth for average hours worked per week (36.8).
Sixth for October 2020 unemployment rate (4.7%).
10^th for arts, entertainment and recreation establishments as a percentage of all establishments (2.04%).

8. Columbus, OH

Columbus, Ohio comes in sixth for housing costs as a percentage of income, at 27.53%. That is the only metric for which Columbus places in the top 10, but it does finish 11^th-best for labor force participation rate (72.4%) and 20^th-best for October 2020 unemployment rate (5.4%). Columbus finishes in the bottom quartile of this study for the metric measuring how many weeks per year people work on average, at 38.16.

9. Durham, NC

In Durham, North Carolina, just 2.7% of workers have a commute of at least an hour, the sixth-lowest total for this metric in the study. The average commute in Durham is 22.6 minutes, the 25^th-lowest time spent traveling to work that we observed overall. Durham is not a particularly walkable city, however, finishing in the bottom 10% of the study in terms of walk score.

10. Lexington-Fayette, KY

Lexington-Fayette is the final entry into our top 10, and it finishes in the top 15% for three metrics:

14^th for arts, entertainment and recreation establishments as a percentage of all establishments (1.95%)
14^th for average commute time (21 minutes)
15^th for housing costs as a percentage of income (29.66%)

Lexington suffers when it comes to walkability, though, finishing in the bottom quartile of the study in terms of walk score.

Data and Methodology

To find the best cities for work-life balance, we compared 100 of the largest cities in America across the following metrics:

Walk score. Data comes from walkscore.com and is for 2020.
Concentration of arts, entertainment and recreation establishments. This is the number of arts, entertainment and recreation establishments as a percentage of all establishments. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 2018 County Business Patterns Survey.
Concentration of restaurants. This is the number of restaurants as a percentage of all establishments. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 2018 County Business Patterns Survey.
Housing costs as a percentage of income. This is the median housing costs as a percentage of income for full-time workers. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 2019 1-year American Community Survey.
Average number of weeks worked per year. This is how many weeks per year local employees work. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 2019 1-year American Community Survey.
Average number of hours worked per week. This is the average number of hours a worker works in a week. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 2019 1-year American Community Survey.
Average commute time. This is the average number of minutes it takes for a worker to commute to work. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 2019 1-year American Community Survey.
Percentage of workers with a commute longer than 60 minutes. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 2019 1-year American Community Survey.
Unemployment rate. Data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is for October 2020.
Labor force participation rate. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 2019 1-year American Community Survey.

First, we ranked each city in each metric. We then found the average ranking for each city. Walk score, concentration of arts and entertainment establishments, concentration of restaurants, housing costs as a percentage of income and labor force participation rate received a full weight. Weeks worked per year, hours worked per week, average commute time and percentage of workers with a commute of more than an hour each received a half weight. Unemployment rate received a double weight. We then ranked the cities based on this average. The top city received an index score of 100 and the bottom city received an index score of 0.

Tips for Finding a Healthy Financial Balance

Itâs easier to find balance if you can find support first. Once you have money, making sure it works for you can help you tip the scales of work-life balance in favor of life. A financial advisor can help with that. Finding the right financial advisor doesnât have to be hard. SmartAssetâs free tool matches you with financial advisors in your area in five minutes. If youâre ready to be matched with local advisors that will help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
Budgeting is key. A budget can take care of your money decisions in advance and leave you with more time to actually enjoy life.
Save now if possible. When you retire, youâll likely be hoping to really live life without worrying about work for the first time. Make sure you use a workplace retirement plan like a 401(k) if it is available to you, as thatâs the best way to save for retirement and allow for travel and other leisure in your golden years.

Questions about our study? Contact press@smartasset.com.

Photo credit: Â©iStock.com/MundusImages

The post Cities With the Best Work-Life Balance â 2021 Edition appeared first on SmartAsset Blog.

Source: smartasset.com

by Olivia Hughes - January 12, 2021

Best Places for Women Entrepreneurs â 2020 Edition

While women have certainly made strides in many areas of the business world, when it comes to entrepreneurship, a significant gender gap remains. Around 10.2% of women between ages 18 and 64 are new entrepreneurs, a rate around three-quarters that of men, according to the 2018-2019 Womenâs Report from The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Though thereâs clearly still room for growth, women who are starting their own businesses have the opportunity to take ownership of their long-term financial goals, including how much they sock away in a savings account. But not all locales are equally conducive to their success. As such, SmartAsset sought to uncover which metro areas are best for women entrepreneurs.

To do this, we compared 50 of the largest metro areas across the following metrics: number of female-owned businesses, percentage of businesses owned by women, women-owned businesses as a percentage of businesses with greater than 500 employees, new businesses as a percentage of total businesses, new business applications in 2020 relative to previous years, percentage of businesses that had profits or broke even, startup survival rate, women-to-men pay ratio, 2019 female unemployment rate and September 2020 unemployment rate. For details on our data sources and how we put all the information together to create our final rankings, check out the Data and Methodology section below.

This is SmartAssetâs second study on the best places for women entrepreneurs. Read the 2019 version here.

Key Findings

The percentage of women-owned businesses is paltry, but especially so for large companies. Five metros in our top 10 â Los Angeles, Atlanta, Denver, Seattle and Miami â rank in the top 10 for our metric tracking the percentage of businesses owned by women, with Atlanta leading that pack at 21.92%. Though women-owned businesses only constitute about a fifth of all business at the top, the numbers are even more meager for women-owned businesses with greater than 500 employees: in New York, which ranks first for this metric, women own only 3.56% of all businesses of this size.
Despite the pandemic, new businesses are still being formed. While the COVID-19 pandemic has had major impacts on the fortunes of many businesses, entrepreneurs in the U.S. are still founding new companies. Data from the Census Bureau shows that the number of new business applications in 2020 thus far is up 5% compared to the average over the past few years, indicating that amid this crisis, increasingly more entrepreneurs still want to form new firms.

1. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI

For the second consecutive year, the Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota-Wisconsin is the best place in the country for women entrepreneurs. The unemployment rate for women in this area was 1.8% in 2019, the lowest rate for this metric in the study. Furthermore, 84.49% of businesses in the Minneapolis area had a profit or broke even in 2017, the second-highest percentage across all metro areas we analyzed. Women-owned businesses make up a little less than 3% of all businesses with greater than 500 employees in this metro area. While relatively low, that figure is actually the eighth-highest percentage for this metric in the study.

2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California metro area, which includes parts of Orange County, is the No. 2 place in the nation for women entrepreneurs. Due in part to its large population, Los Angeles area has 64,632 women-owned businesses overall, the second-highest number for this metric in the study (behind only the New York City metro area). Los Angeles also ranks ninth out of 50 in terms of the percentage of businesses that are owned by women, at 20.99%, and third out of 50 in terms of women-owned businesses as a percentage of businesses with greater than 500 employees, at 3.20%.

3. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA

There are also a substantial number of women-owned businesses in the Atlanta metro area. The raw total is 24,130, sixth-highest in the study, and that represents 21.92% of all businesses, the fourth-highest in the study. Women in the Atlanta area earn 76.79% as much as men, the 12^th-best rate for this metric across all 50 metro areas we analyzed. The metro area also benefits from the fact that Georgia ranks first for the number of new state-wide business applications in 2020 relative to the previous five years, at 142.77%.

4. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO

New businesses represent 10.22% of all establishments in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colorado metro area, the third-highest percentage for this metric in our study. A lot of the establishments in the area at least break even, too â 83.90% to be specific, the seventh-highest percentage we observed for this metric in the study. The Denver area also ranks seventh-best for the percentage of businesses that are owned by women, 21.78%.

5. Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA

Sacramento is the capital of California, and the metro area around the city takes the No. 5 spot in terms of the best places to be a woman entrepreneur. The Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom metropolitan area saw 84.70% of businesses either turn a profit or break even in 2017, the highest percentage we observed. The startup survival rate in California is 81.33%, placing the Sacramento area fifth in that metric. New businesses in the area represent 9.10% of all businesses, good for 12^th overall.

6. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL

Women in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida metro area earn 79.68% as much as men, the sixth-best ratio of the metro areas included in this study. Tampa also benefits from the fact that Florida fares well in terms of new businesses created in 2020 (a state-wide metric): The total new business applications filed this year is 113.42% of the average filed over the past five years, the ninth-highest rate. Tampa also finishes in 11^th place out of 50 for both unemployment metrics we measured. The unemployment rate for women in 2019 was 2.4%, and the overall unemployment rate in September 2020 was 6.1%.

7. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

There are 17,724 businesses owned by women in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington metro area, ranking 10^th of 50. That figure represents 21.25% of all businesses in the Seattle metro area, the eighth-highest percentage in the study. The pay gap in Seattle, though, remains large. Women earn just 68.21% as much as men there, placing the area 46^th out of 50 for this metric.

8. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC

The Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, North Carolina-South Carolina metro area comes in at No. 8. Women-owned businesses make up 3.26% of all businesses with greater than 500 employees. The only other metric for which the Charlotte area finishes in the top 10 is the percentage of businesses that broke even or turned a profit, coming in ninth at 83.14%. The area has just 8,581 female-owned businesses, putting it near the middle of this list at 24^th out of 50.

9. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL

In the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Florida metro area, there are 36,496 businesses owned by women, representing 21.88% of all the businesses in the metro area. That places Miami in fourth and fifth in those two metrics, respectively. The Miami area hasnât been doing well in terms of employment lately, though. The unemployment rate in September 2020 was 10.1%, in the bottom five of this study. That said, the metro area ranks fifth out of 50 for women-owned businesses as a percentage of businesses with greater than 500 employees (3.17%). Furthermore, it ranks ninth overall for the statewide metric of new business applications in 2020 relative to previous years (113.42%) and third overall for women-to-men pay ratio (81.19%).

10. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

The final area in the top 10 of this study is Dallas-Fort-Worth-Arlington, Texas. There are 24,383 businesses in the area owned by women, the fifth-highest rate for this metric in the study. Of the businesses in the metro area with more than 500 employees, 3.19% of them are owned by women, which is the fourth-highest percentage for this metric across the 50 areas we analyzed. A lot of businesses in the area donât fare as well as they would probably like, though: Only 79.42% break even or turn a profit, 44^th out of 50 in the study. However, the metro area ranks sixth overall for the statewide metric of new businesses as a percentage of total businesses, at 9.54%.

Data and Methodology

To find the best metro areas for women to be entrepreneurs we compared 50 of the largest metropolitan areas in the country across a number of metrics. Though weâve done this study in previous years, we added two metrics this year to give more timeliness to our results: new business applications in 2020 compared with the average of the previous five years, and the unemployment rate in September 2020. Here are all the metrics we used:

Number of women-owned businesses. Data is for businesses with paid employees and comes from the Census Bureauâs 2018 Annual Business Survey.
Percentage of women-owned businesses. Data is for businesses with paid employees and comes from the Census Bureauâs 2018 Annual Business Survey.
Percentage of businesses with at least 500 paid employees that are women owned. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 2018 Annual Business Survey.
New businesses as a percentage of total businesses. This includes businesses established in 2015, 2016 and 2017 as a percentage of all businesses. Data is for businesses with paid employees and comes from the Census Bureauâs 2018 Annual Business Survey.
New business applications in 2020 relative to the 2015-2019 average by state. Figures for new business applications are not seasonally adjusted and include only those with planned wages for workers. We compared the number of new business applications from Week 1 of 2020 through Week 42 of 2020 (i.e. December 30, 2019 through October 24, 2020) to the average number of applications filed during those first 43 weeks of the year for the five-year period spanning from 2015 through 2019. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs Business Formation Statistics.
Percentage of all businesses that had profits or broke even. Data is for businesses with paid employees and comes from the Census Bureauâs 2017 Annual Business Survey.
Startup early survival rate (by state). This is the percentage of startups that are still active after one year. Data comes from the Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship report and is for 2019.
Women-to-men pay ratio. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 1-year American Community Survey and is for 2019. It accounts for both part-time and full-time workers.
Unemployment rate for women. Data comes from the Census Bureauâs 1-year American Community Survey and is for 2019.
Overall unemployment rate for September 2020. Data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

First, we ranked each metro area in every metric. We then found the average ranking for each metro area, giving a full weight to all metrics except for the two new business metrics and the two unemployment metrics, all of which received a half-weight. We then came to a final ranking based on these averages, with the top metro area receiving an index score of 100 and the bottom metro area receiving an index score of 0.

Tips for Entrepreneurs

Invest in professional advice. If you are looking for help with your money or your business, consider finding a financial advisor to help you. Finding a financial advisor doesnât have to be hard. SmartAssetâs free tool connects you with financial advisors in your area in five minutes. If youâre ready to be matched with local advisors, get started now.
Taxes donât always have to be taxing. Knowing your tax burden is key to a successful financial life and running your business efficiently. Use SmartAssetâs free tax calculator to see what you might owe.
Nail down your elevator pitch. Want to make sure you are a successful entrepreneur? Make sure you know what your product is and what your audience is before you even actually start the business.

Questions about our study? Contact press@smartasset.com.

The post Best Places for Women Entrepreneurs â 2020 Edition appeared first on SmartAsset Blog.

Source: smartasset.com