Cañon City, Colorado, is one of the best cities to live on $40,000 a year. Albert Pego/Shutterstock Much of America's charm is predicated on small-town life. It's community-oriented, nostalgic, and generally more affordable than living in a big city.

In its October-November print issue, AARP The Magazine highlights 10 great hometowns for anyone on a modest budget of $40,000 a year. (See the shorter online version here).

To create the list, the magazine teamed up with Sperling's Best Places, which focuses on quality-of-life research, to determine a livability index, factoring in metrics on housing affordability, access to work and recreation, transportation, healthcare, and safety. Each city on the list has a score above the average livability index score of 50.

Read on to check out 10 US cities where life is robust and affordable.