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GOBankingRates
The Most Realistic Retirement Age in Every State
By Jami Farkas,
2 days ago
At what age do you hope to retire? For average Americans, that target retirement age is 66, according to a 2022 Gallup Poll.
In reality, though, the average retirement age is 61, up from 57 in 1991, Gallup reported. Americans born after 1960 are eligible for full Social Security retirement benefits at age 67, or reduced benefits at 62. But if you put money away through the years and have a healthy retirement account — and if you live in a place with a lower cost of living — retiring before any government benefits kick in is possible .
Using an online retirement calculator is one of the many great ways to get an estimate of how much you should save to retire by a certain age. To give you an idea, though, of when you might realistically be able to retire — how much in savings you would need, depending on where you live — GOBankingRates crunched the numbers for you.
To determine the most realistic retirement age in every state, GOBankingRates first calculated the median income by age in every state, using Census Bureau data, to find out how much people could set aside in savings at various ages.
To find out how long it would take workers in every state to save up to the state’s ideal savings target, GOBankingRates assumed the following:
Workers started collecting their paychecks at 22.
Workers followed the 50/30/20 rule, allocating 50% of personal income to necessities, 30% to wants and 20% to savings.
Of that 20% that went into savings, 14% was deposited into a typical savings account and 6% was put into a 401(k) with a 50% employer match (up to 3%). In addition, the average annual return on investments in the 401(k) was assumed to be 5%.
Using the above assumptions, GOBankingRates found how much a worker in each state earning a median income could have saved at ages 24, 34, 44 and 58 to 74 years of age. Once the ideal savings target was met or exceeded, the following year was determined to be the ideal retirement age of each state.
You might be surprised to find that if you start saving 20% of your income starting at age 22, the realistic retirement age in your state might be sooner than you think. Or you might have to work longer than you expected.
Methodology: To determine the most realistic retirement age in every state, GOBankingRates first found income by age and state from the 2021 median income by age, according to the 2021 current population survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau and factored it out by dividing each state’s median income by the national median income. This provided an “income index” that GOBankingRates then took to factor out each state’s income by age. Once each state had its median income by age, GOBankingRates found an ideal savings target for each state (see methodology below), which assumes one will draw 4% from their savings each year to pay for living expenses. Finally, GOBankingRates set three constants for the type of savings that would occur: 1) You are working from 22 onward until you hit the savings goal. 2) You are following the 50/30/20 rule (allocating 50% of personal income to necessities, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings). 3) You are saving 14% in a typical savings account, in addition to putting 6% into a 401(k) with a 50% employer match (up to 3%) and an average return of 5%. Using the above constants GOBankingRates found the savings total of each state at 24, 34, 44, and 58-77 years of age. Once the savings goal was met or exceeded, the following year was determined to be the ideal retirement age of each state. NOTE: These 401(k) returns are based on a static market; there is no way of determining future trends. This study also does not take into account emergencies that would require the use of savings. All data was collected and is up to date as of April 18, 2023.
“Here’s Exactly How Much Savings You Need to Retire in Your State” Methodology: In order to find out exactly how much you need to retire in your state, GOBankingRates found the annual cost of expenditures for a retired person in each state by multiplying expenditures for those over the age of 65 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2021 Consumer Expenditure Survey by the cost of living index for each state from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center’s 2022 cost of living series. To find how much money a retired person would need to save, we divided each state’s annual expenditures, minus the annual Social Security income as sourced from the Social Security Administration’s monthly statistical snapshot, February 2023, by .04, assuming drawing down savings by 4% each year to pay for living expenses. All data was collected and is up to date as of April 18, 2023.
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