Looking for a State Where Your Savings Go the Furthest?

June 25, 2026 — You can probably guess the states that are the most expensive to retire. Yep – Hawaii, Alaska, California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York are almost always atop those lists. But to find the states where your retirement savings go the furthest – that is not always that easy.

A recent study from GOBankingRates looked at the annual cost of living and annual expenditures after Social Security to come up with how much savings you need to retire in all 50 states. Some of the states on the list where savings go the furthest were surprising.

Top 10 States Where Your Retirement Savings Go the Furthest

• West Virgnia
• Kentucky
• Oklahoma
• Alabama
• Missouri
• Arkansas
• Tennessee
• Indiana
• Illinois
• Georgia

West Virginia came out on top, where because of its low annual cost of living ($50,954), retirement savings of just $712.913 were enough for people to get by if their Social Security income was at least $22,000. By the time you get to Georgia, the difference was still not that great. Because the annual cost of living In the Peach State is $54.980, you would need savings of $813,559 to accomplish the same standard of living, assunming the same Social Security benefit. One big surprise for us on this list: Illinois.

Over in the states where you need much higher retirement savings to get by, the differences are more stark. In Hawaii, the most expensive state in the Union, you would need savings of $2,212,084 to get by, given the annual cost of living is over $110,000. That is over 3 times the savings level required in West Virginia, a stark difference.

Strategies to Draw Down Your Retirement Savings in a Crazy Market

Related to how much you need to save to get by in different states, is how you should take the money out of your savings (which accounts, when, etc.) For example, money you take out of IRAs and 401(k)s is taxable – distributions from Roths are not. What type of assets you should draw down, particularly in uncertain markets, is another biggie. This free article from the New York TImes is very helpful on this topic

For further reading:

Topretirements State Mini-Guides (50 states plus 30 foreign countries)

Newsweek: Cheapest and Most Expensive States for Retirement

Comments: Have you considered retiring to a less expensive state than where you live now?

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