Hawaii and West Virginia both have hills. Both have a kind of beach. But for retirees on a fixed check, that is where the match ends.
A new study from MoneyLion has the numbers. They are wild.
In Hawaii, a comfy life costs a retiree $156,610 a year. That is the price tag even with Social Security in the mix.
In West Virginia, the same life costs just $33,223. That is a gap of more than $123,000 a year on the same Social Security check.
Say you are 30 and want to stop work at 65.
To hit a comfy life in Hawaii, you need to save $7,458 a month. Every month. For 35 years straight.
The same life in West Virginia? Just $1,582 a month. That gap is about the cost of a home loan.
Pick the wrong state, and you have just added a second house bill for the next three decades.
California is not far behind Hawaii. It costs $121,879 a year with Social Security in the mix.
Florida sits near $63,000 a year. Tennessee and Texas are a bit lower, around $51,000 a year.
The savings math scales the same way down the list. A 30-year-old needs about $3,021 a month for Florida, and a bit less for Tennessee or Texas.
That spread maps to where people are moving. The Sun Belt has been gaining, and the Northeast has been losing.
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The big driver of the moving trucks is not sun. It is the tax bill.
"Two of the biggest expenses a retiree needs to look into are the state income taxes and real estate property taxes," said Ted Jenkin of Exit Wealth Advisors. "It's also why so many people are moving out of places like California and New York."
Florida, Texas, and Tennessee have no state income tax. They have no death tax. Their property tax rates are low too.
Yearly tax savings from a move can run into the thousands, said Thomas Aiello of the National Taxpayers Union.
That is the kind of cash that pays for a whole grocery run each month, year after year.
Retirees with income they can take with them, like a 401(k) draw, are the easiest folks in the country to pick up and move.
A BlackRock poll found that 63% of Americans have less than $150,000 saved for retirement.
At Hawaii prices, that is barely one year of bills. In West Virginia, it can stretch close to five.
The point: where you retire is just as big a lever as how much you put away. The state line moves the math more than most people think.
The number on your statement is not the only one that counts. The ZIP code is half the math.
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