How Long $1 Million Retirement Savings Will Last In Louisiana

My financial planner recently told me how much money I need to put in a month on my Roth IRA until I retire at 65 to have a million dollars saved up. I started doing some calculations on my own and figured out if I live until my 90s, I'm screwed. Even though a million dollars sounds like a ton of money, it really isn't in the bigger picture of retirement.

I based my calculations on living off of $40,000 a year, and I figured that my wife and I could live comfortably on our retirement nest egg for 25 years. I started doing a deeper dive into the subject on Google and found a great article on the subject.

The cheapest state to retire in is Mississippi, where $1 million could last over 23 years. The most expensive state is Hawaii, where you could only make it about a decade.

The 10 states where $1 million goes the farthest are:

1. Mississippi
2. Oklahoma
3. Arkansas
4. New Mexico
5. Kansas
6. Missouri
7. Tennessee
8. Alabama
9. Georgia
10. Michigan

The states where you'd burn through it the fastest are:

• Hawaii
• California
• New York
• Oregon
• Massachusetts

According to the article, in our neighboring states, in Texas you could live off of $1 million for 21 years, 4 months, 18 days and in Arkansas it would last 22 years, 6 months, 22 days.

Here's how it breaks down for Louisiana:

• Annual groceries cost: $3,948.87
• Annual housing cost: $7,972.16
• Annual utilities cost: $3,372.12
• Annual transportation cost: $4,506.34
• Annual healthcare cost: $6,631.95
• Total annual expenditures: $47,350.66

$1 million will last for 21 years, 1 month, 6 days in Louisiana, I might need to think about doubling my monthly payment to my Roth IRA if I plan to be here for the long haul.

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