IN BRIEF
No state has a lower cost for a comfortable retirement than Mississippi, where you can expect to pay almost a third less for housing than the country as a whole. All told, the cumulative cost of living in Mississippi is 16 percent lower than the national average.
States on either coast might offer a lot in terms of great weather and loads of culture, but they certainly ask a lot in terms of your pocketbook. The 15 states where $100,000 stretches the least in retirement include all five states on the Pacific Ocean (Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska). On the East Coast, the worst states for your retirement nest egg are New York, Maryland, New Jersey and all six of the states that make up New England.
On the other end of the list, it’s hard to miss that states from the South and the Midwest have the lowest costs by far. Of the 15 states where your $100,000 in retirement savings goes the furthest, all but two (Idaho and Wyoming) are in one of those two regions.