How Long $1 Million Retirement Savings Will Last In PA: New Study

PENNSYLVANIA — Financial experts have plotted out how long $1 million in savings would allow someone to "retire comfortably" in the Keystone State, and the results are mixed.

The study, executed by GoBankingRates, found that a Pennsylvanian could live comfortably for 21 years, 6 months, and 16 days on those savings.

But that puts the state, which often boasts itself as having one of the best retirement infrastructures in the nation, below average when compared to the rest of the country.

The study found that $1 million would go farther in 26 other states than it would in Pennsylvania, as the state placed 27th overall.

Experts analyzed numerous categories to come up with their final number. Here's how much they found some basic needs would cost on a per-year basis:

• Annual groceries cost: $4,452.04
• Annual housing cost: $8,477.33
• Annual utilities cost: $4,127.25
• Annual transportation cost: $3,785.97
• Annual healthcare cost: $6,434.62
• Total annual expenditures: $46,389.53

Unsurprisingly, the states where a million would not go very far at all are some of the most wealthy. Those savings would run out the fastest in Hawaii (10.9 years), New York (13.8 years), and California (15 years).

It would last the longest in Mississipi (25.3 years), Oklahoma (24.8 years), and Kansas (24.6).

"GOBankingRates analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2020 Consumer Expenditure Survey and factored in the state’s overall cost-of-living index score for 2021 from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center," the study reads. "Annual costs were further broken down by multiplying more specific annual expenditure figures from the CES by MERIC’s cost of living for groceries, utilities, transportation and healthcare."

Pennsylania's middling ranking comes despite a U.S. News ranking that placed it, curiously, as a top retirement haven. Lancaster and Harrisburg took the top two spots in the nation. York was 5th, Allentown was 9th, and Reading was 10th. Several other Pennsylvania towns made the top 25, including Scranton (17), Philadelphia (19), and Pittsburgh (20).

A separate ranking noted Pennsylvania among leaders for stopping elder abuse.

To read the full study from GoBankingRates, see here.