Every thoughtful person from middle age to being on the cusp of retirement might dutifully reflect on the findings of a recent study focused upon what surveys show deeply concerns scores of millions of Americans.
And that is this: retirement money.
Even more specifically: the amount of money — that magic-bullet threshold, if you will — that will be required to allow a person to retire comfortably and without undue financial stress until death.
What is that number?
The amount used by the personal finance website GoBankingRates in the aforementioned study is $1 million, with the site’s research aimed at answering this question: How long — that is, how many years — can I sustain myself in a meaningful way on that amount of money during retirement?
First of all, state GoBanking researchers, the answer is heavily dependent on where you live.
And, judging from a state-by-state comparison, Massachusetts residents won’t be too thrilled to hear that.
Here’s why. That million bucks will reportedly last most people living in Mississippi more than 26 years, with other southern states being closely aligned with that span of time.
Massachusetts? The state is a top-five “won’t last nearly as long” entrant, with it being estimated that $1 million will be burned away about nine years quicker than is the case in Mississippi.
Of course, where one lives is far from being the only retiring measuring stick that most people consider. Concededly, lots of people love living and the attendant high quality of life in Massachusetts and won’t take the dramatic step of relocating based solely on a research group’s finding.
What they might reasonably want to do, though, is pay due heed to strategies that, when timely and thoughtfully applied, will optimally keep their retirement stash well fueled and protected from downsides that might otherwise prove erosive over the years.
Asset preservation, lawful tax avoidance, the smart creation of trusts, establishing eligibility for important government programs — seeing to these and additionally relevant matters can ultimately be far more important than moving to another state as a means to preserve and extend wealth.
Sound and tailored estate planning across a comprehensive front gets most people to their goals. A proven planning attorney can help promote that objective.