ATLANTA — While many Americans think 61 is the ideal retirement age, Georgians may be able to stop punching the clock even earlier.
In a new report, GOBankingRates analyzed data to determine the most realistic age for retirement in each state and found good news for workers in the Peach State: Georgia ranks among the states with the youngest retirement age.
To determine the realistic retirement ages by state, GOBankingRates used Census Bureau data to calculate median income by age and find out how much money people are able to set aside in savings at various stages of life.
To determine how much people could save, GoBankingRates assumed: workers start earning income at 22 years old and follow the rule of 50/30/20 — a guideline that says 50% of income goes to necessities, 30% to wants and 20% to savings.
Then, the personal finance company looked at how much it takes to retire comfortably in each state.
“If nothing else, the study proves two things. First, the state in which you live can play a big role in how early you can retire ... Next, it takes more than $1 million to have a comfortable retirement in any state in America,” the authors of the report write.
Some states in the Midwest, like Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska, had realistic retirement ages as low as 54.
While workers in places like New York, Oregon should expect to work into their late 60s and people in Hawaii can expect to work until their mid-70s.
Here in Georgia, and much of the South, workers can realistically expect to slip into retirement in their late 50s, 57 to be exact, according to the report. But here are some figures to keep in mind ahead of time.
Realistic retirement age and how much it costs in Georgia, according to GoBankingRates:
Realistic retirement age: 57
Savings you need to retire: $737,976
Total savings at 57: $776,321
This article was written by Courtney Kueppers, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution