What a Typical Couple\u2019s Retirement Really Costs<\/p>\n
The typical couple age 65 or older spends about $84,000 a year, well above the roughly $60,000 a solo retiree spends. That $84,000 covers the discretionary extras of a comfortable retirement<\/a>\u2014travel, dining out, entertainment\u2014not a stripped-down budget.<\/p>\n A couple\u2019s spending is the same in our model, no matter how they earn their benefits. What \u201ctypical\u201d describes is the income side: an average mix of Social Security benefits among U.S. retirees in 2024, with some couples drawing two full benefits and others leaning on one earner\u2019s record.<\/p>\n Their combined Social Security<\/a> benefits average about $37,700 a year, which would cover about 45% of their typical spending. That leaves a gap of around $46,000 to cover from savings.<\/p>\n Run that gap through the 4% rule<\/a>\u2014the conventional guideline that you can safely draw 4% of a nest egg each year\u2014and a typical couple needs about $1.16 million. That\u2019s well below the $1.46 million Americans told Northwestern Mutual<\/a> this year they\u2019d need for a comfortable retirement.<\/p>\n How close to that figure you\u2019ll need to be depends on whether one or both members of the couple earned full beneficiary status for Social Security. A dual-earner couple<\/a>\u2014in which both partners draw a full benefit based on their own earned wages\u2014would collect about $47,400 a year and needs only about $916,000 saved, not much more than a single retiree.<\/p>\n But a single-earner couple leans on one partner\u2019s record plus a spousal benefit. They\u2019d collect about $35,600 and therefore need a larger nest egg of roughly $1.21 million in the U.S.<\/p>\n The four costliest locations in the U.S. for retired couples are New Jersey ($1.33 million), Hawaii ($1.33 million), California ($1.32 million), and the District of Columbia ($1.32 million). New York, Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maryland follow in the $1.2 million range.<\/p>\n The most affordable states<\/a> cluster in the Plains and Appalachia. About $800,000 is needed in North Dakota, which is trailed by Arkansas ($807,000), Mississippi ($813,000), West Virginia ($821,000), and Iowa ($834,000).<\/p>\n Housing drives most of that spread, just as it does for single retirees\u2014accounting for about 27% of a couple\u2019s retirement expenses. But that covers a wide range, from older adults who own their home free and clear to those who rent or still have a mortgage<\/a>.<\/p>\n The cost of everyday goods and services, on the other hand, changes much less across the states. Still, it can add up when you consider that consumer prices run about 6% above the national average in Hawaii while South Dakota enjoys costs about 7% below average.<\/p>\n How We Calculated Retirement Costs in Every State<\/p>\n The method of our analysis matters not just for transparency\u2014it also helps assess where you might fall relative to the averages. Since the estimates are based on average spending patterns, your own retirement costs may be higher or lower depending on where you live and how much you spend.<\/p>\n For this analysis, \u201ccomfortable\u201d means\u00a0the average spending level<\/a> of Americans age 65 and older living as a couple, not a bare-bones budget or the median retiree\u2019s expenses. That includes discretionary spending on things such as travel, restaurants, entertainment, and alcohol. Retirees who spend at the median typically need 15% to 20% less than the amounts shown. The estimates cover housing and everyday spending\u2014including discretionary costs like travel, dining, and entertainment\u2014offset by Social Security income, but exclude state income taxes on retirement income and don\u2019t separately project inflation or investment returns.<\/p>\n Important<\/p>\n The nest egg figure doesn\u2019t account for everything. Excluded from the analysis is state income tax on retirement income, potential long-term care costs, and possible exemptions on local property taxes that some jurisdictions offer to seniors. These three expenses vary widely by location and personal situation and therefore do not lend themselves to national averaging.<\/p>\n Investopedia\u2018s analysis looked at costs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia using four federal datasets from 2024, the most recent year for which all were available. For each state, we analyzed a single retiree\u2019s costs first, then scaled them for a couple:<\/p>\n Housing costs: From the Census Bureau\u2019s 2024 American Community Survey (1-Year Estimates), we identified the share of householders age 65 and older who had a mortgage, owned their homes free and clear, or rented. We then calculated average housing costs using each group\u2019s median monthly expenses and its share of the 65-and-older population.<\/p>\n Nonhousing spending: We calculated spending for Americans age 65 and older using results of the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 2024 Consumer Expenditure Survey. We removed housing expenses (covered separately above) and adjusted the rest using the Bureau of Economic Analysis\u2019 2024 Regional Price Parities for goods and services.<\/p>\n Spending for a couple: Two people sharing a home don\u2019t spend twice as much as one person; they split the rent, the utilities, and much else. Economists capture that with a square-root scale: a two-person household spends about 1.41 times as much as a single person (the square root of 2), not double. We applied that 1.41 multiplier to each state\u2019s single-retiree cost.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/37e1ae77-1ee7-478a-97c2-53d06c64894c.png\"\/)
<\/a>The Most and Least Expensive States for Couples<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/223d1351-5c18-4f87-865f-cacd0c19f939.png\"\/)
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