This is how long $1 million in retirement savings can last you in NC, study says
If you’re saving for retirement, new data give insight into how long that money can last you in North Carolina.
In parts of the state, retirees can live off $1 million for more than two decades, findings released Monday show.
To come up with the results, financial website SmartAsset says it analyzed investment data, costs of living and spending habits for older adults. The study focused on “250 of the highest population cities for which there was available data,” spokesperson Steve Sabato wrote in an email to McClatchy News.
So where in North Carolina does $1 million cover retirement costs the longest?
It’s Chapel Hill, where retirees could live off the nest egg for almost 25.5 years, results show.
SmartAsset said the college town’s food, health care and utilities costs were lower than the state’s nine other cities that made the list. But it found Chapel Hill’s housing was among the most expensive, results show.
It wasn’t the only North Carolina location where $1 million could take retirees into a quarter-century.
The same was true for Thomasville — roughly 10 miles southwest of High Point — and Burlington, about 20 miles east of Greensboro, results show. Other cities on the statewide list were Raleigh at No. 4, Asheville at No. 5, Winston-Salem at No. 6, Charlotte at No. 7, Wilmington at No. 8 and Manteo at No. 9.
The findings were released a week after SmartAsset found North Carolina was the No. 3 state in the country for gaining people ages 60 and older. In that study, Raleigh was the seventh-most popular city for retirees on the move, The News & Observer reported.
In the most recent study, North Carolina cities didn’t rank among the top compared to the rest of the country. Its highest scorer, Chapel Hill, ranked No. 59 out of the 250 places in the analysis, results show.
Overall, the nation’s top city for stretching retirement savings was Harlingen, Texas, roughly 250 miles south of San Antonio, according to SmartAsset. There, $1 million can last retirees about 31 years, results show.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 4:49 PM with the headline "This is how long $1 million in retirement savings can last you in NC, study says."
