Hi everyone! I’m a little behind here, because I just realized that last week was National Save For Retirement Week! I can’t believe I almost let such an important week pass us by.
In honor of National Save For Retirement Week, the good folks over at Personal Capital put together a really great interactive map to show us how savers in different states are doing for retirement savings. They compiled data from their 850,000+ users to create the map at this link, also summarized in the table and infographic below. To a money geek like me, this is fascinating stuff. For example, if you look at the map below you will see that savers on the East Coast appear to be killing it in comparison to the rest of the country. Delaware, Connecticut, and New Jersey savers are taking the top three spots on the map.
Retirement Savings By State
Compiled By ColorMeFrugal.com based on Personal Capital user base data
I’m a Midwestern girl myself, and it appears that most savers in the Midwest are doing ok on saving for retirement as well- but as you head farther west the savings drop. In the infographic below, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Montana savers have saved the least.
Anyway, it’s interesting to see the differences throughout the country. Personal Capital also notes that users who created a free retirement plan through the Retirement Planning Calculator had over $150,000 more in retirement savings than those who didn’t! As in, $355K versus $203K. That’s a HUGE difference!
I know before Mr. CMF and I started regularly setting goals and reviewing our progress, we were doing poorly from a financial standpoint. We had no clue where our money was going, how much debt we had, etc. It was pretty scary.
I know that saving for retirement can seem like a daunting task, especially if you are just starting out. I think the most important step to take to get going is to just start, as in NOW. However, I know we have readers in all different stages of life. If you are just starting out, here’s my advice on smart ways to start saving for retirement.
If you have been saving for a while and have started to build up a significant cash pile, maybe it’s time to consider taking advantage of some of the free tools available online to make sure you are helping your money go as far as possible. We found Personal Capital’s 401(k) fee analyzer to be a big eye-opener for us, as we previously had little idea of the fees we were paying inside our 401(k). We were then able to make a few tweaks to improve in this area. Knowledge is power, right?
How does your state stack up in terms of retirement savings? Compared to others in your state, are you doing better, worse, or about the same?
P.S. If you liked this post, you might enjoy using our free Net Worth Calculation Template. Sign up now to receive each new post delivered to your inbox, and we will email you the template! Sign up here.
Photo credit: Magnify Glass and Money, by TaxRebate.org.uk, creative commons (license), 10/22/15, with changes
Very interesting, though I think it would be more useful if the data was by state by age group. I don’t think it’s very useful lumping in 25 year-olds with 60 year-olds.
That’s a great point! Obviously age category is a huge determinant of how much saved for retirement.
It looks like my state – Indiana – is somewhere in the middle!
Geographically and fiscally 🙂
That’s interesting. I’m from Europe, however, my husband and I recently moved to Minnesota. However, we are not sure yet which state we are finally going to stay (as I prefer California because it’s warm). Have to share this post with him for sure 🙂
Keep in mind this is only folks who have accounts with Personal Capital, it’s not necessarily everyone. However, my guess is that folks with PC accounts are likely to be more money savvy and have more saved than other folks.
Frankly, I’m surprised Arizona is as high up as it is. We kind of suck at so much else. I guess what really sucks is how far away from even that number we are. But we’ll just have to do the best we can.
Lot of snowbirds in AZ 🙂
It’s a little misleading, since it’s only the average of their users. 850K users spread across the entire country. There is a bias toward wealthy people who would tend to set up accounts with “Personal Capital”. Also, “average” could be skewed if the top 10 people of each state have a disproportionate amount. Median would be better. Still interesting to see though.
I agree, it’s difficult to generalize the info. Thanks for stopping by!