States in the West and South lag the East Coast when it comes to stashing away money for retirement, according to an analysis by online wealth manager Personal Capital. Five Southern and three Western states are included in the bottom 10, with the lowest average retirement savings per capita.
Personal Capital extracted information from the retirement accounts of its website's dashboard users. The data represented the average balances of retirement accounts linked by users of Personal Capital’s dashboard broken out by state as of September 29, the company said.
The report noted that the ranking has been impacted by factors such as net worth, access to workplace retirement plans and tax burden and cost of living.
Here, in descending order, is Personal Capital’s list of the 10 states for retirement savings:
10. Utah
Average Retirement Balance $315,160. The state has the seventh lowest average net worth per capita ($474,093). It also has the 24th highest cost of living index.
9. North Dakota
Average Retirement Balance: $319,609. The state has the lowest average net worth per capita ($339,955). It also has the 23rd highest cost of living index.
8. Washington, D.C.
Average Retirement Balance: $347,582. The state has the 23rd highest average net worth per capita ($611,898). It also has the second highest cost of living index.
7. Mississippi
Average Retirement Balance: $347,884. The state has the third lowest average net worth per capita ($407,691). It also has the lowest cost of living index.
6. Oklahoma
Average Retirement Balance: $361,366. The state has the fifth lowest average net worth per capita ($448,494). It also has the third lowest cost of living index.
5. Arkansas
Average Retirement Balance: $364,395. The state has the fourth lowest average net worth ($439,790). It also has the second lowest cost of living index.
4. Hawaii
Average Retirement Balance: $366,776. The state has the highest cost of living index (196.3). It also has the 37th highest average net worth per capita.
3. West Virginia
Average Retirement Balance: $370,532. The state has the second lowest average net worth (376,690). It also has the 17th lowest cost of living index.
2. Tennessee
Average Retirement Balance: $376,476. The state has the 15th lowest average net worth per capita ($530,092). It also has the sixth lowest cost of living index.
1.Nevada
Average Retirement Balance: $379,728. The state has the 18th highest average net worth per capita ($636,385). It also has the 15th highest cost of living index.
The full report can be veiwed here.
