Retire in Minnesota or Hawaii? Why Minnesota Is The Better Choice!

Even if you don’t play the lottery regularly, most of us have dreamed about winning the big jackpot and retiring. The jackpot we would claim would have what I like to call, “stoopid money”. That would be an amount of money that means we could buy about 95% of the things we see in the world. 

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One of the more popular places we dream about retiring to is Hawaii. We can thank Magnum P.I. for that, the original or the reboot. 

Back to reality and I don’t think it comes as a shock to anyone that Hawaii is the most expensive state to retire to. But how does Minnesota compare to the islands of the Pacific Ocean? 

According to an article last November from Readers Digest (which I subscribe to, and it feels nice to hold the mini magazine in my hands like I did when I was a kid), there’s quite a bit of separation between Minnesota and Hawaii.  

How Does Minnesota Compare To Hawaii?

The article says that to retire in Minnesota and live comfortably, you would need $809,356. Yeah, that’s a lot of dough. But to retire comfortably in Hawaii, you’ll need over $2.1 million dollars.  

All of the sudden, retiring to Minnesota doesn’t seem so bad. 

What About Neighboring States To Minnesota?

The states that neighbor us have similar numbers to the figure Minnesota has. The Dakotas don’t require as much money as Minnesota; in North Dakota you’ll need $780,447 while in South Dakota it is a little more at $789,119.  

Wisconsin’s retirement beacon is a little more than ours at $841,156, while Illinois is at $789,119. 

The article does say that certain cities in each state could cause the numbers to be higher, or in some cases possibly lower depending on where you decide to call home.  

Where Are The Most Expensive States To Retire To?

Hawaii is the highest amount in the U.S., Oregon requires almost $1.1 million dollars, but the entire Northeast from Maryland through the New England states each require a million dollars to retire comfortably.  

Of course, what you consider living comfortably and what someone else considers comfortable could be entirely different so don’t let these figures concern you.  

For me, this just solidifies that I’ll be working right until time for my funeral.