How Does Your State Stack Up?

image from money.yahoo.com

An article on Yahoo Finance caught my eye yesterday. The topic was which state offered the best financial outlook for retirees. Yahoo Finance cited a study by GOBankingRates as the source of information to rate each of the 50 states. GOBankingRates based their ranking on how long $100,000 would last for a typical retiree, given the expected expenses for a person 65 or over and the cost of living in each state. The study took into account that each retiree would also be receiving Social Security income in addition to using their savings.

Just above the map are blue and green boxes with ascending number of months and years, from left to right, just below. These time spans provide rough estimates for how long that $100,000 of savings would last in their color-coordinating states. Upon finding your state on the map, look at the number. The higher the number, the lower the amount of time $100,000 of retirement savings will last. The lower the number, the greater the desirability.

I live in Washington state, with a teal blue fill and a ranking of 36. This means that out of 50 states, my state is 14 from the bottom on the list of best states in which to retire. The teal fill indicates that $100,000 would last a 65 year old in Washington state, on average, between 1 year 9 months and 2 years.

This study didn't address situations such as one part of a state having a significantly higher cost of living than another part of the same state. In addition, it's not clear what kind of spending habits this study forecasted for typical retirees for a $100,000 draw down of their savings. It's very possible that some folks in my state could go through $100,000 in much less time than 1 year 9 months, if they live in the Seattle metropolitan area and tend to live more extravagantly than others. Meanwhile, it's also very possible that other folks may take much longer than 2 years to draw down $100,000, if they live away from the urban center and have always made frugal choices for their life.

They say that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. I know several people who earn over $100,000 per year, yet they say they're living month to month with nothing left over to put into savings. And I also know some people who earn half that amount and still have enough left over to add a substantial amount to their savings each month. This knowledge gives me hope that we'll be able to make that $100,000 last much longer than the experts forecast. 

Part of that achievement will be in the provisions that we make now that will enable us to spend less in years to come, such as making our home more energy efficient, setting up easy-to-work raised vegetable garden areas in our yard, planting fruit trees now for harvest in the next decade, making sensible health choices today in order to use less medical care later, and creating streams of income to sustain us in post-retirement years. Or, we may just move to Mississippi.

How did your state stack up in this ranking? What kinds of provisions are you making now that will help you live frugally later?

Not Too Late to Pick Up a Few Clearance Bargains on Pantry Goods

The more perishable holiday foods were marked down to clear in the first week of January. Foods like eggnog and refrigerated holiday cookie dough were deeply discounted by the 5th of January in my stores. Those items are obviously holiday foods and not as interesting to many consumers once the holiday season is over.

However, there's another group of "holiday" foods that are very useful year round. These foods could be used at any time of the year. They're non-perishable and, in most cases, don't look so holiday-ish. Most of these items do not have images of snowmen, Christmas trees, or Santa on the package label. It's their use on holiday menus that associates them with the entire holiday season. 

By the middle to the third week of January, I find these food items on deep discount in my stores. As non-perishables, they often have expiration dates over a year away. And they're all foods that I could use in my menus almost all weeks of the year.

So, this is what I found last weekend at Walmart:

• jarred turkey gravy for 50 cents -- great not only on turkey but also for chicken or to have over mashed potatoes or rice. Exp. date: March 2021
• Libby's canned pumpkin for 75 cents -- pumpkin bread, muffins, soup -- YES!! Exp. date: Sept 2021
• Great Value turkey stuffing mix for 30 cents -- can be used as a quick side with many dishes, not just turkey. Exp. date: May 2021

It's amazing how far into the future some of the expiration dates are on these items, yet stores don't want to keep them on their shelves any longer. This just means more great deals for me and my grocery budget.

When I was running errands on Saturday, I also stopped by an import store that carries a food line. In their holiday section I found the above holiday-themed pasta shapes for 74 cents, or 67 cents/lb. The expiration date on this package is in 2022. While the price per pound is a good price for pasta for everyday meals, I think I'll hang onto this package for next Christmas, either for my small family or as part of an Italian gift basket to my son and DIL.

The deals are still out there!