Retirement Security? It May Depend on Where You Live.

A headline in a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor reads: "Who's Poor? It depends on where you live, some say." The article reports that "a steadily growing number of experts and policy-makers argue that the poverty line should look like a wave, fluctuating with geography." Apparently, these geniuses have finally realized that it's more expensive to live in New York City than it is to live in Omaha, Nebraska. I wonder what planet they've been living on.

Perhaps the retirement planning "experts" should take note too. In my estimation, those who claim you'll need millions saved to retire comfortably must be assuming that you'll live in New York City and not Omaha. According to Bankrate.com's Cost of Living Comparison Calculator, a person with an income of $50,000 in New York City would need only $21,766.60 to finance the same standard of living in Omaha.

So you can add moving to another city to your bag of tricks for getting your retirement saving plan up to snuff. Don't like Omaha? There are plenty of other low-cost places in the United States where you can live. New Yorkers could move to places like West Palm Beach, FL, San Angelo, TX or Yuma, AZ and still maintain their standard of living with less than half the income they'd need in the Big Apple.