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DoYouEvenCareAboutMe t1_j5imbtl wrote

This is heavily skewed by the fact that DC is a city and all the other states including NY, CA, and MA have areas that are a lot cheaper than DC, despite having cities that are more expensive than DC.

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ekkidee t1_j5jqco0 wrote

Quite true. I would expect NYS to rank high but there are very wide rural and LCOL swaths of NYS where living is pretty cheap.

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The_Herder12 t1_j5kzyun wrote

That and a major player in DC is the federal government and we see many just refuse to retire and keep working

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giscard78 t1_j5hwmge wrote

It would have been interesting to know about people who retire at 67, if it’s people who need the money vs. those who work in niche fields that truly interest them vs. those who made work their entire life and have little else to do.

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9throwaway2 t1_j5jm64k wrote

this is probably a bimodal skew. Ward 3/6? Successful law partner that refuses to retire. Ward 8? Service worker.

But honestly, DC now is skewing more to the successful professional if you look at average wages of the employed.

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giscard78 t1_j5jmr1b wrote

> this is probably a bimodal skew.

Exactly. There’s two or more hidden groups that lumping them together accurately describes neither. There’s no “why” to any of this analysis, just that people are generally older when they retire, and if you retire here then you need a lot of money.

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xanadumuse t1_j5jvv2r wrote

It’s also a bad analysis in that it doesn’t show if these numbers reflect rental or homeownership as part of retirement. Additionally there are other factors to include such as state income tax etc. how you retire looks very different than say a billionaire or someone on food stamps.

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International_Ad8264 t1_j5jte7f wrote

I mean average wages don’t necessarily tell you that much, one person making $1m and nine making 0 is an average salary of $100k

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9throwaway2 t1_j5k1nl8 wrote

yup, hence my comment about the bimodal skew. I could have clarified saying average wages by sector or neighborhood.

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sly_python t1_j5kgq04 wrote

I just wanna give a shout out to 'bimodal skew', the stats nerd in me appreciates this so much.

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OllieOllieOxenfry t1_j5jma20 wrote

My dad is almost 80 and he's totally passionate about what he does, he works in academia. Everyone who knows him says that cant imagine him retiring. He's really sharp and healthy so he doesn't seem that old, I think his passion keeps his brain young.

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Redwolfdc t1_j5jpzsm wrote

This is 100% a valid question. I know some elderly lawyers that seem to never want to retire. They could financially they just don’t want to.

A lot of people who “retire” from a formal career also do go back to some type of job, start a small business, or even just work part time because they need something to fill the time

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ekkidee t1_j5i48kb wrote

Thank you for calling it a state.

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MDnautilus t1_j5jo6h9 wrote

This is the first time I've seen a post use the flair "compares DC to states" because it is a common issue in this subreddit that really annoys me. At least this time OP was self aware.

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JeannineSellers OP t1_j5hw73c wrote

On average a person needs $94,248 per year to retire comfortably in DC and the average retirement age is 67

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Macrophage87 t1_j5jpz97 wrote

Why does someone who's retired still need to put 20% into savings?? These metrics make little sense. Also, social security doesn't seem to be factored into the number.

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MidnightSlinks t1_j5ljt2j wrote

That's not what it's saying, but I can see how you could interpret it that way since it's not well written.

They say that they took the total annual costs of groceries, housing, transportation, health care, and utilities, added those together, and assumed that those core expenditures probably equated to around 80% of what you actually spend, so they added an additional 20% that you needed in savings to have enough for your actual annual expenditures, which would include stuff like clothing, haircuts/personal services, dining out, gifts, non-local travel, etc.

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lmboyer04 t1_j5i7849 wrote

NOVA also happens to have several of the wealthiest counties in the country. It’s all no surprise

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No-Lunch4249 t1_j5jfz0q wrote

Doesn’t surprise me that DC has a much higher average retirement age with the concentration of “knowledge professions” where people continue working much older.

The cost of retirement thing though is just another example of the “ranking a city as a state”

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otter111a t1_j5hzfr6 wrote

Dc isn’t a state. I guess “Madison trust” is filled with people who don’t dot is and cross ts.

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DC_diff t1_j5kdmdf wrote

Most of my neighbors are retirees and I am so envious of them. Bought their houses many years ago so they are probably paid off. They stay inside all day unless the temperature is above 80. They get a regular box of food from the food bank and give us the leftovers. We are walking distance to a library and Rec center which they don’t use. Sometimes the man will put on a bunch of gold rings and a velvet tracksuit and drive somewhere. The wife has a friend who picks her up for yoga. They hate the birds that visit our bird feeder. They have the best life.

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mbleazie t1_j5i4d11 wrote

Does this include Diane Feinstein?

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Malnurtured_Snay t1_j5kl952 wrote

But DC isn't a state, so how can we be the second most expensive state to retire in - ?

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Macrophage87 t1_j5jp576 wrote

At the same time, it's the type of work. There aren't nearly as many jobs here that require high levels of physical exertion. It makes sense for a lumberjack to retire early, but a lot of jobs here both require a lot of training and, at the same time, have limited demands. If you have a job that requires a doctorate, you enter your field at around 30, while a blue collar job you can enter around 18.

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