A typical American couple age 65 or older needs about $1.16 million saved to retire comfortably, according to a new Investopedia analysis of federal data. That national average covers a wide geographic spread. Across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., Investopedia’s analysis found the nest egg a couple needs ranges from about $800,000 in the cheapest state to about $1.33 million in the priciest, a swing of more than $500,000.

Split two ways, the national average works out to roughly $579,000 a person, about 35% less than the $898,000 a single retiree needs. Two retirees share the rent or mortgage, utilities, and other bills, and they collect two Social Security checks instead of one. That makes a big difference between couples and singles—but where they live makes an even bigger one.

What a Typical Couple’s Retirement Really Costs

The typical couple age 65 or older spends about $84,000 a year, well above the roughly $60,000 a solo retiree spends. That $84,000 covers the discretionary extras of a comfortable retirement—travel, dining out, entertainment—not a stripped-down budget.

A couple’s spending is the same in our model, no matter how they earn their benefits. What “typical” describes is the income side: an average mix of Social Security benefits among U.S. retirees in 2024, with some couples drawing two full benefits and others leaning on one earner’s record.

Their combined Social Security benefits average about $37,700 a year, which would cover about 45% of their typical spending. That leaves a gap of around $46,000 to cover from savings.

Run that gap through the 4% rule—the conventional guideline that you can safely draw 4% of a nest egg each year—and a typical couple needs about $1.16 million. That’s well below the $1.46 million Americans told Northwestern Mutual this year they’d need for a comfortable retirement.1

How close to that figure you’ll need to be depends on whether one or both members of the couple earned full beneficiary status for Social Security. A dual-earner couple—in which both partners draw a full benefit based on their own earned wages—would collect about $47,400 a year and needs only about $916,000 saved, not much more than a single retiree.

But a single-earner couple leans on one partner’s record plus a spousal benefit. They’d collect about $35,600 and therefore need a larger nest egg of roughly $1.21 million in the U.S.

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