The same life, priced differently

The portfolio you need is your annual costs divided by your withdrawal rate, so anything that lowers your costs lowers the target. Moving changes two things at once: what your lifestyle costs and what the state takes from your retirement income.

Nine states levy no income tax at all, and Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi and Pennsylvania exempt retirement distributions entirely. But the larger lever is usually housing, and the two do not always point the same way — a high-tax state with cheap housing often beats a no-tax state with expensive housing.

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