How Much Do You Need to Retire Comfortably in New Jersey?

The national headlines say you need $1 million to retire. Financial calculators spit out a number based on a 4% withdrawal rule. But if you live in New Jersey — and especially if you live in South Jersey's communities of Marlton, Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Haddonfield, Evesham Township  or Moorestown — national averages may leave you underprepared.

New Jersey is consistently ranked among the most expensive states in which to retire. Property taxes alone can run $8,000 to $15,000 per year or more for a mid-sized home in Burlington or Camden County. Healthcare costs, state income taxes on retirement distributions, and the overall cost of the lifestyle most South Jersey families have built all factor into a number that is almost certainly higher than the national benchmark suggests.

Here’s how to think about your real retirement number — and what our CFP® advisors at Family Wealth Management help South Jersey families calculate.

Start With Your Target Annual Spending

The most honest starting point for calculating your retirement number is not your current income — it’s your target retirement spending. These are not always the same.

Some expenses go down in retirement: no more payroll taxes, commuting costs, or work wardrobe. Others increase: healthcare, travel, hobbies, and often, helping adult children. Many South Jersey homeowners hold onto their family home longer than they expected, meaning property taxes continue at full rate well into retirement.

As a starting exercise, build a retirement budget in three categories:

• Fixed costs: mortgage or rent (if any), property taxes, insurance, utilities, car payment
• Variable lifestyle costs: groceries, dining, travel, entertainment, gifts
• Healthcare: Medicare premiums, supplemental insurance, out-of-pocket costs, long-term care planning

For many South Jersey families, this exercise produces an annual spending target between $80,000 and $150,000 — a range that requires significantly more than $1 million in accumulated assets to sustain for 30 years.

The New Jersey Cost Factors Most People Underestimate

Beyond the basics, there are several New Jersey-specific financial realities that a retirement income plan must account for:

Property taxes: NJ has the highest median property tax rate in the nation. A South Jersey home valued at $500,000 may carry annual taxes of $10,000 to $14,000. Many retirees plan to stay in their home — which means this expense continues indefinitely.

State income taxes: New Jersey taxes most retirement income. 401(k) and IRA distributions, pension income, and investment gains are generally subject to NJ state income tax, though the state does offer an exclusion for taxpayers below certain income thresholds. Structuring your withdrawals to stay below that threshold is a planning opportunity many retirees miss.

Healthcare before Medicare: If you retire before age 65, you need bridge coverage. ACA marketplace premiums in NJ for a couple in their early 60s can run $1,500 to $2,500 per month depending on the plan and subsidy eligibility.

From Spending to Savings: Working Backward to Your Number

Once you know your target annual spending, calculating your savings target is a matter of working backward.

If your spending target is $100,000 per year and you expect $40,000 per year from Social Security, you need your portfolio to generate $60,000 per year reliably. Using a sustainable withdrawal framework, that $60,000 annual need points toward a portfolio in the range of $1.5 million.

But that’s only the starting point. Your actual number will be adjusted for your investment allocation, sequence-of-returns risk, healthcare cost projections, and how you plan to handle potential long-term care needs.

This is precisely why a written retirement income plan — built specifically for your family, not based on national averages — matters so much.

The WealthCare Process: Building Your Personal Retirement Number

At Family Wealth Management, we don’t hand South Jersey families a number from a spreadsheet. We build a year-by-year retirement income projection that accounts for your specific assets, your specific expenses, your Social Security timing, your tax situation, and your NJ property costs.

The WealthCare Process begins with Discovery — a comprehensive conversation about where you are, where you want to go, and what you want retirement to feel like. From there, we build a written income plan that gives you a specific, defensible answer to the question: how much do I need?

Schedule a Complimentary Consultation

If you are within 10 years of retirement and don’t yet have a written retirement income plan, we’d welcome the opportunity to start that conversation. Our CFP® advisors serve families throughout Marlton, Cherry Hill, Moorestown, Mt. Laurel, and the surrounding South Jersey communities.

Call (856) 988-7722 or visit contact us to schedule your complimentary WealthCare consultation.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/19/most-expensive-us-states-to-retire.html