How Much You Need To Retire Rich in 9 Big California Cities

With 840 miles of pristine coastline, ancient redwood forests, vast deserts, nine national parks and a broad and diverse collection of unique cultures and communities, California would be the ultimate retirement haven — if it weren’t for the Golden State’s notoriously high cost of living.

To retire in California is one thing, but how wealthy would you have to be to support an especially rich retirement in the state’s biggest cities for decades on end?

To find out, GOBankingRates used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sperling’s Best and the Social Security Administration to calculate living costs in nine major California cities, determined the minimum nest egg needed to retire comfortably in them, and then doubled it.

When reading, keep in mind that the savings needed to retire rich in the U.S. as a whole is $1,392,738 for 20 years, $1,740,922 for 25 years and $2,091,198 for 30 years. The following is a breakdown of the results.

• Savings needed for 20 years of retiring rich: $4,757,745
• Savings needed for 25 years of retiring rich: $5,947,182
• Savings needed for 30 years of retiring rich: $7,143,762

• Savings needed for 20 years of retiring rich: $4,422,401
• Savings needed for 25 years of retiring rich: $5,528,001
• Savings needed for 30 years of retiring rich: $6,640,241

• Savings needed for 20 years of retiring rich: $3,601,385
• Savings needed for 25 years of retiring rich: $4,501,732
• Savings needed for 30 years of retiring rich: $5,407,485

• Savings needed for 20 years of retiring rich: $2,819,686
• Savings needed for 25 years of retiring rich: $3,524,607
• Savings needed for 30 years of retiring rich: $4,233,763

• Savings needed for 20 years of retiring rich: $2,819,686
• Savings needed for 25 years of retiring rich: $3,524,607
• Savings needed for 30 years of retiring rich: $4,233,763

• Savings needed for 20 years of retiring rich: $2,662,421
• Savings needed for 25 years of retiring rich: $3,328,026
• Savings needed for 30 years of retiring rich: $3,997,629

• Savings needed for 20 years of retiring rich: $2,021,797
• Savings needed for 25 years of retiring rich: $2,527,247
• Savings needed for 30 years of retiring rich: $3,035,732

• Savings needed for 20 years of retiring rich: $1,478,308
• Savings needed for 25 years of retiring rich: $1,847,885
• Savings needed for 30 years of retiring rich: $2,219,682

• Savings needed for 20 years of retiring rich: $1,388,112
• Savings needed for 25 years of retiring rich: $1,735,140
• Savings needed for 30 years of retiring rich: $2,084,252

Methodology: In order to find out exactly how much you need to retire in some of America’s biggest cities, GOBankingRates found the annual cost of expenditures for a retired person in each city by multiplying the 65 year and older expenditures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2022 Consumer Expenditure Survey by the cost-of-living index for each city from Sperling’s Best. To find how much money a retired person would need to save, we divided each city’s annual expenditures, minus the annual Social Security income as sourced from the Social Security Administration’s Monthly Statistical Snapshot, May 2024, by 0.0333%, 0.04% and 0.05% — assuming 20, 25 and 30 years of retirement respectively. To determine how much one would need to retire rich, GOBankingRates took the 20-, 25-, and 30-year minimums and doubling those amounts. All data is collected and is up to date as of June 17, 2024.