Just saw some interesting data on what you actually need saved if you want to retire by 40. Spoiler: it's way more than most people think, and it varies wildly depending on where you live.

So here's the baseline - if you retire at 40 and want to live to 80, you're looking at needing around $2 million minimum in most affordable states. But that number gets wild when you factor in location. Oklahoma comes in cheapest at about $2.14 million for 40 years of retirement, while Hawaii? You'd need $4.56 million. That's literally more than double. New York, Massachusetts, California, and Maryland are also brutal - all requiring over $3 million just to hit age 80.

What's wild is how much the annual cost of living differs. Oklahoma retirees spend roughly $53k per year, but in Hawaii it's almost $114k. That compounds fast over decades. The research factored in cost-of-living indexes and average spending for retired households in every state, so these aren't random numbers.

If you want to stretch your retirement to 90 or even 100, the savings needed obviously shoots up even more. We're talking $3.2-6.8 million depending on the state and how long you live. The study didn't factor in Social Security or inflation, which makes these baseline figures even more critical to plan around.

The cheapest states cluster in the South and Midwest - Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas all under $2.3 million for a 40-year retirement. Meanwhile the Northeast and West Coast are consistently the most expensive. Pretty interesting how location strategy could cut your retirement target in half or more. Makes you wonder if relocating later becomes part of the actual retirement plan for a lot of people.