Having $2 million saved for retirement can provide a strong cushion — but how long it lasts depends on where you live.

Retirement savings of $2 million, plus Social Security payments, could last anywhere from just 23 years in Hawaii to 72 years in West Virginia, according to a recent GOBankingRates analysis.

That’s largely due to differences in the cost of living across states, which is primarily driven by housing prices. In states with large urban centers like California, New York and Massachusetts, housing alone can cost $30,000 more per year than in less expensive areas, according to the data. As a result, retirees in those states need more savings to maintain their lifestyles.

The analysis looked at typical retiree expenses, including groceries, housing, transportation, utilities and health care, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023 Consumer Expenditure Survey. GOBankingRates adjusted those figures for each state using the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center’s cost-of-living index to offer a more realistic picture of retirement spending.

While $2 million is a high bar — only 1.8% of households have that much saved, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute — it covers more than 35 years of retirement in all but three states: Hawaii, Massachusetts and California.

That target isn’t far off from most people’s goals. Many consider roughly $1.5 million the “magic number” for retirement savings, according to a Northwestern Mutual survey of 4,588 Americans.

Here’s how long $2 million, plus average Social Security benefits, would last in each state, based on average annual expenses. States are listed in alphabetical order.

• Annual cost after Social Security: $30,207
• Years $2 million lasts: 66

• Annual cost after Social Security: $50,997
• Years $2 million lasts: 39

• Annual cost after Social Security: $44,628
• Years $2 million lasts: 45

• Annual cost after Social Security: $30,327
• Years $2 million lasts: 66

• Annual cost after Social Security: $63,795
• Years $2 million lasts: 31

• Annual cost after Social Security:$38,559
• Years $2 million lasts: 52

• Annual cost after Social Security: $43,967
• Years $2 million lasts: 45

• Annual cost after Social Security: $37,057
• Years $2 million lasts: 54

• Annual cost after Social Security: $38,379
• Years $2 million lasts: 52

• Annual cost after Social Security: $31,829
• Years $2 million lasts: 63

• Annual cost after Social Security: $87,770
• Years $2 million lasts: 23

• Annual cost after Social Security: $38,138
• Years $2 million lasts: 52

• Annual cost after Social Security: $34,233
• Years $2 million lasts: 58

• Annual cost after Social Security: $31,709
• Years $2 million lasts: 63

• Annual cost after Social Security: $31,168
• Years $2 million lasts: 64

• Annual cost after Social Security: $28,945
• Years $2 million lasts: 69

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,670
• Years $2 million lasts: 61

• Annual cost after Social Security: $33,031
• Years $2 million lasts: 61

• Annual cost after Social Security: $45,048
• Years $2 million lasts: 44

• Annual cost after Social Security: $36,276
• Years $2 million lasts: 55

• Annual cost after Social Security: $65,117
• Years $2 million lasts: 31

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,310
• Years $2 million lasts: 62

• Annual cost after Social Security: $34,113
• Years $2 million lasts: 59

• Annual cost after Social Security: $29,426
• Years $2 million lasts: 68

• Annual cost after Social Security: $30,327
• Years $2 million lasts: 66

• Annual cost after Social Security: $33,331
• Years $2 million lasts: 60

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,610
• Years $2 million lasts: 61

• Annual cost after Social Security: $36,997
• Years $2 million lasts: 54

• Annual cost after Social Security: $43,847
• Years $2 million lasts: 46

• Annual cost after Social Security: $45,829
• Years $2 million lasts: 44

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,670
• Years $2 million lasts: 61

• Annual cost after Social Security: $50,997
• Years $2 million lasts: 39

• Annual cost after Social Security: $35,495
• Years $2 million lasts: 56

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,190
• Years $2 million lasts: 62

• Annual cost after Social Security: $33,872
• Years $2 million lasts: 59

• Annual cost after Social Security: $29,666
• Years $2 million lasts: 67

• Annual cost after Social Security: $42,945
• Years $2 million lasts: 47

• Annual cost after Social Security: $33,872
• Years $2 million lasts: 59

• Annual cost after Social Security: $44,387
• Years $2 million lasts: 45

• Annual cost after Social Security: $34,052
• Years $2 million lasts: 59

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,310
• Years $2 million lasts: 62

• Annual cost after Social Security: $30,928
• Years $2 million lasts: 65

• Annual cost after Social Security: $32,490
• Years $2 million lasts: 62

• Annual cost after Social Security: $42,645
• Years $2 million lasts: 47

• Annual cost after Social Security: $45,409
• Years $2 million lasts: 44

• Annual cost after Social Security: $37,237
• Years $2 million lasts: 54

• Annual cost after Social Security: $45,108
• Years $2 million lasts: 44

• Annual cost after Social Security: $27,803
• Years $2 million lasts: 72

• Annual cost after Social Security: $36,516
• Years $2 million lasts: 55

• Annual cost after Social Security: $34,173
• Years $2 million lasts: 59

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From 1910 to 2001, the Liberty Crest Apartments were known as the Lorton Reformatory, a prison in Lorton, Virginia that housed inmates from Washington, D.C.

It is more widely known as the site where many suffragists were held after the Silent Sentinels pickets at the White House in 1917. And according to the Library of Congress, November 14, 1917 is known as the “Night of Terror” because of how the suffragist prisoners were mistreated at the prison.

The 2,324-acre property, which included a farm, shut down in 2001. The following year, Fairfax County bought the site for $4.2 million. Under the county’s ownership, the old prison and grounds became a park, a golf course, three schools, and an arts center.

In 2008, the county started working with the Alexander Company, a Wisconsin developer with a history of historic preservation and adaptive reuse. The developer set out to convert the campus into 165 apartments.

“The Lorton Reformatory was a good set of buildings to be converted into residential because it was a reform-era prison,” David Vos, a development project manager with the Alexander Company, tells CNBC Make It.

“So, unlike most prisons that tend to be large footprint dark buildings without very many windows, these actually had an abundance of light and had quite a bit of character to them, so they laid out very nicely for apartments.”

The Liberty Crest Apartments have 165 units — 44 of which are designated affordable, low-income housing. There are 84 one-bedroom and 81 two-bedroom apartments and monthly rent ranges from $1,372 to $2,700. Each apartment is equipped with an in-unit washer and dryer.

Renovations took almost two years and roughly $64 million to complete.

A majority of the project’s funding came from historic tax credits, bond financing, and low-income housing tax credits. Virginia Housing provided the first mortgage for the project and payments are about $125,000 a month.

The apartments opened in June 2017 and Vos says all the available units were leased in just a matter of months. The complex has been at full occupancy ever since.

“The reaction from the community varied quite a bit. A lot of people really felt it was important to preserve that history. However, there were people that really focused on the later years of the prison when prisoners were mistreated,” he says.

“But from our standpoint, we really felt that it’s important to preserve history so you can learn from the past so that you don’t make those mistakes again in the future.”

Some remnants of the old prison include signs telling visitors and inmates how to behave on the property.

“There’s a number of reminders as you walk around the campus that remind you of the fact that this used to be a reformatory or prison,” Vos says.

The name Liberty Crest Apartments is an homage to the property’s history: “The reason we chose Liberty for the name was we really felt that we were liberating these buildings from its more recent dark past.”

The old prison’s cafeteria was converted into a community space for residents. Other amenities include a yoga studio, gym, community pool, and two playgrounds.

There is also a field on campus with the original grandstand that was made by the prisoners themselves from bricks. Today, the space is used as an all-purpose area for the residents.

The Liberty Crest property also has a preschool, dental office, restaurants, and retail shops.

The apartments have been open for almost nine years now and construction on the property is mostly complete. Vos and the Alexander Company are currently focused on converting a power plant that sits on the site into 10 additional apartments. There are plans to transforming the former guard quarters, too.

“The community has very warmly embraced the Liberty project. Everyone’s very proud of what we did here and were very pleased with the results,” Vos says.

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When Mark Cuban sells a business, he always sets aside some of the proceeds for one specific purpose: divvying it up among the company’s employees.

“In every business I’ve sold I’ve paid out bonuses to every employee that was there more than a year,” Cuban posted Tuesday on social media platform X. The bigger the acquisition, the larger the payout: 300 of Broadcast.com’s 330 employees became millionaires when the audio streaming service sold to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in stock in 1999, Cuban wrote.

Cuban started the practice after selling his first company, a software firm called MicroSolutions, for $6 million to CompuServe in 1990. He took 20% of the total sale price, he tells CNBC Make It, and paid it out to 80 employees — which would equate to $15,000 per staffer, if distributed equally.

Cuban did something similar upon selling his majority stakes in HDNet, now known as AXS TV, in 2019 and the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks last year, he wrote in his post. “And only HDNet had any layoffs right after the sale,” he added.

Cuban’s co-founding and sale of MicroSolutions marked his first big entrepreneurial success and a triumph over setback: He nearly went broke after his secretary stole roughly $82,000 from the company.

“It was f—ed up,” Cuban told Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast in 2020. It also presented a silver lining, he added: “It made us get our s— together.”

The business bounced back, and Cuban sold MicroSolutions five years later, making him a millionaire. “You have to hustle the most when you think it’s the darkest,” he said.

In 1995, Cuban invested in and took operational control of AudioNet, the streaming platform that eventually became Broadcast.com. The business idea was met with skepticism at a time when the internet was still fledgling, he told CBS’s “Sunday Morning” last year.

“There was nobody doing it. Nobody,” Cuban said. “People thought I was an idiot.”

Upon selling Broadcast.com, Cuban received a large portion of Yahoo stock, which was considered highly valuable at the time. But instead of holding onto it, he quickly cashed out. He was happy with the money he’d earned and suspected the stock market was overpriced, he told GQ in 2022.

Months later, the dot-com bubble burst and Yahoo’s share price sank. “It taught me a hell of a lesson: When you just chase dollars, it never works out well,” Cuban said.

Last year, Cuban sold a majority stake in the Mavericks to the Adelson and Dumont families, who run Las Vegas Sands Corporation, in a deal reportedly valuing the franchise at roughly $3.5 billion. He retained a 27% ownership stake and control of basketball operations, the Associated Press reported at the time.

The deal ended Cuban’s longtime status as an NBA majority owner. In 2000, the newly minted billionaire purchased his initial stake in the team for $285 million — without negotiating or trying to push the price down by even a penny.

“It was all about fun,” Cuban told “The Draymond Green Show” podcast, in an April episode. “That was like a dream … I didn’t even negotiate, I was just like, ‘Yes, whatever.’”

Cuban’s current net worth is $5.4 billion, according to Forbes.

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When we think of raising a reader, we often picture a child snuggled in bed, bathed in the soft glow of a nightlight, listening to a parent read a story aloud.

That scene is magical. But after more than 10 years of studying how kids become readers and interviewing literacy and child development experts, I’ve learned that powerful raise-a-reader moves aren’t limited to bedtime. 

Instead, you can make them happen any time of day, in forgettable little moments woven throughout family life — mostly without a book in hand. 

Seizing everyday literacy opportunities matters, because strong reading in elementary school is a powerful predictor of long-term success. Kids who read well early are more likely to stay in school longer, land better jobs, and earn more money. 

Here are five things parents who raise successful readers do differently early on:

Before their babies can talk, these parents talk back. 

When their little one coos or babbles, they respond with real words — making eye contact, smiling, meeting the moment. They hold “conversations,” tuning into the baby’s sounds and gaze, then responding with words, encouragement, and pauses to await the child’s reply.

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This loving back-and-forth interaction, known as serve and return, builds the foundation for language development and healthy brain architecture, according to Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child.

And it boosts learning alongside connection. Research shows that dynamic, responsive chats in a child’s first two years set the stage for preschool literacy skills like expressive vocabulary and letter-name and -sound knowledge.

These parents ask their babies questions at home, in the car, while running errands: 

• “What’s that?” 
• “Do you see the dog?” 
• “Ready to turn the page?”

Simple? Yes. But powerful. And as kids grow, the questions can get more complex. 

Studies show that kids whose parents ask more questions — and leave space for answers — build stronger vocabularies and deeper knowledge by toddlerhood. They understand and use more words, which bodes well for reading comprehension down the road. 

The power isn’t just in asking. It’s in giving kids a chance to answer. That’s what gets them thinking and when learning happens. 

Savvy parents make a point to talk about letters. They spot them in the wild — on street signs, in recipes, on t-shirts — and invite kids to notice them, too. They narrate as they write lists and notes in front of their kids, pointing out how they form the letters. They keep letter blocks and magnets around for everyday play. 

Here’s the real difference-maker: They talk with kids about the sounds letters make, not just their shapes and names. If they spot an egg carton in the grocery store or at home, they might trace an E with a fingertip and say, “This is the letter E. One long line down, three short lines across. E says ‘eh’ like in egg.”

One study found that parents reported using an average of 14 different types of materials to expose their children to letters. But observational research shows that even the most well-meaning parents aren’t linking letters to sounds as often as they think in everyday conversation. 

Learning how to sound out words is required for reading. Parents who do talk about letter sounds help their kids grasp that letters are just speech captured on the page.

Think, “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,” or, “She sells seashells by the seashore.” 

Rhymes, songs, tongue twisters, and silly word play aren’t just fun — they help kids hear and play with sounds inside words. And that’s a must-have for reading. Before kids can match sounds to letters, they have to hear those sounds clearly. 

This kind of listening doesn’t happen by accident. It grows when kids get lots of easy, everyday chances to notice, compare, segment, blend, and swap sounds. 

Research shows a clear link between the quantity of parents’ early book reading with children and kids’ later vocabulary and comprehension skills. 

But parents of the most avid and successful readers don’t save reading for bedtime. They share books and other text during mealtimes, bath times, wait times — any time. 

This opens up more hours and opportunities to nurture language and literacy skills wherever you may be. Street signs, menus, and product labels can be worthy material.

And reading earlier in the day, when kids are more energetic, often sparks more conversation, questions, and learning.

The more often kids hear, see, and talk about words, the more ready they’ll be to read them.

Maya Payne Smart is an early literacy advocate, a parent educator committed to closing the reading achievement gap, and the author ”Reading for Our Lives: The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child″ (Avery/Penguin Random House). She serves as affiliated faculty at Marquette University and holds degrees from Harvard and Northwestern. Find her at MayaSmart.com and follow her on Instagram.

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Your approach to eating should be stress-free, says registered dietician and cookbook author Kylie Sakaida.

To practice stress-free eating, your goal should be “to make meal planning and cooking easy,” Sakaida says. It should also involve lowering our stress around “whether or not we’re making ‘the right food choices’ or what we perceive to be the right food choices.”

Stress-free eating can be as simple as increasing the fiber and water in your diet, or using canned and frozen foods to avoid spending hours prepping in the kitchen, she says. And to truly practice it, you should remember that perfection isn’t the goal.

“Understand that one meal won’t make or break your progress, and that we don’t have to stress about eating perfect all the time,” Sakaida says. (And be sure to consult a medical professional with questions about your specific diet.)

Sakaida’s recently released cookbook “So Easy So Good,” offers up recipes for balanced eating. Here’s how she structures her own meals.

“My diet definitely varies. I try to include a mix of both animal and plant-based proteins. I, of course, try to aim for a balanced plate as much as I can,” Sakaida says.

Her idea of a balanced plate is: half a plate of produce, a fourth plate of protein and a fourth plate of starch.

“Of course, this isn’t always the case for all of my meals, just because I know that would be unrealistic for me,” she says. “I try to make sure that breakfast and lunch are as convenient as possible.”

Here’s what a typical breakfast, lunch and dinner looks like for Sakaida:

• Breakfast: Savory oatmeal or a smoothie, usually pre-made
• Lunch: Mason-jar noodles, salads or wraps
• Snacks: Fiber and healthy fats like popcorn and roasted chickpeas, carrots and cottage cheese dip or apples and peanut butter
• Dinner: Tofu, chicken, beef or fish with white rice or brown rice and vegetables

Sakaida plans her meals ahead of time to make her decisions around eating more seamless. She finds that many people get overwhelmed when they have to think about what to make on the spot.

“I tell people to gather recipes, and then write all the ingredients down as you would if you’re gonna go shopping,” she says.

“Also, swap out ingredients that are similar to each other. If you’re doing a recipe that has both spinach and kale, and another recipe just uses kale, you can definitely just buy the kale if you want to save money or try to use all your ingredients.”

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