A new survey says your money in retirement will last a lot longer in some states than in others.

Of course, it's obvious that the cost of living is lower in Newark, Texas, than in Newark, New Jersey, but where are the states where your money will go a long way?

According to GoBankingRates your money will last longest if you live in West Virginia, followed by Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama and Missouri.

But financial expert Bill Dendy says if you don't want to leave Texas, there are good reasons to stay here, among them the relatively low cost of living, when you start to compare it to places like New York and California, of course, but also Massachusetts, Alaska (surprisingly?) and Hawaii (the most expensive state).

The study says if you save up $1,500,000 for retirement, how long will it last? The answer is 54 years in West Virginia all the way down to just 17 years in Hawaii.

"But you can still live 46 years on that amount of money in Texas," Dendy points out. We're on the high-value end.

"You shouldn't feel like you have to move to West Virginia just because the study says the money will last four or five years longer.

One of the most important things to keep in mind about retirement is what you want to do when you get there.

Some people want to travel all the time, so for some people retirement's going to be very expensive -- because they have a lot of deferred gratification, they want to travel around the world, at least during the "go-go" years, before they go "slow-go" and "no-go."

The really important thing, he says, is to have a customized retirement plan. You shouldn't do anything as complicated and variable (and important!) as retirement without having a detailed plan.

And even if your money doesn't go as far in Texas as, say, Tennessee, the upside is if you stay in Texas, you're in Texas!

Jimmy Barrett