Golden Horizon

Retirement Planning

Build a financial plan for your future.

A guide to traditional and early retirement
Whether you plan to retire early or later, Golden Horizon Retirement Planning resources can help you reach your financial goals with forecasting and calculation tools that take the guesswork out of planning. Monitor your savings, investments, and retirement goals in an interactive dashboard to make informed decisions as you approach key milestones in your life. Secure your financial future and enter your retirement with confidence.

Educate yourself.

Core retirement planning concepts
Good planning for a successful retirement requires a solid understanding of fundamental concepts and the tools you need to plan for your future. The more you know about investment and withdrawal strategies, budgeting and saving, lifestyle goals, and retirement expectations, the more confident you will be in making your retirement a success. The resources here will help you make sound financial decisions with respect to your own retirement goals and timeline. Start here to get a basic education on the topics you need to effectively use the Golden Horizon Retirement Planning Dashboard and tools for planning your early or traditional retirement.

Retirement Planning Basics
Fundamental concepts of planning for retirement

Learn how to set realistic financial and lifestyle goals for retirement. Plan for an early, traditional or delay retirement with confidence. Determine saving benchmarks for retirement age targets.

Investing
Meeting your financial goals for retirement

Discover how to meet your long-term financial goals through different types of investments including traditional and Roth 401(k)s, traditional and Roth IRAs, stocks, bonds, ETFs, and mutual funds.

Tax Optimization
Keeping more of your own money

Learn how to use tax-advantaged accounts and withdrawal strategies to minimize tax burdens.

Estate Planning
Protecting your legacy

Explore the different options for estate planning with wills and trusts. Make sure financial and medical decisions align with your wishes.

Social Security
Maximizing your benefits

Understand the consequences of when to start collecting Social Security benefits and strategies to maximize payouts.

Healthcare
Making healthcare affordable

Manage the unforeseen costs of health care with options including Medicare, long-term care, and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

Lifestyle
Living your best life

Consider quality of life factors in retirement such as relocation, cost of living, working in retirement, hobbies, and social activities.

My Forecasting Dashboard

Retirement Financial Planning Tool
Project your retirement savings with this interactive dashboard to see if you can meet your financial goals. Monitor your savings, investments, and retirement goals with graphical representations to make informed decisions as you approach key milestones in your life. This tool provides reasonable forecasts of your ability to adequately fund your retirement under a variety of scenarios. And, it is free to use.

(This tool is not a replacement for professional financial planning. Also, the estimates are based on your input and general assumptions which may or may not apply to your actual financial circumstances in the future.)

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SMART MONEY snippets --

Smart Money
Debt vs. retirement

Paying off debt with an interest rate of 7% will take 30 years to pay off the principal. You would see no net gains with this debt from a similar investment in a retirement account that returns 6% annually on average over the same period. Debt avoidance for depreciating assets is a good long-term strategy for a secure retirement. In other words, be certain that all long-term debt will result in positive returns whether it be for a home, career education, or business.

Dollar Cost Averaging vs. Lump-Sum Investing

Dollar cost averaging (DCA) is when you invest a fixed amount of money into a portfolio over time on a regular basis. This can be beneficial when markets are at all time highs or highly volatile. While DCA is a solid strategy, research has shown that lump-sum investing (LSI), where you invest all available capital immediately, often outperforms DCA in the long run. This is because markets historically trend upward over time, meaning investing early often leads to better returns. LSI therefore benefits from compounding earlier, whereas DCA keeps cash on the sidelines longer.

Timing the Market

Timing the market (attempting buy low and sell high) with most stocks is a common mistake made by many who see themselves as risk adverse. Markets tend to move upward over time, so selling in anticipation of a market downturn usually results in a loss when the downturn comes later if at all. There have only been 2 bear markets in the last 15 years: COVID 19 Crash of 2020 and 2022 when both Russia invaded Ukraine and the Fed raised interest rates rapidly to combat inflation.

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Conversations With the Experts

Listen to experts as they discuss a variety of topics important to a successful retirement. Learn how to make smart financial decisions that will propel you to a secure retirement with optimal investment growth.
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