As a fiduciary financial advisor in Apopka, Holland Capital helps your family see whether you are on pace for retirement while there is still time to change the answer. We build the plan from your own numbers, show you which changes would help most and manage the investments to it.
You are both working. The kids are still at home. Money goes into the 401(k)s every payday, and it has for years.
Retirement is not close enough that you have picked a date.
But it is close enough that you have started wondering whether all of this saving is actually getting you there.
Are we on pace?
The 401(k) statements cannot answer that. They show balances. They may show projections. But they do not know what your household spends, what else the paycheck has to cover or what kind of retirement you are trying to build.
You do not need a retirement date carved in stone.
You need a checkpoint.
We look at where you are, where the current path is taking you and what would change the answer while there is still time to do something about it.
What Does On Pace Mean for Your Family?
It starts with your household, not a rule of thumb.
We look at what life costs now, what may be different once work ends and what you have already built.
Then we look at the money going toward retirement each year and where the current path may lead.
The aim is not to predict one exact number years from now.
It is to answer a more useful question.
If you keep doing what you are doing, are you roughly headed where you want to go?
If the answer is yes, you know the savings are doing their job.
If the answer is no, you can see the size of the gap and which changes would be enough to close it.
Our retirement planning work builds from there.
If the Current Path Is Not Enough
Finding a gap now is very different from finding one when retirement is close.
There is still time.
You may be able to save more. You may be able to use future raises differently. You may decide the retirement date eventually needs to move. Or you may find that one part of the household budget is competing with retirement more than you realized.
Our guide to getting more from your 401(k) covers some of the choices inside the workplace plan.
Social Security eventually becomes part of the picture too. Our guide to claiming Social Security explains the timing choices.
But the first question is simpler.
What would actually improve the plan now?
That may be a change to saving. It may be a change to the investments. It may be no change at all.
You should know which before making the household work harder for retirement.
If You Are Already on Pace
Being on pace does not mean the planning is finished.
It means you have choices.
You may be able to direct more money toward something else the family cares about. You may decide you do not need to increase retirement contributions every time income rises. You may simply keep doing what is already working.
What helps is knowing those choices come from your own numbers, not guesswork.
Several goals may be competing for the same paycheck.
Retirement may be one of them. College may be another. The mortgage, travel, home projects or building cash may be on the list too.
The plan helps you see what each choice does to the others before you make it.
Check Again as the Household Changes
The answer will not stay still for the next ten or fifteen years.
Jobs change. Income changes. Children get older. Spending changes. Over time, accounts grow at different rates.
So the plan needs to be checked again as life changes.
That does not mean rebuilding everything every few months.
It means knowing whether the household is still moving in the right direction and catching a meaningful change early enough to respond to it.
A checkpoint should tell you three things: where you stand, what has changed and whether anything actually needs your attention.
Invest the Two 401(k)s as One Household
The two of you may have completely different choices inside your workplace plans.
That does not mean the investments should be managed as two unrelated portfolios.
We write the household’s target, timeline and the risk the plan can take into an investment policy statement. Both 401(k)s and anything saved outside them are invested to that policy.
We look at what each 401(k) offers and decide how the holdings work together across the household. One plan may have a better choice for one part of the portfolio. The other may have a better choice somewhere else.
Our guide to choosing 401(k) investments explains what to look for inside a workplace plan.
We start with what you already own. If a fund fits the plan and is doing its job, it can stay.
The goal is not to make the accounts look alike.
It is to make them work together toward the same retirement plan.
Our investment management keeps the investments connected to that plan as the household changes.
Working with Holland Capital
Holland Capital Management is an independent registered investment adviser and a fiduciary. M. Chad Holland, CFA, CFP® works directly with clients and is responsible for the planning and advice.
For the first meeting, recent statements for each 401(k) and any other accounts, both Social Security estimates and a rough idea of what the household spends are enough. We will show you where you stand and what, if anything, to change first.
A CPA who already does your taxes stays part of it and sees the same numbers we do.
The first conversation is free. If there is work worth doing after that, we will define the scope and cost before you decide whether to move forward.
Our offices are in Charlotte, North Carolina and Winter Park, Florida. We work with clients in Apopka primarily by video or phone. When an in-person meeting makes sense, we meet by appointment at the Regus center at 1741 Ocoee Apopka Road in Apopka.
We work with clients throughout Florida. You can see the other Florida communities we serve here.
Our what we do page explains how a planning engagement works.
RETIREMENT ENGINEERING™
The Order Matters
Five retirement decisions and why timing matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do We Know If We Are on Pace for Retirement?
Start with your own household instead of an age-based savings target.
We look at what you have already saved, what you are adding and what you are ultimately asking those savings to provide.
That shows whether the path you are on is reasonably connected to the retirement you want and, if it is not, how large the gap appears to be.
Should We Save More for Retirement or Put Money Somewhere Else?
That depends on what the retirement plan already needs from you.
If you are behind, another dollar toward retirement may do more good. If you are already on pace, there may be more room for college, the mortgage or another family goal.
Checking the plan tells you which situation you are actually in before you decide where extra savings should go.
Why Work with a Fiduciary Financial Advisor Before Retirement Is Close?
Because relatively small decisions still have time to add up.
The planning can show whether your current saving rate and investments are doing enough, where a change would help and where changing something would accomplish very little.
Holland Capital acts as a fiduciary when providing financial planning and investment advice. When advice would also raise our fee, for example, moving a 401(k) left at a former employer into an account we manage, we point that out before you decide.
You do not need to be close to retirement to benefit from knowing whether the path you are on is working.
Does Our Fiduciary Financial Advisor Need to Be in Apopka?
No. Nearly all of our meetings are by video or phone, which fits around two jobs, a commute and the kids’ schedules.
When you would rather sit down in person, we can meet by appointment at the Regus center at 1741 Ocoee Apopka Road.
Is Holland Capital Management the Right Fit for You?
Start with a 15-minute Clarity Call. We will talk through your situation, what you are trying to solve, and whether working together makes sense.
Photo: Ebyabe / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.5, cropped.
