From inflation pressures to stock market swings, the path to retirement today feels more uncertain than ever. You might be asking yourself: How do I build a retirement plan that holds up, not just for the next few years, but for decades?

These concerns are valid, especially if you’re approaching retirement, one of life’s major financial turning points.

One key to facing these uncertainties is proactive planning. Taking the time now to review your goals, understand your income sources, and account for potential risks can help build a retirement strategy that’s flexible and durable enough to adjust over time.

At 1st Choice Financial Services, Inc., our team of experienced retirement specialists in Central Pennsylvania understands the unique challenges and opportunities that come with retirement planning in Pennsylvania.

This article discusses vital components of a durable retirement plan—from defining your personal retirement vision to managing risk and minimizing taxes.

The Pillars of a Durable Retirement Plan

Defining Your Retirement Vision

What does retirement look like for you? For some, it’s time spent traveling or supporting grandkids. For others, it might mean part-time work, volunteering, or diving into long-postponed hobbies. Your vision drives your plan, and different lifestyles will call for various budgets.

As you begin outlining your future, consider how healthcare needs, family support, housing preferences, and travel may shape your spending. Having a realistic picture can help define the amount of income you’ll want to generate from your savings.

Assess Your Current Financial Situation

Getting a clear view of your current financial position is the next step.

Income streams: Think about where your retirement income will come from—Social Security, pensions, investments, or part-time work.

Expenses: Tracking current spending and estimating future needs can help prevent shortfalls.

Assets & liabilities: Reviewing your net worth can guide future planning decisions and help identify gaps.

Investment Strategies for Long-Term Growth

Investing doesn’t stop when you retire—it evolves. As a pre-retiree, your focus often shifts from pure growth to a balance of income generation and capital preservation. The accounts you use—such as IRAs, 401(k)s, self-employed retirement plans, or annuities—can all play a role in building that mix.

Your investments should reflect both your timeline and comfort level with market risk. For example, someone retiring in five years may benefit from a more conservative approach than someone who plans to work part-time well into their seventies. A thoughtful allocation strategy may help you pursue growth while managing downside risk.

Working with a retirement advisor, Harrisburg, PA residents trust can help you review which investment vehicles match your situation and how to adjust as retirement approaches.

Risk Management and Protection

Planning for retirement also means preparing for the unexpected. A few key areas deserve special attention:

• Healthcare: Medicare plays an important part, but doesn’t cover everything. Planning for out-of-pocket expenses, supplemental insurance, and potential long-term care is wise.

• Inflation: The impact of inflation remains a significant factor, especially for those on a fixed income in retirement. Accounting for it in your projections may help preserve your financial stability over time.

• Market volatility: Economic uncertainty is part of investing. Diversifying and reviewing your portfolio regularly can help you stay prepared when markets fluctuate.

Estate Planning Considerations

While estate planning is a separate process, it connects closely to retirement planning. Reviewing your wills, trusts, insurance, and beneficiary designations can help protect your legacy and provide clarity for loved ones.

If your goals include supporting children, aging parents, or charitable causes, building these priorities into your plan can help you stay focused, organized, and purposeful.

Navigating Common Retirement Planning Challenges in Central PA

Even the most well-prepared pre-retirees encounter roadblocks. Fortunately, many of these challenges can be addressed with planning and guidance.

Market fluctuations: No one can consistently predict what the markets will do in the short term, but historically, they’ve trended upward over time. Staying invested, rather than trying to time the market, has helped many retirees remain on course. Maintaining a mix of investments that fits your personal risk tolerance—and avoiding emotional reactions during periods of volatility—can make a big difference.

By working with professionals in wealth management Harrisburg residents rely on, you can build an investment strategy that adjusts with you, helping you stay on track whether markets rise or fall.

Longevity risk: Retirement today can easily span 25 to 30 years or longer. It’s important to have a strategy that supports income throughout your entire retirement, not just the early years. Planning for longevity helps reduce the risk of outliving your assets.

Healthcare expenses: With the cost of care continuing to rise, even routine medical expenses can impact your retirement budget. You may be able to offset some of these costs by planning ahead for Medicare and exploring supplemental insurance or long-term care options.

Tax efficiency: When and how you withdraw money from various retirement accounts can significantly affect your tax burden. You can benefit from tax-efficient withdrawal strategies in retirement, such as tapping taxable accounts first, delaying Social Security, or using Roth conversions. These strategies depend on your income needs, goals, and timing.

Choose 1st Choice As Your Retirement Advisors in Central Pennsylvania

At 1st Choice Financial Services, Inc., an independent advisor firm headquartered in Camp Hill, we proudly work with individuals and families across Harrisburg, Hershey, Halifax, Lancaster, Lebanon, Enola, Mechanicsburg, and nearby communities.

As retirement planning specialists, our goal is to help you build a strategy that fits your lifestyle, values, and vision for the future. Because we’re an independent practice—not affiliated with a brokerage or bank—you receive guidance based on your needs, not sales targets or prepackaged products.

Our clients benefit from:

• Independent perspective: Strategies that reflect your personal goals, not corporate quotas.
• Comprehensive services: Support across retirement income planning, investment strategy, Social Security optimization, insurance, and more.
• Personalized attention: A relationship-driven approach built around ongoing conversations, not one-time transactions.

We strive to help our clients maintain financial confidence and quality of life throughout retirement, regardless of how the markets or economy evolve.

Ready to start creating your durable retirement plan?

Contact us today to schedule your complimentary consultation—and learn more about retirement topics on our YouTube channel.

The commentary on this blog reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints and analyses of the author, and should not be regarded as a description of advisory services provided by Foundations Investment Advisors, LLC (“Foundations”), or performance returns of any Foundations client. The views reflected in the commentary are subject to change at any time without notice. Any mention of a particular security and related performance data is not a recommendation to buy or sell that security, or any security. Foundations manages its clients’ accounts using a variety of investment techniques and strategies, which are not necessarily discussed in the commentary. Foundations deems reliable any statistical data or information obtained from or prepared by third party sources that is included in any commentary, but in no way guarantees its accuracy or completeness.