Goals-Based Financial Planning Guide for Advisors

Investors are reimagining what it means to be financially successful. Instead of using market performance as their yardstick, they want to achieve more realistic and personal milestones, like buying a home, paying for college, or starting a business. They’re measuring success by their ability to pursue and achieve these goals — and they’re looking to financial advisors like you for guidance.

The Core Principles of Goals-Based Financial Planning

Goals-based planning is an effective financial planning strategy that allows clients to really focus on what matters most to them at their current life stage. A goals-based plan differs from other types of planning, such as cash flow planning or comprehensive financial planning, in that it focuses on a specific goal, rather than maximizing wealth. The planning methodology may include identifying and creating clear and measurable goals, monitoring progress, and updating the plan as circumstances evolve.

When considering providing goals-based plans for your clients, it's important to take into account factors such as age, risk tolerance, income, and time horizon, and to understand the unique characteristics and challenges faced by each generation. What follows are outlines of their characteristics and common challenges to help you in your planning.

Young Accumulators

• Age: Born between 1981-1996, known as millennials or Gen Y
• Life stages: Furthering education, establishing career, starting a family
• Financial goals: Reducing debt, building an emergency savings fund, starting retirement savings, home ownership
• Recommended savings by age:¹ Equivalent of annual salary by age 30, three times annual income by age 40
• Financial stressors:
  • As of March 2025, the average cost of attending a four-year post-secondary institution as a full-time student in the United States was $38,270 per student per year, including books, supplies, and daily living expenses.²
  • The national average cost of a wedding as of early 2025, was $33,000 — with an estimated cost per guest of $284.³
  • According to the 2025 Cost of Care report, families spend an average of 22% of their household income — and up to 29% of their savings — on childcare costs.⁴
  • The median house sale price across the nation was $357,000 as of March 2025.⁵

Goals-Based Planning for Millennials

Millennials are in an exciting stage of life marked by milestones: building a career, getting married, starting a family, and purchasing a home. They may need help with things like:

• Creating a budget, or adjusting an existing budget to accommodate childcare and other needs of a growing family
• Understanding the mortgage application process and calculating how much they can afford to spend on a home
• Learning how to invest in the market
• Evaluating company benefits and options for retirement savings plans

Using goals-based financial planning, you can help millennials pursue their short- and long-term goals while building sound financial practices along the way. From the initial point of prioritizing goals and creating strategies to pursue them, to periodic check-ins to measure progress, goals-based planning provides natural touchpoints for you and your clients to build a long-term, collaborative partnership.

Investors today are measuring success by their ability to pursue and achieve their goals — and they’re looking to financial advisors like you for guidance.

Experienced Accumulators

• Age: Born between 1965-1980, known as Gen X or the “sandwich generation”
• Life stages: Advancing or changing careers, becoming empty nesters, caring for aging loved ones
• Financial goals: Seeking financial stability, maximizing retirement savings, saving for their children’s college education
• Recommended savings by age: Six times income by age 50
• Financial stressors:
  • Almost 66% of working Gen Xers say they feel behind where they should be with their retirement savings⁶
  • Significant debt and household expenses
  • Unexpected life events, such as divorce, serious illness, or job loss

Goals-Based Planning for Gen X

Despite hitting their peak earning years, Gen Xers’ income doesn’t seem to stretch far enough to cover the competing priorities of raising a family and caring for aging loved ones. After living through two major recessions, a war, and a global pandemic, Gen Xers tend to be more self-reliant and risk-averse than older investors and are more concerned about safety and reliability when considering investment strategies.⁷

They may look to a financial advisor for help with:

• Reducing debt
• Estate planning
• Saving for their children’s college education
• Catching up their retirement plan contributions

Positioning yourself as a financial coach rather than a wealth advisor can go a long way toward building a lasting rapport with these investors. With so many competing financial priorities, they may feel overwhelmed and unsure where to start. Addressing their pain points with a holistic financial plan can give them a clear focus that breaks their big picture goals into manageable pieces.

Pre-Retirees and Retirees

• Age: Born between 1946-1964, known as Baby Boomers
• Life stages: Transitioning away from full-time career, pursuing hobbies and interests, becoming grandparents
• Financial goals: Reducing debt, saving for retirement, managing finances while living in retirement
• Recommended savings by age: 8 times income by 60, 10 times income by 67
• Financial stressors:
  • Not having enough saved for retirement
  • Consumer debt
  • Health issues and healthcare costs

Goals-Based Planning for Baby Boomers

Despite logging more years in the workforce than any other generation, many Baby Boomers are afraid they don’t have enough money to begin or sustain their retirement. Some older investors never fully recovered from significant losses during the Great Recession in 2008, and then suffered another major setback during the market fluctuations of the pandemic era.

Without adequate savings, many retirees put their hopes in Social Security. But in early 2025, the average Social Security retirement benefit⁸ was only $1,976 per month, which falls over $3,400 per month short of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics⁹ data for spending patterns of adults 65 and older.

Baby boomers may need help with:

• Managing their finances in retirement^10,11
• Tax planning
• Creating an inheritance plan
• Determining when to begin drawing Social Security

As you talk to your clients about their ideal retirement, ask questions that get to the heart of their “why." These conversations play a critical role in helping your clients prioritize what’s most important and setting reasonable expectations. And having a clear understanding of their goals will help you craft an effective money management strategy that includes investment decisions.

Goals-based planning can lead to improved financial well-being – across all generations. By understanding your client’s stage in life, you can better help them pursue their specific financial objectives and increase their financial freedom.

Let LPL Financial Help

Ready to begin developing goals-based financial plans for your clients? LPL Financial can help. Contact us today to learn more about how to implement and scale financial planning in your business.