Where will our monthly income come from?
Social Security, pensions, savings, and investments, connected into one paycheck you can explain.
Retirement income planning for the years before and after work
Grow with purpose. Retire with a paycheck.
You have spent years building your retirement savings. But an investment account is not automatically a retirement plan. We help families turn what they have built into a clearer plan for income, continued growth, taxes, protection, and the people you care about.
Still building toward retirement? See how we help families grow with purpose.Can you explain your retirement paycheck in one minute?
The Second Paycheck
For decades, work sent a paycheck on a schedule. Retirement is the first time most people have to build that paycheck themselves.
Saving is one part of the job. The next is turning Social Security, pensions, savings, and investments into income you understand: where next month’s money comes from, what it depends on, and what happens when markets or life do not cooperate.
Five questions a clear plan answers
You can have good investments and still have unanswered retirement questions.
What job does each account have?
Income, access, stability, growth, or legacy. In a clear plan, each part of your money has a defined role.
What stays accessible?
Money for near-term spending and surprises, kept where you can reach it without disrupting the rest of the plan.
How do taxes fit?
Distribution planning, Roth conversion questions, and account order can shape the retirement picture.
What changes if one of us is on our own?
Which income continues, which could change, and what the surviving spouse would need to know.
Tools and Calculators
Start with the question that feels most relevant today.
Each tool is educational. It looks at one part of your plan and shows you what to look at more closely. None of them recommends a product.
How much retirement income may need to come from your savings?
Enter a few simple estimates to see the monthly amount your savings and investments may need to provide, what supports that paycheck, and which parts of the plan to look at more closely.
X-Ray My Retirement Paycheck
About five minutes. No email required to see your result. If you want to save it and receive a copy, we’ll ask for your name, email, and state. Phone is optional.
What if the difficult market years come first?
See why the order of gains and losses can matter once retirement withdrawals begin.
See the Difference
No email required. Educational illustration only—not a forecast of your portfolio.
Would either spouse be financially okay alone?
Compare how monthly income, spending, and portfolio withdrawals change for either surviving spouse.
Check the Survivor Paycheck
No email required. Educational illustration only—not a benefit calculation or tax estimate.
How much investment risk feels right to you?
Answer a short series of questions to identify your personal comfort with investment risk.
Find My Risk Number
Provided through Nitrogen. Review the instructions and privacy information presented there before beginning.
Already asked an AI? Good.
Bring what it told you. We’ll help you examine the assumptions, missing context, and tradeoffs.
Working together
What working with Pathfinders looks like.
Here’s how working together works — and where the decisions stay with you.
Discover
We learn what you have, what is already working, what worries you, and what you do not want to lose.
Clarify
We define the question your plan needs to answer, and what any change must improve or protect.
Design
We compare the options that make sense, including leaving things as they are, with their costs, risks, and tradeoffs.
Decision checkpoint
You decide.
We explain the recommendation, alternatives, costs and tradeoffs. Sometimes the right answer is to move forward. Sometimes it is to change the design, keep what you have, or do more analysis.
Implement
We coordinate the changes you approve with the custodian, the insurance company, and your other professionals.
Guide
We review the plan as life, markets, and taxes change, and recommend adjustments when there is a good reason to make them.
The PATH behind your plan
The PATH keeps your plan connected to the life you’re actually trying to live.
Prosperity
Success measured by what your money makes possible, not only by the balance.
Adventure
A plan built around the life you want, from travel and family to work by choice or quiet days at home.
Thoughtfulness
Income, investments, taxes, protection, and legacy considered together before anything changes.
Honesty
What a recommendation costs, where it could fall short, and what else deserves consideration.
Family-owned. Relationship-led.
Someone who knows your story. A team that helps keep the plan moving.
Rick Sparkman and his son, Sean R. Sparkman, AIF®, built Pathfinders after meeting families who had done the hard part: worked, saved, and built retirement accounts, but still could not clearly explain how retirement income would work. That experience helped shape the PATH.
- Your Pathfinders advisor leads the relationship, knows your story, and helps the pieces work together.
- Foundations Investment Advisors supports investment management, client service, operations, and compliance.
- Eligible investment assets are held with established independent custodians such as Fidelity or Charles Schwab, not directly by Pathfinders.
- Your own tax and legal professionals keep their roles. We coordinate planning questions with them when appropriate.
Trust & Transparency
You don’t have to take our word for it. We explain what we’re recommending, why, what it costs, and where it could fall short.
Based in Commerce Township, Michigan. Working with families nationwide.
Meet the Pathfinders Team
Client experiences
What is it like to work with Pathfinders?
Choosing an advisor is personal. Hear from clients as you consider whether we’re the right fit for you.
Featured Insights
Useful context for the decisions ahead.
Pathfinders Insight
Are you afraid of running out of money in retirement?
“Over 70% of seniors say they feel their retirements are underfunded. This statistic could indicate trouble ahead for an already vulnerable population.” – Sean Sparkman. Retirement and most other senior…
Read the Article
Pathfinders Insight
Qualified plans vs. Non-qualified plans: What’s the difference?
Learn how qualified retirement accounts and taxable investment accounts differ, including updated 2026 contribution limits, withdrawal rules, taxes, and RMD…
Read the Article
Pathfinders Insight
Are you chasing after “fantastic Yieldacorns”?
“Some folks chase returns because they think it’s the only way to achieve financial success. If you are caught in…
Read the ArticleQuestions worth answering
A few things people usually want to know before we talk.
Who is Pathfinders best suited for?
Our primary focus is helping families prepare for and live through retirement. We also work with families in the building years who want investing, taxes, protection, and future retirement decisions to develop as one coordinated plan.
What happens in the first conversation?
By the end of the first conversation, we'll tell you what needs attention, if anything, what we'd need from you, and what the next step is. If there isn't a good reason to keep going, we'll tell you.
Do I have to move everything?
No. The first step is understanding what you have and what it is meant to do. Decisions about accounts come later.
How is Pathfinders compensated?
Depending on the relationship, compensation may include advisory fees, planning fees, and, when an insurance product is used, commissions paid by the insurance company. Before you decide, we explain the compensation that applies, what it costs, and the relevant tradeoffs.
Take the first step
Let’s have a conversation.
Bring us what you are doing today, the question that keeps coming up, and what you want retirement to look like. We’ll help organize the pieces, tell you whether we can help, and explain what the next step is.
Start a Conversation