Sarah & Marcus Williams

Sandwich generation, mid-40s

Balanced college funding for two kids, aging parent care costs, and their own retirement — all in one 80-year forecast.

The challenge

Sarah (44, physician) and Marcus (46, contractor) have two kids aged 12 and 9 and Marcus's mother (72) who is likely to need assisted living within a decade. Their planner had them on track for retirement but no one had modeled the triple collision of college tuition, elder care, and their own retirement draw in the same simulation.

How they used Horizons

1Added both kids as Life Events with projected college start dates and a 6.5% education inflation assumption.
2Modeled three elder-care scenarios: aging in place with home care ($45K/yr for 8 years), assisted living ($85K/yr for 6 years), and a blended path.
3Built their own retirement as a fourth scenario layer on top of each elder-care path.
4Ran 2,000-trial Monte Carlo across the combined 60-year plan.

The outcome

Identified a four-year window (2032–2036) where all three expense streams overlap — peak annual cash outflow: $178K.
Found that increasing their 529 contribution by $400/month and opening a dedicated HSA-adjacent sinking fund closed 92% of the gap.
Retirement plan success rate held at 88% even under the worst-case elder-care path.
Marcus's mother moved in with them in year 3 of the plan; the model absorbed the change in under 15 minutes.

“Our previous planner couldn't model three competing expense streams at once. Horizons showed us the exact four-year window when we'd be squeezed and gave us a year to prepare.”
— Composite profile of Sarah & Marcus Williams, sandwich generation, mid-40s

Features they relied on

Life Event planning
Education funding modeling
Elder-care scenario modeling
Monte Carlo across blended household cash flows
80-year forecast horizon

Takeaway for readers with a similar situation

If you're in the sandwich generation, don't model college, parents, and retirement as separate spreadsheets. Put them in one forecast so you can see where they collide.

This is a composite profile built from real Horizons beta usage patterns, not a named individual. Numbers are representative of the stated situation but any one person's outcome will differ based on their own financial circumstances. See our disclaimer.

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