By Jerry Yurchisin, Senior Data Science Strategist, Gurobi Optimization and Raphi Zaionz, Co-Founder of MyGoals
For many, modern financial planning is just as intimidating as it is important. In 2025, U.S. adults correctly answered less than half (49%) of the financial fluency questions posed by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index questionnaire, with Gen Z respondents averaging just over a third (38%).
For these adults, and others around the world, the challenge isn’t just about saving more for their long-term planning and goals. It’s about being able to make more intelligent, informed decisions across a growing web of variables that include multiple income streams, difficult tax brackets, shifting investment portfolios, and evolving day-to-day priorities.
Traditional financial planning solutions often fall short in this kind of environment. They rely on static models that cannot adapt to real-time changes or optimize for factors like tax efficiency or desired financial legacy. As we continue to apply artificial intelligence (AI) and decision intelligence solutions to streamline various aspects of our lives—from automating menial tasks to improving business decisions and beyond—no field is quite as ripe for optimization as financial services.
By integrating decision intelligence solutions like mathematical optimization into the financial planning process, we can democratize financial literacy and empower individuals with practical and impactful insights. This mission is at the core of the partnership between financial services firm MyGoals and decision intelligence leader Gurobi.
The Growing Role of Decision Intelligence
As our society becomes increasingly data-driven, much of our contemporary financial planning remains rooted in the power of predictions. And while predictive research—understanding what might happen based on past data—is certainly helpful, it’s no longer capable of keeping up with today’s shifting economic headwinds and volatile markets.
Just consider the number of competing financial factors the average working person deals with on a regular basis. They earn a regular, taxable salary from their primary source of income, as well as passive revenue from any additional income sources. They likely have some form of education-related loans to pay off and make regular payments to specific real estate costs like mortgages. They may invest in specific stock portfolios or accounts and must update their contributions based on market fluctuations. Oh, and on top of this, they need to save enough money to last them through their retirement.
Navigating these increasingly complex financial needs and markets requires a more dynamic and adaptable approach to financial planning and problem-solving than strictly predictive analysis. This is what inspired MyGoals, a Canadian financial services business, to partner with Gurobi and democratize goal-based personal finance planning through the power of mathematical optimization.
How Financial Optimization Works
At its core, mathematical optimization is focused on finding the best possible solution within a set of constraints. It’s a concept applied to complex decision-making scenarios across industries, from simplifying retail stocking and pricing to optimizing energy grid resources and streamlining complex supply chain challenges.
In financial planning, this requires finding the most tax-efficient and personal-goal-aligned financial strategy across variable income streams, account types, tax brackets, and investment timelines. To find the optimal solution, this process begins with the definition of three key components:
- The Objective Function, or the ultimate goal that you’d like to achieve.
- The Decision Variables, or factors that the individual can change to alter outcomes.
- The Constraints, or factors that cannot be changed in the scenario.
For each client case, the MyGoals team employs these specific factors to build a highly detailed, individual-level financial model. Then, leveraging the Gurobi Optimizer, they evaluate thousands of potential scenarios in real time. By orienting the analysis to fit the client’s objective function, they’re able to deliver the optimal, personalized strategy within the relevant constraints. When factors change, MyGoals can update the parameters and run the solver again, adapting dynamically to clients’ changing needs and goals—something traditional financial planning tools are too often hindered by.
Achieving Adaptable Financial Success
What might this look like on the client level? Imagine a 45-year-old client whose goal is to retire at 67 with the ability to cover near-term expenses and keep taxes in check. For this user, their model would include:
- An Objective Function of maximizing lifetime after-tax income to build an effective retirement fund.
- Decision Variables such as how they’ll allocate savings across accounts, when they’ll plan to draw from each account, and how much they’ll plan to contribute and draw.
- Constraints that include contribution limits, tax brackets, required contributions and distributions, and a desired liquidity buffer.
Using these factors, the MyGoals model would be run through Gurobi to determine the best possible solution for their client. Because MyGoals covers both accumulation and decumulation, their solutions can account for the holistic act of saving and using funds, rather than simply focusing on the near- or long-term individually.
Taking this optimized approach delivers measurable gains for MyGoals’ clients. On average, clients see a 2% – 10% improvement in after-tax retirement income, and 10% – 20% improvements in after-tax income and legacy outcomes compared to conventional financial plans. One client was able to recognize a 6.2% increase in their after-tax income, creating $385,000 in lifetime improvements just by coordinating and optimizing their financial decisions across accounts, timelines, and tax rules rather than addressing them piecemeal.
The Future of Financial Planning
As financial complexity continues to grow and planning skills and literacy stagnate, individuals will need solutions that can improve their short- and long-term financial outcomes without succumbing to overcomplication. Decision intelligence solutions like mathematical optimization are becoming essential to achieving this goal by making the power of algorithmic analysis more accessible to the average person.
Organizations like MyGoals represent the next step in the evolution of personal finance, offering strategies that are dynamic, tax-aware, and tailored to individual goals and scenarios. By meeting individuals where they are and building timely, personalized models for financial success, solutions driven by decision intelligence enable consumers to make smarter, faster, and more confident financial decisions—even as markets, portfolios, and priorities change.
