Why we wrote this guide

Gulfstream is Savannah's largest private employer, and every year a new wave of engineers, technicians, machinists, and managers walks out the gates for the last time after 20, 30, or 40 years of service. Most of them face the same handful of decisions — and several of those decisions can only be made once.

This guide walks through the seven decisions that matter most, in plain English, with the details that are specific to Gulfstream and General Dynamics benefits where public information allows. It is educational — it is not advice for your specific situation, and your plan's official documents always control. But if it helps you ask sharper questions, it has done its job.

1. Your benefits at a glance

The General Dynamics 401(k) plan

Gulfstream employees participate in a General Dynamics Corporation 401(k) plan, with Fidelity serving as trustee and recordkeeper (your portal is Fidelity NetBenefits). Recent public filings for GD's 401(k) plans describe several features worth knowing:

• Contribution flexibility. Participants may defer a percentage of eligible pay as pre-tax, Roth, or after-tax contributions — three different tax buckets, each with different rules at retirement.
• Company match. Filings for at least one GD plan show a dollar-for-dollar match on the first 6% of compensation. Verify your own match schedule and vesting on NetBenefits.
• General Dynamics stock fund. The plan includes a GD common-stock fund structured as an ESOP. If you hold appreciated GD shares inside the plan, a special tax treatment called Net Unrealized Appreciation may apply at retirement — see Decision 3. This is the single most commonly missed opportunity we see.
• After-tax contributions. Where available, after-tax contributions can sometimes be converted to Roth dollars, a strategy worth understanding well before your final working years.

Pension benefits (for some long-tenured employees)

General Dynamics maintains legacy pension plans, and many were closed or frozen for salaried employees hired after certain dates. Depending on when you were hired and your employee group, you may have a frozen benefit waiting. Your annual benefit statement — or a call to the GD Benefits Service Center — will tell you whether you have one, what it is worth, and which payout options you will be offered. If you have a pension, Decision 4 is for you.

The rest of the picture

Round out your inventory before you plan: Health Savings Account balances (the most tax-favored dollars you own), any deferred-compensation plan if you are an eligible executive (distribution elections are often locked in well before retirement), unused PTO payout policies, group life and disability conversions, and any retiree medical or bridge coverage HR can document. Retirement planning starts with a complete list — most surprises we see are accounts people forgot they had.

2. The seven decisions

Decision 1 — When, exactly, can you go?

Retirement timing is an age-math problem before it is anything else. The milestones below drive almost everything:

Decision 2 — Keep the 401(k) or roll it over?

There is no universally right answer, and anyone who gives you one before understanding your situation is selling something. The honest comparison:

The decision also interacts with Decisions 1 and 3: retiring before 59½ argues for leaving at least a bridge amount in the plan, and holding appreciated GD stock argues for slowing down entirely until the NUA analysis is done.

Decision 3 — The GD stock question (NUA)

If you hold General Dynamics shares inside your 401(k) that have grown substantially, the tax code offers a one-shot election: instead of rolling the shares to an IRA (where every dollar eventually comes out as ordinary income), you may distribute the shares in-kind to a taxable account as part of a qualifying lump-sum distribution. You pay ordinary income tax immediately — but only on the original cost basis. All the growth (the "net unrealized appreciation") is taxed at long-term capital-gains rates when you eventually sell.

For long-tenured employees with low-basis stock, the difference can be tens of thousands of dollars. But the rules are strict — the entire vested balance must generally be distributed within one tax year following a triggering event, and rolling the shares into an IRA first permanently forfeits the option. This analysis belongs at the top of your checklist, before any rollover paperwork is signed.

Decision 4 — Your pension election (if you have one)

Pension elections are irrevocable. The core choice is single-life income (higher check, stops at your death) versus joint-and-survivor options (smaller check, continues for your spouse), sometimes alongside a lump-sum offer. The right answer depends on both spouses' health and longevity expectations, other income sources, and what the lump sum could reasonably earn. Model it both ways before you sign — and be wary of making this election in isolation from the rest of the plan.

Decision 5 — Health coverage until Medicare

Retiring before 65 means building a bridge: COBRA (generally 18 months of your current coverage at full cost), a spouse's employer plan, or the ACA marketplace — where premiums are driven by your reported income, which means your withdrawal strategy and your health-insurance cost are the same decision. Managed well, the gap years are affordable; ignored, they are the most expensive surprise in early retirement. At 65, enroll in Medicare on time.

Decision 6 — Social Security timing

Claiming at 62 locks in a permanent reduction of roughly 30% versus full retirement age; waiting past FRA earns about 8% per year in delayed credits until 70. The break-even is typically in the early 80s — which is why the decision should reflect health, family longevity, a spouse's benefit (survivors keep the larger of the two checks), and how the timing coordinates with withdrawals and Roth conversions. One more local point in your favor: Georgia does not tax Social Security at all.

Decision 7 — Make Georgia's tax rules work for you

Georgia is one of the friendlier states in the country to retire in: Social Security is exempt from state income tax, and residents 62 and older can exclude a meaningful amount of retirement income from state tax — up to $35,000 per person from 62 to 64, and up to $65,000 per person at 65 and older. Combined with the years between your last paycheck and your first RMD, many Gulfstream retirees have a genuine low-tax window for Roth conversions, capital-gains harvesting, and charitable planning. The window closes at RMD age — the planning has to happen first.

3. Five costly mistakes

• Rolling over GD stock before the NUA analysis. The option dies the moment the shares land in an IRA. Analysis first, paperwork second.
• Underestimating the healthcare bridge. Budgeting the gap years at employee-subsidized rates — instead of COBRA or marketplace reality — sinks more early retirements than market downturns do.
• Taking Social Security at 62 by default. Sometimes it's right. As a reflex, it permanently shrinks the household's largest inflation-protected income stream — and the survivor's check.
• Wasting the low-tax window. The years between retirement and RMDs are when Roth conversions are cheapest. Every year that passes unused is exclusion and bracket space you don't get back.
• Retiring without an income plan. A portfolio is not a paycheck. Sequence-of-returns risk — bad markets in the first five years of withdrawals — is managed with structure, not optimism.

4. The countdown checklist

Five years out

• Request your pension benefit statement (if applicable) and confirm what payout options you'll have.
• Inventory every account — 401(k), IRAs, HSA, deferred comp, old employer plans, both spouses.
• Check your GD stock cost basis on NetBenefits — the NUA math starts here.
• Max the catch-up contributions available from age 50 (and note the larger 60–63 catch-up if eligible).

One year out

• Build the retirement income plan: which accounts pay you, in what order, and what it does to taxes.
• Price the healthcare bridge — COBRA vs. marketplace vs. spouse's plan — using real quotes.
• Run the Social Security timing analysis for both spouses.
• Decide stay-vs-roll for the 401(k), including the NUA decision if you hold GD stock.

Ninety days out

• Confirm your last day, PTO payout, and benefits end date with HR.
• Set your pension election and submit plan paperwork in the required sequence.
• Line up the first 12 months of income in cash or short-term reserves.
• If 65 or approaching it, handle Medicare enrollment windows.

The first year

• Execute Roth conversions or gains harvesting inside the year's bracket and exclusion room.
• Update beneficiaries, estate documents, and tax withholding on every income source.
• Revisit the plan after the first two quarters of real spending data.