Good for you!
It's for the best.
We had a Golden Retriever and she got really sick at age 8 and had to have an emergency spay among other operations in order to save her life. The vet told my dad had she been spayed earlier in life we wouldn't have that problem. She ended up with cancer (which IS more common for Goldens in general) but I think she would have lived longer had we spayed her earlier and took better care of her in general (she died at age 10). It was terrible though- she lost all energy, had huge tumors all over her, one the size of a football, she stopped eating, she could barely walk anymore until she had her operations. The last 2 years of her life after surgery were amazing, she acted like a pup again!!