Step one: set your goals, says David Christianson

Winnipeg financial planner David Christianson says Managing the Bull is the first book you need to read.

The recently released book, published by the Knowledge Bureau, promises to Detect and Deflect the Crap. It’s A No-Nonsense Approach to Personal Finance.

It isn’t hubris behind Christianson’s claim. The speaker and emcee at this year’s Distinguished Advisor Conference maintains that the first thing you need to do — before you do anything else — is establish your priorities and set your goals. Before you do a financial plan, you need to know what you want to attain in life.

“You need to decide what is most important to you,” says Christianson. “Ask yourself, ‘What are my priorities; why am I doing the things I’m doing? Where am I going to be in three years and how do I plan to get there?’”

Managing the Bull is a practical, step-by-step guide to establishing your goals, then incorporating those goals into your financial plan. “It gives you building blocks on which to build a life and financial plan,” says Christianson, who has been a financial planner for 30 years.

Christianson will not only shepherd the three-day Distinguished Advisor Conference, in Naples, Fla., Nov. 11-14, through its program of 17-plus speakers but he’ll also add his insight to the theme of the year’s conference, “Navigation: Charting a New Course.”