Determining Your Needs

The first step in establishing a financial plan is creating a list of your short - and long-term goals.   Everyone who has aspirations for the future - such as buying a house or saving for a child's education - needs a detailed plan to make those dreams a reality.   Effective financial planning is a process that first requires you to answer several important questions:

• What are you saving money for (I.e. car, house, college education, retirement)
  and how much do you want to save?
• What is your timeline for achieving these goals?
• What are your investment preferences?
• Do you consider yourself a conservative or an aggressive investor?
• How much control do you want to have over your investments?
• Are you comfortable delegating day-to-day investment decisions to a full-time manager?