THE DINNER PARTY

 Food, Friends & Financial Planning


(It's Not Going To Be What You Think It's Going To Be...)

A Financial Fable by Shawn W. Dunnigan, CFP® for financial planners and for people looking to take the first important step with setting up a financial plan that puts your life at the center.

CHAD RENNER

President, 

ICA Group

"Shawn has written a wonderful story about the positive emotions of the planning process which real people experience. You don't have to have everything together to begin the process - you just have to start."

We all feel it.  That certain level of tension and anxiety...and some of it is financial. 

       We all need a PLAN...a plan with your life at the center.

Financial anxiety.   It’s like a blanket we put on each morning. Some of us have a light blanket, some of us have a heavy one but we all feel it.


Money is emotion. A life-centered financial plan, when completed, brings the individual to a new place of contentment. It can create positive upward momentum in all areas of one’s life. It can allow the person to live more in the present and even discover new (or old) passions to explore.


For people beginning the process of creating ‘a plan’, “The Dinner Party” will help the reader to understand that ‘it’s the start the stops most people’ and take the all-important first step to begin the planning process.

For the financial advisor, the book is a powerful tool to introduce your prospects and existing clients to the life-centered financial process and will put your methods, the value of your expertise and your heart at the center of your relationship with them.

BEGIN WITH THE

END IN MIND


Author Stephen Covey powerfully states, "your most important work is always ahead of you, not behind you."  When we have a clear vision where we're headed, it's easier to achieve our goals.

IT'S THE START THAT STOPS

MOST PEOPLE


Most of us can't get past the start.  We encounter an invisible wall of resistance which prevents us beginning the important project of moving in the direction of our dreams.

AVOID "SOMEDAY" THINKING


"I will get to that someday."

"We'll get to that at some point."

"We'll do that down the road."


These can be troubling phrases.

Someday thinking. 'Someday' is not a day, it is an illusion. The greatest gift you can give your family is a well thought-out financial plan.

COMMUNICATION:

"Is There Something You're Not Telling Me?"


One of the biggest issues couples fight about is finances. Secrets don't help. A healthy relationship is based on open communication and having a financial plan in place strengthens the connection between loved ones.

WHY "THE DINNER PARTY" WAS WRITTEN AND ITS MESSAGE IMPORTANT FOR 2020...

About SHAWN DUNNIGAN

Shawn is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Professional and the President and CEO of Dunnigan Financial Planning. He specializes in comprehensive financial planning for individuals, families and small business owners. Shawn has over 25 years of experience in the financial service industry, including Investment Management, Retirement Planning, Estate Planning, Financial Planning, Risk Management, Employee Benefits and Income Tax planning. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, and an Adjunct Professor of Finance at Colorado State University.

A financial fable where its characters encounter the lessons of getting their financial lives in order and...

...upon making the long-avoided decision to work with a planner, they experience the positive upward momentum of having a life-centered financial plan.


The Dinner Party” tells the story of Dan Simpson, head of his own architectural firm, who is married to his childhood sweetheart. Dan has it all. Yet every night he wakes up gasping with a fishhook through his heart. What happens to his firm if he dies? What if his wife, Annie’s cancer returns? How will they ever be able to retire? And when Dan retires, what will he do?


Sensing Dan’s anxiety, his old friend Gene invites the couple to a monthly event called ‘The Dinner Party’, held at friends’ homes. “There’s someone I want you to meet.” At this monthly gathering of food and friendship, they meet Ralph, a retired doctor and recent widower who forms a bond with Dan and shares his story and life wisdom. Sam and Cindy, a 40s couple who are trying to figure out how to make it all work and keep up with their busy lives. Finally, the couple meet Shawn, a financial planner with a unique process which starts with a simple, but provocative question.


The new-found friends experience how planning can help confront their deepest fears and embrace their brightest hopes. “The Dinner Party” goes beyond discussions of finances to the heart of living, enabling them to face the future unafraid and strive to become better versions of themselves.

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We call it life-centered financial planning. It is a transformative planning process. The plan, once it's in place, can create positive upward momentum in other aspects of your life. 

Shawn W. Dunnigan,  author and CFP®

                      ORDER your copy of "The Dinner Party"

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