Patrick Shea, a Retirement Plan Service Associate at Focused Wealth Management and Mount Saint Mary College alumni, talks to current Mount students about his work in finance.
Mount Saint Mary College alumnus Patrick Shea ’22, MBA ’23, a Retirement Plan Service Associate at Focused Wealth Management, returned to his alma mater on Monday, March 17 to discuss how he uses economics and finance on a daily basis in his career.
Two classes combined for the special event: one taught by A. Reza Hossain, professor of Economics, and the other taught by Michael L. Fox, acting Dean of the School of Business, associate professor of Business Law, and Pre-Law Advisor.
Shea noted that a lot of his time at work is spent meeting with clients. But when he’s not with a client, Shea’s attention turns towards keeping up with the current state of the economy.
“A lot of it is looking at the economy, looking at the markets, looking at the entire geopolitical and political landscape around us, and that shapes my day when I work,” Shea explained. “There’s a lot of factors that go into that.”
There’s many factors to consider when planning one’s investment strategy, he explained. For example, stocks (buying a share of ownership in a company) are a popular option. But it’s not as simple as seeing which companies are currently doing well and buying stock in them, Shea said.
“You’re investing in the future of that company,” he noted. “You’re not going to buy because of what it’s doing today, you’re going to buy for what it’s doing years down the road.”
Conversely, bonds are like a loan one makes to the government or a company. In the case of U.S. government savings bonds, for example, the bond matures after a period of time often measured in decades, and the purchaser will get back the principle they paid, as well as accrued interest.
While stocks have a greater potential for gain (and loss), bonds are far less risky, but they generally have a much lower return on investment than stocks might.
There’s merit to having both, said Shea: Diversifying one’s portfolio with stocks, bonds, and other options is a good way to play it safe with some of one’s money while using the rest on riskier and potentially more lucrative investments.