Michael Ryan, CFP

Michael Ryan grew up in Albany County, New York, and never left. He still lives there today with his wife and family. He graduated from Siena College in Loudonville, New York, in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance with a concentration in accounting.

In early 1992, he joined a division of Raymond James Financial, and cleared through Raymond James for the next 25 years. In January, 2008 he earned his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. During the summer of 2017, he left Raymond James to establish his own Registered Investment Advisory firm, Marathon Mission^®.

Occasionally, I am asked why I named the firm Marathon Mission. I am a lifelong Rush fan. Marathon and Mission are two songs that they wrote that have very special meaning to me.

Marathon is about how life is a marathon, not a sprint. There is so much to do, learn and experience throughout life’s journey, but you have to pace yourself so you don’t burn out too soon. You want to enjoy all that life offers, not race your way through it. It’s about striving for excellence and challenging yourself so that at the end of life you look back with satisfaction.

I was fortunate to know by my first college semester that I wanted to be a financial advisor. I knew then exactly what my career path would be. This vision had me focused at an early age. Economics and financial strategies came easily to me in the same manner sports fans know everything about their favorite team. It’s the only career I’ve had other than a lawn service that I started between my freshman and sophomore years and sold within a few years after graduation. Mission is about the many people who have passion, spirit and talent but never really found what they wanted to do with it.

I put Marathon and Mission together because my role is to be the best advisor that I can and to help clients accumulate the wealth that they need to get the most out of life and to find and follow their passions.

Latest Posts

28 Jun

Recessions, Inflation and the Market

Recessions are generically defined as two negative quarters of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in a row. Q1 GDP came in negative. However, this substantially overstates the slowdown in economic growth. It was dragged negative mainly from the imbalance between our imports and exports (imports reduce GDP and exports increase GDP). If we just look at consumption and fixed investment, we see growth that is actually faster than the prior two quarters. The economy was continuing to overheat, despite the negative GDP figure for Q1. This is why recessions are “generically” defined as two negative quarters of GDP in a row.

01 Feb

Interest Rate Hikes & Stock Performance

During the pandemic the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to nearly zero in an attempt to spur economic activity. This endeavor was clearly very successful considering GDP for 2021 ran at about triple the rate of our historical average. This has been good news for equity investors because earnings growth and profit margins exploded to the upside.

09 Feb

Relationship Between Blockchain, Tether and Bitcoin

Blockchain technology is a protocol like http for the internet and webpages. It controls how the network operates but the code itself is not owned by anyone. This technology is game changing because it is essentially a giant ledger of information that cannot be altered. It can be used to track orders, payments, accounts, production, assets and other things. As a result, something of value can now be sent electronically without a third party institution. Currently, when we make a purchase or move money or assets from one person to another, we use a financial institution. Blockchain potentially removes the need for the financial institution.

info@marathon-mission.com

Michael Ryan, CFP