Tom's Tale

Tom’s Tale

Maybe you needed help with your online access, or you called Rick’s office when he was in a meeting.  When I pick up the phone to help, you probably don’t know me nearly as well as you know Rick.  So I will start our personal articles by telling you a little bit about myself.

My name is Tom Lally and I am a Wealth Manager Assistant here at U.S. Wealth Management.  I graduated from Stonehill College, a small liberal arts school about 20 miles south of Boston.  While there, I hosted a weekly radio show for a few years, and spent 2 semesters in charge of Rolling Stonehill, our arts and culture magazine.  Despite no official relationship with the real Rolling Stone magazine, my predecessor as Editor-in-Chief somehow ended up with a free subscription.  I also spent a semester in Dublin, Ireland, where I interned at the Irish Parliament – the Oireachtas, as it’s actually called, though it’s not so tricky to say as it looks – for a group focused on promoting African issues, like increased economic aid and peacekeeping missions.

Since well before I got into financial services, I’ve always been interested in investments.  When I was not even a teenager, I asked my parents to open an investment account for me.  They did, a custodial account.  Although I don’t remember exactly when I invested, I think it was just in time to lose a bit of money in the 2000-2002 bear market.

Right now I am in the middle of studying to obtain my CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation.  It’s a 7-course program of study culminating in a comprehensive exam.  The exam had taken place over two days, but fortunately they have consolidated it into just one day.  It’s only offered 3 times each year, and I’m hoping to take mine in November 2014 or March 2015.

I consider myself a fairly serious recreational runner.  I have a few 5K races lined up this year, and I’ll be trying to top my personal best of 23:59.  That was a few years ago now, and I’m hoping this is the year that I finally beat it.  I like to do crosswords.  I’ll watch pretty much anything with Matt Damon.  I’m a huge sports fan, and I often stay up watching Sports Center a bit later than I should.  I hope to one day go skydiving, the one item on my bucket list that is just as frightening as it is exciting.  You can be sure that if I ever do, you’ll read about it here!

I hope all this has given you a little better idea of just who’s on the other end of the phone when you call us.