Holy Family students participated in an online investment conference held by the Catholic Community Foundation (CCF). Students from the business program, run by Mr. Richter, gathered during B, D, and E periods to virtually attend this meeting. The meeting covered the intentions of the CCF and how they have diversified their portfolio to minimize the downside factors of inflation. The CCF is a Catholic charity organization that funds faith-based projects like our own Holy Family Catholic High School. It allowed students who intend to pursue business careers to gain a further understanding of the investment and financial world.
With CCF being a foundation designed to help you grow financially, it is still their goal to spread awareness of faith while growing financially and spiritually. When you give funds to CCF, they grow through faith-consistent investments managed by financial experts and are reinvested by you for the good of the Catholic community. With over 600 million dollars in funds, it is their goal to help other Catholic foundations and schools. Luckily for us, we are just one of the schools that are a part of the CCF. Also, when you give through CCF, you can support the causes that mean the most to you, while knowing that CCF screens all nonprofits for financial standing and alignment with your Catholic values.
The main reason the students attended was to learn about the current trends and effects of the stock market. Multiple analysts from CCF provided an overview of the past trends of 2023 and the future predicted trends of 2024. The biggest takeaway was that 7 stocks have driven 90% of the returns throughout the last year. The bottom 493 stocks need to participate this year to help rebound the economy. They also stated that the current stock market still could have an upside for investors. The predicted delay of government interest rate drops will hurt the market. This however is good for investors because it will create an opportunity to buy into various stocks and funds. While the consumer still suffers from the inflation rates, investors have an opportunity to make some money. Going into 2024, the CCF hopes to grow their portfolio by 6-8%. While these are not high numbers, it still is a positive upside. The goal of the CCF is to create safe investment plans so that they do not risk donors’ money. They have professional analysts and economists who work hard towards creating adequate funds to support our faith community.
In conclusion, we learned about a Catholic organization that helps you with your spiritual and financial goals. In the presentation, we learned the overall trends of the stock market and what has happened in the prior years. We received insight and opinions from different analysts on what the stock has in store for us and what factors may influence the performance. Overall, the students learned a lot and it was a great opportunity for the students to experience a real-world business meeting.