Accountant's Musings: CPA Exam & Life Beyond

Don’t forget God. Thank Him for your life, for your work, for your health, for your boss, for your paycheck, for your family, for your workmates, … for the many other blessings. Pray for wisdom and guidance. Do right.

Learning never stops. Once you embrace this, you approach work with a sense of responsibility and enthusiasm. It is easier to accept your faults and mistakes, and take the necessary steps to improve.

Expectations/responsibilities are high. Everybody expects you to know a little bit more than you do, or they do. Some expect leadership and decisiveness. Some just bounce of ideas to see what you think. Humility helps so you don’t come off as a know-it-all. Proactivity helps so that you don’t shy away from your responsibility. Hard work helps to make up for shortcomings in understanding/knowledge/experience/time.

Willingness to do grunt work is a big plus. Somebody has to do it. Sometimes you don’t appreciate what it takes to bring food on the table until you go shopping (for groceries), clean your own fish, cook the food, and get it to the table.

The ability to get along with people comes in handy. You never know who will save your butt some day. You never know who talks with who. You just never know a lot of things. All you can do is make sure you have your cards right. At a minimum, treat everybody with respect.

Bosses (and most people) care about the results. You can schmoose, get along with people, etc, but at the end of the day, they look at your productivity. What is the business spending its money on you for? If you were the company, would you pay somebody else as much as they pay you to produce what you produce? It always helps me when I look back at different times during the day to see what I have accomplished. What did I do today? A week from today, will I be able to point at what I have done today, and convince myself, and/or other people, that this day was a productive day?

Anticipate, and act accordingly.

Do not procrastinate.

Prioritize work.

A clean desk is a happy desk.

Continuous Professional Education.

Plant as many good seeds in as many good soils as possible. Be the best farmer you can be.

Plan. Execute your plan.

When you have done your best, no regrets.

It is just work. It is just life. Chill out.

Life is bigger than work.

Manage your time and your money. Time is the essence of life. As we work, we give up life (energy) to earn money. By taking good care of the money, using it wisely, we show our appreciation of ourselves and our life. Good money management can be learned.

Remember those who got you to where you are today, and those who are getting you to where you will be tomorrow.

Pay it forward.

[I look forward to the lessons that the next couple of years will bring.]

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful.

Popularity: 10% [?]

What is like being a CPA? This is a loaded question depending on what one is willing to share, to accept as a comprehensive enough answer, and what the focus is. For example, are the following answers good enough?

1/ It is like winning a marathon

2/ It is like winning a Swiss Chess tournament

3/ It is like being validated

4/ It is like getting a dose of confidence

5/ It is like joining a special community of really [.......] people

6/ It is like getting a huge load off your shoulder

7/ It is like people expect your to be an accounting-Superman

8/ It is like opening doors of opportunity

9/ It is like any other tough professional certification

10/ It is like nothing changed

Sometimes it is hard to answer seemingly easy questions. Sometimes it is hard to understand/accept a seemingly easy answer. Sometimes you just have to go through it to get it. Similar questions:

1/ What is it like being the President of the USA?

2/ What is it like driving a semi/truck from California to New York?

3/ What is it like being a resident (Doctor)?

4/ What is it like being the son/daughter of a famous/rich/… person?

5/ What is it like to be a slave?

6/ What is it like being God?

7/ What is like to be discriminated against?

8/ What is it like going through a hurricane/earthquake/tsunami?

9/ What is it like to wait for judgment?

10/ What is like to be a champion?

11/ What is it like to live in a place where you have no choice, no options, no opportunity, no way out?

If you ask 100 people who have gone through whatever situation you are inquiring about, you will get so many varied answer because individuals are different, their situations are unique, their motivations and interpretations are different. However, thinking and getting an idea of certain situations may help prepare you in case you end up in a similar situation, or it may help you empathise with somebody who has gone through a situation or is going through it.

Now, what is it like being a CPA for me?

I became a CPA bit by bit. When I passed an exam, I thought I was 1/4 or 1/5 of the way done. [1/4 if you exclude the Ethics exam.] Each time I passed an exam, my confidence grew. As I studied, procrastinated, recovered, prayed, waited for exams to come out, found out that I had passed or failed, checked the results, hoped, read my positive thinking note, etc, I learnt a lot about myself. So in a way, for me, being a CPA brings some self-awareness on how you deal with things, how you manage yourself. Along the way, I wondered why I wanted to be a CPA. I answered the question in my mission statement or motivational notes. I regularly try to find a reason why I am doing certain things. I have found it very helpful. I have found out that depending on who you are talking to, the CPA certification may or may not carry much weight especially when you are out of the USA. Some people give it too much weight. May be not. May be my expectations were not as high as they should be. I have since adjusted them for the sake of myself, and for the sake of the profession. So being a CPA brings a lot of responsibility.  You don’t want to be the one that makes people say, “these new CPAs are up to no good”. I found that being a CPA has opened doors that otherwise would not have been open, or as open. I have found that I reviewed a lot of material as I was preparing for the exams that it becomes handy at unexpected times. I have also found out that I have forgotten a lot of material.  I have found out that if I had known the benefits of being a CPA way back when, I could have taken the exam earlier, I could have studied harder, I could have complained less,  and may be, I could have wished the exam was a little harder. I have found that if I were to live my life again, and I was asked whether I wanted to go through the CPA exams, I would say yes in a heartbeat. I have found that knowledge and experience are not the same thing, nor do they give you the same result all the time; preferably, you want to have a lot of both, and find a way to get them to talk to each other so that you can be more effective. It is great to be a CPA. I would like to say I haven’t changed much, but I also know I have changed much. I am still me for the most part, but I am a little bit changed, for the better (I would like to think), because of my experiences studying for the CPA exams and also being a CPA.

If you are a CPA or a certified somebody/something, what is it like?

If you want to be a CPA or certified somebody/something, why do you want to be that? What do you think it is like being a CPA or a certified somebody/something?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful.

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I used to be obsessed with being a millionaire at some point in my life. I thought that if I had a million dollars, I would never have to worry about money ever again, and I would be able to tithe, help out, travel, etc. things that I was not able to do because I didn’t have enough money. Along the way, I have changed the way I look at money. I suspect that if I had a $1 million, I would continue living the way I live now, for the most part. What would I change? I would pay off a few things. I would travel to see my family. I would give part of it away. I would simplify enough – mostly getting rid of things that suck money and energy out. Anyway, that’s not the point of this post. I was looking at how long $1 million would last. Well, there are so many variables, so I decided, what if I start with a figure [i.e. number of years], and then work backwards to how much I would spend per day, without earning any interest on the remainder, to get to a point where all the money was used up. Say, 50 years. Then I would have to spend about $55 [$54.79 on a 365 day year]. Now, that’s where the $55 question came up. If you asked a people at random: Would you rather get $55/day for the next 50 years, or get $1 million today, and never receive another cent, ever? [Well, the $1 million, is actually $1,003,750.] I wonder what the tallied results would look like.

How would you use your $55 that you got on each day?

For example, if you rented a house that you had to pay $550 per month, then you would have to save $18.33 of your $55 each day, so that you can pay rent. If you had utilities that cost a total of $50.10 per month, you would have to save another $1.67 for your utilities, so each day, you would have to save $20 of your $55 daily pay to cover rent and utilities. How would you use the remaining $35? How much would you spend on breakfast, lunch, dinner? How about transportation, haircut, toothpaste, etc? Of course, this brings up interesting points. If you have the $1 million at once, then you don’t really have to worry about scraping through your savings to make rent and other big one time payments that last a relatively long time [well, longer than one day, at least.] However, I suspect that getting the $1 million upfront, versus getting it in bits of $55, would take away some wonderful thinking time, time to develop discipline to plan and save and figure things out for yourself.

As a side note, if you make $385/week, and you work for 50 years, you will have made $1 million in 50 years. No raises, no taxes. How do you intend to use your $55/day or $1 million/50 years?

How would you use your $55/day if:

1/ there were no emergencies?

2/ there would be a few life threatening emergencies, but you just didn’t know when they would show up?

3/ you had a car, car payment, etc?

4/ you didn’t have a car, car payment, etc?

5/ you had a mortgage/rent payment of $550 or more?

6/ you had a mortgage/rent payment of $225 or less?

7/ you had a hot date in 10 days and you would be paying for the expenses on your date?

8/ your significant other’s birthday was coming up in 10 days, or 100 days?

9/ you didn’t know if the payments would stop or continue?

10/ you didn’t know how stable prices would be in the future?

11/ you could control your reliance on these pay checks?

For the people who are not getting $55/day for free, but are making just as much by working,… this brings up an important point… the need to even be more “careful” with the money. Much more careful than the free money as you are giving up part of your life to have access/rights to that money.

I have not resolved my dependency on money, but I know that $1 million is no longer my goal. I do not need that much money to be happy or survive/prevail. My goal is to figure out a way to use as little $/day as I can. Need less money and things. Make money and things last longer.

I would like to use only a small portion of that $55. $5 or less would be ideal, especially if I could do it by choice. Then I could have 10 other people use the rest.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful.

This post was inspired by the writings of Jacob, at early retirement extreme.

Popularity: 10% [?]

The other day I was talking to Leigh, a friend at work. Among the things we discussed was my preparation for the CPA exam, and how she prepared for her SPHRM and other certifications… She mentioned that her husband had told her, at some point, to treat her school or study as work. Set a time that you need to show up for study, and do the studying – just like you would show up for work, and do the work. For me, that was one of the greatest words of wisdom regarding how to develop discipline to study.

What if you got paid to study? What if you got paid to pass the CPA exam? What if you would be fired if you didn’t study enough or if you didn’t pass the exam? Well, all those things happen in one way or another. For example, if you get your certification, you generally get paid more than those who don’t have the certification; trust me, I know! If you get your certification, you are generally not as dispensable (in layoffs) as the not certified. This doesn’t happen one time, it happens for the rest of your work life. Well, these are the benefits of actually passing and getting certified. But, the benefits aside, I think that the logic of looking at school and study as work, and setting time for it, and showing up on time, working set hours, and making sure you do outstanding work each time, is great.

I think knowing this and thinking about it, and trying to put it into practice, helped me in my preparation for my last exam or two. Thanks, Leigh!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful.

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This is a series in which I am thanking those who helped me pass the CPA exam.

Next up, my girlfriend, Mwayi!

When we see people who have accomplished something thank their family and friends, or go on an endless litany of how who did what when where, we sometimes don’t appreciate how certain people can make or break a person or his/her dreams. I have read of a few stories where a boyfriend or girlfriend lost “patience” or “love” because the other person was studying all the time. Sometimes they will say hurtful or discouraging things. At a minimum, I think you need somebody who will not “distract” you emotionally, mentally, or physically. Well, that’s my minimum. I was lucky to have somebody who was selfless in her support of my goals. I had alluded to her help in when I was thanking God for His help. I may repeat some of those things here. If I do, it is totally-deserved and I cannot thank her enough.

Her love: I cannot explain it enough. I have heard it said that “love is a verb.” To have somebody whom you have no doubts or questions about her love is a blessing. How am I so sure about her love? I don’t know. Her works, her presence, my feelings,.. and other “unexplainables.”  I am lucky and thankful to have that.

Her goodness: There are some things that she did/does that I know she does them not because it is me or because she loves me as her boyfriend, but because she is just a good person. It is nice and helpful to be surrounded by goodness and love when you are stressed out, and when you are not at your best self. I am sure that when I was preparing for the exams and she was around, I was not the best boyfriend in the world, and the exam may have seemed as first, middle, and last priority. I suspect that her core goodness and the love made her go through those times with grace.

Her spirituality: She has prayed for me/us/others a million times – whether it was on the phone, or in the car, or the couch… Any time is God-time, especially when things are overwhelming. It was nice to pray when we were not stressed, and when we were stressed out. Sometimes I don’t feel like praying… either because I am tired, or I feel sinful, or I am just too stressed to focus, and yet part of me wants a prayer to be said to God. To have somebody who will say that prayer with you or for you, is always great. Even though I don’t act it, I believe that there is nothing more important that one’s spirituality and relationship with God. To have somebody who is a constant reminder of God is a blessing beyond description.

Her encouragement: I am pretty certain that I am smart, that if I invest enough time in something, I will get it, and on any day I can look back to see things I have sought and achieved. But even with that knowledge and proof, there were times when I thought I was missing something to pass the CPA exams. I had doubts before I passed my first exam, and I had doubts after I had passed 3 exams. I read my positive thinking note, I prayed, I listened to positive thinking notes, but doubts could overwhelm me sometimes. To have somebody who knew me so well, and could either laugh at my doubts, or recite my successes, or just find a way to tell me, it was doable, I could do it, I would do it, that was very helpful, and a special blessing.

Her achievements and intellect: she is very smart. Overall, I think she is smarter than me. Even though I was not in competition with her, her achievements (those past, present, and to come) inspired me to make something of the opportunity I had to be a CPA. It was nice to double-check my thinking at times, especially on Economic theory (BEC). I knew she would become a CFA at some point or go to do a Ph.D, so out of love, I could become a CPA! (LOL!)

Her cooking: other than my mom (!), I think she is the best cook I have ever met/loved! I don’t think it is just because I love my mom or I love my girlfriend, or that I have eaten their food the most, I truly believe they cook good food. The sentiment aside, it was nice to not worry about cooking lunch or dinner after spending 12+ hours at work, and then trying to study after that. I cooked a few times when she was around, but it was so rare/few that it should not even count. The difference was so noticeable when she was gone, and I started cooking for myself again. I would usually cook different foods on the weekend, so that I didn’t have to cook during the week. I don’t mind eating the same foods over and over, or reheating foods, but still, I could not help but miss her presence and cooking. [Note: we didn't breakup! ]

Her presence: It was nice to come home and get a hug, to share the happenings of the day, share our thoughts, goals, dreams, etc. Eat together, go for walks, go to the movies, hear the noise, laugh with each other, look in each other’s eyes, talk while cooking, watch “Friends” together… what more can I say?

Some of the things here may seem obvious, small, insignificant… but it is when the bases and fundamentals are sound that you are able to launch, take off, and reach for the skies. The CPA exams was one of the bigger clouds in the sky, and I could not have touched it without Mwayi. It is my prayer that I will be half as good to her as she has been to me and help her reach her goals and be happy.

Thanks, babe! I love you!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful.

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This is a series in which I am thanking those who helped me pass the CPA exam.

Mirror Image

image source: www.tech-exclusive.com

I met Joel when I was taking an undergrad Managerial Accounting class in 2004. It was a prerequisite for the MSA program [my undergrad degree was not in Accounting, so I had to take a ton of undergrad Accounting classes as prerequisites.]

I think I had missed something that the Professor had said, so I looked to my right and saw this guy I felt comfortable asking if I could copy his notes real quick. He graciously shared his notebook and a few seconds later, I returned the notebook and said thanks. From there, we talked a little bit. I think I was the one asking the questions, trying to get some info from him – what he did, how he thought about the class, etc. Even though I am quiet in general, sometimes I do my fair share of talking or joking around. With time, we became friends, and we played pool and basketball, and a few other games. He kicked my butt in all those games. I think he is one of the strongest all-around amateur players I have met. Even though we didn’t get a chance to play Chess, I would like to think I would have won!

In academics, it was nice to be with somebody who was smart, excelled when he took the time to study, could explain what he knew/studied, knew he was smart, was academically honest, procrastinated but knew that a not-good-enough grade was not an option… In some ways, I saw my own reflection. At other times, I saw somebody who was better than me, especially when he found time to study and I did not. This finding time to study was a matter of discipline. We both did well in the classes we took together. I think we both finished our respective programs in 2006.

Fast forward to a year or two later, and I was talking to Joel, and he happened to mention that he had passed the CPA exams! I didn’t know he was taking the exam! My fault. One of the many screw-ups I did in our friendship. The most serious was that I didn’t keep in touch.

Anyway, knowing that Joel had done it, gave me the drive and confidence to do it. If my intellectual mirror had done it, then I could do it. If studying for the CPA required some discipline, and Joel had that discipline, the only thing I needed was to learn and apply that discipline. This is not underrating Joel. I have always respected and admired him, and still do. [Joel passed the four exam in one shot, or straight through. I, on the other hand, retook REG. So, if there is no need to show who is "better", well, he definitely is!] The point is, he was the only person who had passed the CPA exam that I knew and could relate to. In some ways, it is similar to some people who get encouraged by reading this blog. If you spend enough time here, you may feel like you know me and we have something in common. The only difference is, Joel and I actually spent time together. We hang out a few times.

I had quite a few questions on how he approached the exam, what review material he used, how much he studied, what areas he focused on, etc. He graciously answered all my questions and encouraged me to do it – that I could do it. Looking back, I see that I did it in a different way from him, but I am sure that I applied some of the things that he shared with me.

When I passed a section or two, I told him (via email) and he cheered me on. Well, I guess I now need to tell him that I am done with the exam and that my CPA certificate was issued today!

So, this post is to thank my friend, Joel, who knowingly or unknowingly, led me to where I am today.

Joel, you are God-sent! Thanks from the bottom of my heart. I hope I was, in some way, a positive influence on you as you were on me.

Who is your intellectual mirror? Who makes you feel that you can do it? Who will be there, intellectually or otherwise, despite yourself? Who is your Joel?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful.

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I was looking at some SAP career info and along the way, I found a book by an SAP mentor, Jon Reed, called Resumes From Hell. Here are sample chapters.  My favorite sample chapter was: “If you don’t ask, I will: The Self-Questionnaire”. I look forward to getting the book; it appears to be both funny and instructive. Good luck with your resume-writing and job-hunting if you are in search of one.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 11% [?]