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.

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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.

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During my preparation for the CPA exams, there were times when I didn’t want to study, think, work, or study. I just needed a break, something that would cheer/freshen me up quickly, or just sooth my mind, heart and soul. There were times when all I wanted was to go to bed with a smile, and there was not much that could do that [to me]… During those days, I would just rush to 1000 awesome things and read a few posts, and by the end of it all, I would be happy that I was alive, and I looked forward to tomorrow. It made me realize, again and again, that there was more to life… that I could choose what to focus on… that in the world of galaxies, the micro and the nano matter. So, here is a shout out to Neil! His book has been out a couple of weeks now… so if you have a moment, go take a look at his site, and if you share my feeling, grab the book of awesome!

Here is one of the posts that I remember reading way back when and I laughed my heart out.

Here is one of the posts that made me … swallow hard.

Here is one of my many favorites.

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Rules to be followed:

- You may not skip question 1.

- You may answer any other 2 questions.

- You can answer a minimum of 3 questions.

- If you ask other people to participate, you may not influence their answers or make them justify their answers, or “judge” them.

1. If you were to choose only 3 people to remain in the world, who would those be?

2. If you were to save only 3 files on your computer, which 3 files would you save?

3. If only 3 books would remain in the world, which books would you want those to be?

4. If you were to choose 3 of your favorite experiences, what would those be?

5. Which websites (including blogs) would you choose to remain, if only 3 could remain?

6. If you could eat the same 3 “foods” everyday for the rest of your life, which foods would you pick?

7. What 3 things are memorable about this day?

8. If you were to carry only 3 things with your backpack on a year long trip, what would those things be?

9. If you only had only 3 minutes a day to read a book, surf the web, call somebody, .. what would you read? What sites would you go to? Who would you call?

Thanks for reading? I hope you found that helpful.

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What makes you think or believe that you can accomplish what you set out to do, or that after struggling for a little bit, you will be met with success after you turn the corner? As far as I am concerned, nothing beats personal experience. When you can say, “I have gone through that, hence I know,” nobody can argue with that.

With that in mind, use your struggles, (be it failure on the exam, procrastination, doubt, …) as a source of motivation. If you can overcome all that and press forward one more time, and success comes, you will be more confident against the next obstacle. Next time, when you are in similar circumstances, in school or at work or in life, you will have the confidence to press on, to hold onto hope in the face of adversity.

That’s what I have done, and that’s what I am doing now. I have used that “logic” many times before. I used it to pass the CPA exams, and I am using it to overcome some interesting challenges at work

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.

I have been lucky to have met and been taught by some great Professors. At first, I thought I could just thank one Professor (whose name I had forgotten!) because he led me to a student (whose name I had forgotten!) who led me to Gleim! A few weeks ago, as I was preparing to move, I found my old class assignments and notes, and I came across the Professor’s name and the student’s name! What a joy!

This morning, while thinking about this post, I realized you that I cannot limit it to just one Professor. I have great memories of so many of them, and they each played a role in how I thought about business, accounting, life, and God. I suspect that most of them did not intentionally send the message they sent or if they did, they did not know how I would interpret it, or how long I would hold onto it, or what impact it would have. Well, even for me, it is only with hindsight, and with other developments in life that I am able to see their impact.

I think when I was in 6th grade, a certain teacher, Mr. Chavula, happened to mention that the three most important things in Mathematics (Arithmetic) were Accuracy, Speed, and Neatness. For some reason, even though I was 10 or 11 years old, it made a huge impression on me, and I never forgot it. When I prepare(d) for a test, when I fill out forms, when I took tests including the CPA exams, those three things were/are there in my mind. You want to turn in correct/accurate answers, you want to answer as much as you can, and finally, if it is handwritten, you want the marker/grader to be able to read what you wrote. Accuracy, Speed, and Neatness.

In Secondary School (=High School), I had a few great teachers. The one I remember most is Brother Cajetan (sp), a Marist Brother who taught Mathematics. I had sucked at Mathematics for a long time, and I remember my mom got me a tutor when I was in 8th grade to help with my school. I just didn’t car. I just didn’t pay attention. When I went to high school, my brain sort of “opened up” and I started to get it, and then when I was in Form 3 (=junior in High School), and Brother “Cagey” turned Mathematics into my favorite subject. I just got it, and by the end of third year, I knew that I would get “1 point”, the highest distinction, when I took the Form 4/University Entrance exams. Looking back, I can see that I used Brother Cagey’s method to study/prepare for the CPA exam. His method was to do all the problems, and when you were done, to do them over again. You will get a bunch wrong, you will see all the tricks that have been used before, you will get tired, and you will develop discipline in the process. I did not go through the questions twice for the CPA exam, but I went through all the questions in either the Gleim Testprep CD or the Wiley 14.0 CD.

What are the other things I remember about my teachers and professors?

- One Professor of Cost Accounting once told me, as we were saying good byes after the end of the semester, that I had “talent” for accounting! Ha ha! I had not thought of myself as having anything special, or that I had done anything extraordinary in his class to be described as talent. Anyway, it was a huge compliment and it gave me confidence in my other classes.
- One Professor of Intermediate Accounting used to say, “this is a tricky question!”, after he asked as a question. I told my girlfriend about it, and we used to call him “tricky questions”. He is one of my all time favorite Professors. He is the one who started me thinking of Accounting or Financial Statements as a sory, not just a set of numbers.
- One Professor of Accounting Information Systems, and I think she also taught me another class where we did lots of research and financial analysis… I enjoyed her classes; her classes were not difficult, they just took lots of time to do. There was no way around it. For example, part of one class was using SAP, and you had the manual right in front of you with instructions on how to do everything, but there was no way you could get things done without going line by line, familiarizing yourself with the menus and reports, to get the assignment/homework done! Another was researching a bunch of companies at the SEC website… lots of 10Qs and 10Ks, and reviewing restatements. Not difficult, but time consuming. I would like to think that the search functionality was not as user-friendly, but I could be wrong. Through all that, I learned the need for patience, how to effectively search for information, and how to “read Financial Statements.” The search obviously became handy on simulations. The other skills became indispensable at work, which led to taking the CPA exams, …
- One Professor for Tax (Federal Taxation, Tax Research, and another class I cannot remember), did various things that were helpful. For example, for one of the classes, the assignment and exams came from an old book with tons of old CPA exam questions. I want to say it was a Gleim book, but I am not sure. That exposed us to CPA exam questions while in school. He was also very strict in his grading. I got a “B” in one of his class and my score was 89.75 or something like that. I emailed him to say I was “frustrated” by that grade. I don’t think he wrote back! I later found out, my email didn’t ask him if he could round that up to 90 and I would get an “A”. Anyway, when I got 74 in REG and failed that CPA exam, it was like his spirit was hovering over me again! Anyway, the 89.75 is in the past, so is the 74. But he graded for all sorts of things that other professors didn’t grade. He invested a lot of time in his grading, but it made us better students. One last thing I remember about him, he had been a “problem child” – well, even adult. I think he was “born-again” in his 30s and that changed his approach to life. Though younger, I could relate to his transformation. I wanted to know how God can make you tick. That is my life long goal. To be the best I can be, for His glory.

I will cut this post short. Points to take home:
1 – A lot of people play a role in getting us where we get to… sometimes we don’t think about it. In academia, it is hard for me to envision one making it without the help of good teachers and Professors along the way.
2 – I had some luck to meet some very good people along the way. I am lucky that I paid attention to some things that were said and used them as motivation.
3 – I was lucky to go to a good school or a few good schools. They help even if you are not the best student.
4 – “God never wastes an experience.” Sometimes you go through “tough” or unexciting life experiences without knowing what use they are for. Only later on, when you are in the right place, and you take time to look back, can you see/understand/appreciate the importance of those experiences.

Professor, thanks for your help!

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

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