Frog Legs

Since January 2007 I have been in school pursuing the education I need to shift into a career in accounting. Since my goal is to be an accountant, it was a requirement for the CPA exam I take all the undergraduate accounting courses (and some other various business courses). Additionally, I decided to pursue a Masters of Accountancy as I felt having a degree in the field would be beneficial so I also have taken (and am still taking) the graduate-level courses required for this advanced degree.

During this time, my grades have been good. All the classes I have taken since January of 2007 can be categorized into either undergraduate or graduate level. At the undergraduate level my gpa since I started this process is about 3.9. At the graduate level, with two classes remaining, my gpa is 4.0.

This has been a lot of work, I’m not sure I can overstate how involved the whole process has been. The education by itself wasn’t so bad, but combining with a 40 or more hour work-week and the pace at which I was taking courses, my life for the last two and a half years has mostly consisted of studying, working and sleeping. This past spring I took 4 graduate courses (12 hours). Nine hours is normally considered “full time” in graduate school. I also took 4 classes the previous fall and 3 classes in the summer before that. I tend to understate my achievements. However in this case, I am very proud to have completed all that with such excellent grades.

So now the fruits of my labor are starting to become tangible. One of the local accounting firms is scheduling interviews in September. I was notified by email from the head of the accounting department and signed up to participate. Starting in approximately a few weeks I will seriously begin job hunting, so this interview session comes at an appropriate time.

I’m not sure what the future holds. In addition to the Master’s degree, I have a large (both deep and wide) knowledge base in the area of information technology. I believe this could be very valuable to either a small or large firm. Additionally I believe I have a lot of potential in the area of IT auditing and/or IT governance in general. Clearly my knowledge base (including a CISSP security certification) would serve me well in that area.

So what does the future hold? I don’t know but I am excited to find out!

So far I have taken 3 of the 4 CPA exams. I passed two of them, FAR and BEC. The third, AUD, I have not received results for, but I feel ok about the test. Not great, but I think there is a reasonable chance I passed it.

I am scheduled to take the 4th exam in six days, this coming Saturday. I think I should do ok and pass the test. After that, I won’t have anything to study at all for a few weeks until school starts again.

For study materials I chose to use Gleim. I reviewed a number of them and felt Gleim to be the best option for me. My main criteria was a study system which would provide plenty of tools for self-study. I did not want to take any classes. Gleim offers self-test software, books, an online learning system and audio lectures. There was another company who I was also leaning toward for self-study (don’t recall the name right away) but I chose Gleim because the other company didn’t publish their own books, Gliem does. Finally, Gleim was competitive on price, an important point for me.

So far of the results I have received, I passed 2/2 tests. I feel the Gleim books have been very representative of the three tests I have taken (recall: I have taken 3 but only received two results so far).

So for anyone else looking for a good self-study course, I highly recommend using Gleim whether you buy the books only or the other tools they offer.

I have recently been working on applying for the CPA. The state board has received all my material and evidently is “reviewing” it. Hopefully I hear back from the within a week or so. I would like to take two of the tests in May.

I’m debating which study review material to use, right now I am leaning toward either Gleim or Bisk. One of my professors who I respect recommended Bisk. Gleim gets lots of good reviews online.

UPDATE: I’ve settled on Gleim. Overall considering the reviews, cost and features it seems like a better fit for me.

I decided to make a post to track real estate for sale. I will update this post when I find some piece of RE that is of particular interest and which I want to keep track of for posterity’s sake. Read the rest of this entry »

The thesis being considered here is that the current credit cycle started in about 1983. The question I am attempting to answer is what exactly changed from pre-1983 to post-1983 that moved us from a relatively more stable and natural economic growth model to a more volatile boom/bust cycle as we currently have.

First I will begin with a discussion of monetary policy currently practiced by the Federal Reserve.
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I thought I would post some quotes that I find interesting.

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
Benito Mussolini

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
Thomas Jefferson

Of course, private banks do, more or less, control our currency. And the govt has long since been in bed with corporate and financial interests. Perhaps the worst of this is the complicity of the American people, it’s disgraceful frankly.

Currently, we are on the downswing of a relatively major business cycle. I mean that in the context of the Austrian model. What that implies is a contraction of a credit-driven economy caused by unwinding of credit.
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Here are some interesting quotes for the weekend, both from Ludwig von Mises:

“The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment.” 

and also:

“Credit expansion is the governments foremost tool in their struggle against the market economy. In their hands it is the magic wand designed to conjure away the scarcity of capital goods, to lower the rate of interest or to abolish it altogether, to finance lavish government spending, to expropriate the capitalists, to contrive everlasting booms, and to make everybody prosperous.”

Hi everyone, this is my new blog. Please bear with me while it undergoes refinement. I plan to add information about a variety of things. I also am considering starting a bulletin board for anyone interested, perhaps a board for graduates of Greenbrier High School.

I will open comments as well for anyone interested in commenting.