I attended a party with a coworker who works in the Career Planning Office. He stated that there are over 100 employment opportunities, both internships and permanent positions, that were yet unfilled. I was taken aback. I said, "None of those positions are in accounting, are they?" To which he smiled and said, "Oh, no. With the accounting students, all I had to do was sit back and watch."
Am I proud of the accounting students? You bet! The MSA and MST students hear it from the beginning at orientation—go to the Meet the Accounting Recruiter event. Meet with your professors. Stay involved. Why? Competition. With over 400 accounting students on this campus alone, you have to distinguish yourself. And how can you do that? Instead of staying in for a 5 year undergraduate degree, pursue your master degree in either accounting or taxation. You should be taking the courses that will help you not only pass the CPA exam, but also help you not only secure a job, but help you in your chosen career path.
The MSA and MST programs feature classes that are only offered at the graduate level. In addition, you will have some access to classes offered through the MBA program and the law school. Employers are becoming more discerning. Some recruiters will even review your transcripts, looking for specific classes.
Interested in tax? Both the MSA and the MST program offer classes in S-Corp Taxation, Partnership Taxation and fiduciary taxation. Is auditing a better fit? We offer classes in Corporate Financial Reporting and Financial Statement Analysis.
The job market seems to be improving. That means even more competition for coveted positions at prestigious firms. Now is the time to go the extra mile and get your graduate accounting degree!
I promised to keep my Kelley family in the loop as I study and sit for the CPA exam. My updates haven't been as frequent as I had planned, but you know what they say: better late than never!
In August, I sat for the Business Environment and Concepts section (BEC). I found out in September that I passed. I literally couldn't believe it. I refreshed the screen one last time to make sure it had loaded correctly. This was a great boost as I had already moved on to studying for my next section, Auditing and Attestation (AUD). In addition to giving me confidence in my ability, it also added to the time crunch. All four parts of the CPA Exam must be passed within 18 months. In order to retain my BEC credit, I must pass all parts by Feb 2013. The minute I saw that passing score, the clock started ticking. You can only take each section one time per quarter and there are only two testing months per quarter. Therefore, allowing time for retakes is crucial when planning exam strategy.
On Halloween, I sat for AUD and much to my surprise and delight, I found out that I passed just before Thanksgiving. It was perfect timing because I was able to share good news at family gatherings. Additionally, I was scheduled to take Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) the following Monday. The great news I received gave me the push I needed to do the hard things like leave my family gathering before we even started playing euchre to study on Thanksgiving day.
When I started this journey, I made a goal to pass all four parts in no more than seven attempts. I set that goal based on the average pass rates. Of course, now that I'm two for two, I'd like to be one of the 8% that pass all four parts on the first try. However, I took two of my stronger subjects first. Although I am halfway there, I have a long way to go. FAR was very challenging and I anticipate a retake. I am currently studying for Regulation (taxes, business law, etc) which I find interesting and a change of pace from the previous exams. However, I know this section has had the lowest pass rates in 2011. The new format has made this portion of the exam even more challenging.
Most importantly, I am thankful for my education and experience at Kelley. In addition to my undergraduate and graduate business and accounting studies, I was a graduate assistant for an auditing professor. I was able to proctor and grade exams and also help on an auditing research project. This experience alone was the cornerstone to my success on the Audit portion of the CPA Exam. Likewise, there were many courses I took that prepared me for the other sections. Although the amount of material covered on the FAR exam was quite extensive, I can honestly say that nothing was new material. I had some exposure to all the major topics as part of my undergraduate and graduate accounting classes. The curriculum at Kelley (and more importantly, the professors who are passionate about the material) truly provided a solid foundation!
Without further delay, I must get back to studying!
Wow, I'm not really sure where the past weeks have gone since I last blogged. Apparently, managing a 40 hours/week internship and 6 credit hours worth of online classes is difficult. It was all worth it though.
The internship started with training in Chicago, and I ended up running into individuals I met at the Discover Tax event back in January. Training was fun, but I was eager to work. Through the next 7 weeks, I created workbooks that fore-casted needs that partners will even use, prepare workbooks for campus recruiting teams, updated controls, helped prepare individual returns for one of the largest tax accounts in the world, helped "tie out" footnotes and a 10-Q for press release, and worked on files that will be shared with international teams.
Overall, the internship exceeded my expectations. My time at Ernst & Young this summer will be unforgettable and hard to beat. I created relationships that will last many years and now have a detailed network within the Midwest. Beyond these extrinsic benefits, I now have the comfort of knowing that I do want to start my accounting career in public accounting. I received and accepted an offer as a 2012 Winter Assurance Intern, and I am excited for the experiences that await me.
A picture of me at the Ernst & Young Chicago office, which is the largest EY location in the Midwest region.
I just finished up the first class in the A516/A554 tax series. A516 was an online class, conducted through weekly four hour lectures on Adobe Breeze. The class started one week before the regulation semester stared and ran for a total of six weeks (seven if you include the final).
I enjoyed Professor Kulsrud as a lecturer. He's very animated, which comes across nicely with an online class (where some humor IS needed to break apart the monotony of sitting at your desk) and even recored a lecture outside of class time to cover a chapter we did not have time for during the regular lecture. This was my first class with Professor Kulsrud and my first time taking one of his tests (which is 75% of your class grade). It was an open book/note test...which is always a trap, as tests are designed for a specific time-frame and you searching your book/notes for every questions is not taken into consideration for that time-frame. It's the catch-22 of open book/note tests, usually you only have enough time to look up a small percentage of questions. Meaning you still have to study for the exam (which for some reason a portion of people don't do when the hear open book/note).
Also, I prefer intensive learning classes mainly because it fits my style of learning and plays into why I liked the class structure. I could see some people not enjoying the class because you do have to have initiative and self-discipline to stay on top of the material. As I've found in most of my tax classes (A516 is no exception), the most enjoyable part of the class is relating and using the information in my own life. Compared to say an Anthropology class on the habits of Hunters and Gatherers (No disrespect to Anthropology, I've actually taken said class in my undergrad years and enjoyed it). Whereas learning a 2-trust plan, why probate is horrible and understanding the concept that gifting is usually better that willing property is something I can bug my parents about everyday.
In conjunction with A516 I attended a small presentation on living trusts held by a local estate attorney. The two topics no one wants to talk about, death and taxes, were the focal points of conversation. The seminar was good but I found the second half of his talk more interesting when an actual trust example was discussed and showed some different techniques used to protect trust assets. The estate class has been flying by and I've enjoyed how the information is quite relevant to my life outside of school.
Read an interesting piece by my favorite economist in the New York Times this morning (no one needs to point out the odd-ness of having a 'favorite economist' to me). Mankiw discusses how the Simpson-Bowles plan aims to reduce the deficit by eliminating 'tax expenditures', or many of the credits we receive for doing certain things that may or may not actually be economically positive for the nation's health. Specifically, the mortgage interest deduction.
Mankiw describes snipe hunting being something the nation decides it wants to encourage, likely because the national snipe hunting association has an army of lobbyists and not necessarily because the hunting of more snipe will help the country in any meaningful way. To encourage this great snipe hunt, the congress fights over whether to send people a $100 check for each snipe caught, or give them a $100 tax credit for each snipe while ignoring the fact that they're essentially arguing whether the glass is half full or half empty while the rational person still can't figure out why all the non-snipe hunters need to pay for the snipe hunters to snipe hunt.
Personally, I think the Simpson-Bowles plan does a great job at walking the line between the two political camps that favor half full or half empty while actually solving the issue of massive government deficits. I also read a really interesting piece in Newsweek about this very issue and how Obama may have the opportunity to do what the British are currently doing and get sensible about the economic reality and make financial common sense an election issue :
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/13/what-obama-needs-to-do.html
Spending needs to be cut, tax receipts need to increase (though marginal tax rates don't necessarily need to). At some point this country will have to either reconcile these two positions and use the glass of water at 50% of capacity to swallow the bitter pill of economic reality and the sooner it can be done through compromise the better.
As a homeowner that gets a nice tax refund each year thanks to the mortgage interest deduction, I still support the Simpson Bowles plan because it will be good for the country. As people are finally starting to realize after this housing bust, your home is not your primary investment and it shouldn't be. Keeping corporate tax rates high at the cost of subsidizing home purchases over renting causes capital to be moved away from a place where it will be used more effectively to boost the economy to where it will be used less effectively, and even encourage the irrational purchasing of homes by many subprime borrowers that led to this financial crisis.
Many of these tax expenditures that people think are good only apply to certain people. For example - many of us in business school are taking on student loan debts to pay for school. Some of us will get to deduct the interest on those loans, but many will not because typically people coming out of business school will make more money than other majors. If you make $75,000 a year, you get no student loan deduction at all, and it starts becoming a smaller deduction at $60,000 annually. We talk all day long about encouraging more people to go to college, specifically in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) categories, but most of those graduates working in the private sector won't get any student loan interest deduction - so the tax expenditure isn't doing what it should be doing. Rather than constantly try to fix these hundreds of programs meant to encourage something that may or may not be worth encouraging - we rid ourselves of them altogether, but lower the marginal tax rate to everyone while at the same time reducing the deficit.
Is it a tax on the middle-class? Maybe, but who said the middle class has to own homes? We are letting a notion about home ownership being a source of economic stability take over while ignoring cause and effect. Are homeowners better off because they're homeowners, or are they just naturally better off and homeownership is just something that people that are better off do? If subprime borrowers weren't factoring in big tax refunds from a mortgage interest deduction, how many would have pursued ownership at any cost?
This Saturday, at 9 in the morning, I have a final for my A302 class. This is the 1 credit hour online class that you have to take with A328, Introduction to Income Tax. This has been one of the harder classes I have had to take and I am not sure how this final is going to go. It makes it even harder because it is in the morning on a Saturday. I am not very happy with having to get up that early and drive down to school.
So I am so excited to have 2 finals this week and get them over with. In F402, we have our finals this week. We have a valuation project that is due after Thanksgiving, so our finals is scheduled for this week. In A302, which is the online tax portion of my tax class, has a final this week as well. We have a project that is due after Thanksgiving in that class as well. But don't be too jealous about this final. It is Saturday morning at 9. I don't want to be taking it at that time.
This week is a big week for my job at UniversiTees. We are opening a new store in the Castleton Square Mall and, because I am moving there at the end of the semester, they have asked me to go up there and work. This week has been especially tough becuase of the amount of hourse I have had to put in to get the store opened on time. I have worked past 10 every night and I work before my classes in the morning each day this week. This has been hard becuase I also had a test on Wed. in Tax class. Hopefully when the store opens on Monday, everything will go fine.
I'm a bit of a nerd, and as a result I read a lot of online forums about various topics. One I follow about business and career topics is having a discussion about what socioeconomic 'class' people think they belong in. Overwhelmingly, the answers come back as middle or upper middle class, but people were always talking about income. I've known lots of people that make lots of money, but that I wouldn't consider rich. I've also known people that have very small incomes from their jobs, but are clearly very wealthy.
I'm not a huge fan of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series of books, but the one basic premise that is worth taking away is the difference between income and wealth. If I work for $100k a year, then I make $100k a year after taxes and that will slowly rise, but if I'm not building wealth with it - the second a bad patch in the economy hits, I'm atop an unstable top ready to tumble.
It's amazing to me how many people making large sums live paycheck to paycheck, with minimal assets. There's no point in valuing your 'class' or socioeconomic level with income. Income is too fleeting and can come and go - but looking at what makes people truly rich gives you the answer. Rich people don't need to work. If they work, they do it because they want to - there is no economic need. How do they do this? Assets that generate income.
I started building assets while I was still in undergrad - using the website Sharebuilder to sock away a few dollars here and there into small stock purchases. Today those assets have grown to be large enough that I could pay my graduate tuition for a semester (they raised rates HOW MUCH???) if I needed to, or I could continue to own the assets and let the income from them pay my water bill each month...forever.
As you grow your assets, eventually you could pay all of your bills with what you've got sitting in a brokerage account or a business. You can continue working...if you want.
I think the 'safety net' of social security and medicare does a lot of great things, but one thing it also did is lower the incentive for workers to save for their own retirement or a rainy day. I was just reading an article that said that HALF of Indiana seniors would be below the poverty line without social security. That's appalling to me. As much as people like to throw around these 3, 4, 5 million dollar retirement savings goals, those are to fully replace current incomes of 80, 100, 120k - to save enough to stay above the poverty line is a much, much smaller number.
As a generation, many of us have been told from day one that we need to save money for our own retirement - to maximize our IRA contributions and get the full company match in our 401k. I think our generation simply doesn't believe for a second that social security will exist for us in any meaningful way (even though the actual numbers say otherwise). But that perception may turn out to be a very good thing.
If we can all continue to ignore the existence of social security, acting as if it won't exist in any way, we may be able to turn around the problem of consumer debt and deficit spending in the US. If our personal savings rates climb and we as a generation build pools of assets and wealth and not the latest gadgets and expensive toys at the expense of our futures....we just might have a shot. We just need more people to stop talking about how much it sucks that they won't get social security and start doing something about it besides putting the minimum into their 401k
I'm about to become a landlord. My Dad has been one since I was a very short little Dave, so we decided to each drop in an equal amount of cash and purchase two duplexes. With his experience and my knowledge of accounting, finance, tax magic and the legal bits, I have zero doubts of our success. As the business grows, even by my most conservative projections, my entire current income could be replaced by the time I'm 50. Beyond that I'm of course socking away money into 401k and IRA accounts. If either plan works out, I'll have a comfortable retirement. If both work out in even an 'okay' way - I probably won't need to work past age 50. So that's my plan to build wealth and never have to work again...what's yours?
I am two semesters away from graduation. Instead of going fall and spring, I decided to use this summer as one of the semesters. I am taking 19 credit hours this summer and it is kicking my butt. I have 10 credit hours currently. These classes include tax, tax research, organizational behaviors, and an online music class. I recently became engaged, and now I am preparing for a wedding and working 35 hours a week to pay for the wedding. Then on top of that, I am changing our accounting club into Beta Alpha Psi, which is an honorary accounting fraternity. I am having an overwhelming summer to say the least.
This is my last summer before I am married and have a real world job. I am afraid that I am not going to get the chance to enjoy it. Does anybody have any recommendations for what I should do for fun this summer? Where I should go over a weekend, or what movie I should see? I would very much appreciate some input!
Hope everybody's summer is going well.
Wanted to share a piece by Greg Mankiw in the NY Times last weekend.
As much rhetoric gets tossed in either direction about the rising national debt and need for balanced budgets, Mankiw points out that balanced budgets are simply too strict of a standard for essentially the same reason that student loans are considered differently in our minds than credit card debt. Debt taken on to increase future incomes or stabilize dangerous situations is good debt so long as it doesn't get out of control.
We take on student loans because we assume that post-graduation we will experience higher incomes over the long term, so the debt taken on now appears to be a small burden. Debt taken on to buy big screen tvs and go out drinking every weekend is bad debt. That big screen and hangover won't bring higher incomes later - so you'd better finance that with cash on hand.
Things get dangerous, even with student loans when your debt becomes so large and grows so quickly that even your long term gain experienced from taking on that debt isn't enough to cover the payments. Case in point - federal budget proposal. I'm no GWB fanboy, but as much as people harped on budget deficits during his tenure, those deficits were never larger than the growth of the economy. This new budget is going to grow faster than even their own predictions for economic growth, which according to many are over-inflated. What results is student loan payments of $1000 a month and only $850 of income.
The federal government won't be able to get a hardship waiver from Sallie Mae and have their loans deferred until the economy improves, and like student loans - we don't get to just walk away (otherwise I'd have compared the whole thing to buying a house that's too expensive). Instead, we get more taxes - and unfortunately, taxing the rich into oblivion isn't going to work this time - it will have to be spread around. Pelosi wants a VAT tax like they have in Britain. Suddenly everything you buy costs 20% more, and because of unemployment, your salary isn't going to go up anytime soon. Congratulations, you just got a 20% pay cut. For a lot of people, an effective 20% pay cut makes unemployment and government benefits look a lot sweeter in comparison to dealing with their snarling boss every day. Additionally, if things cost more, your economics 101 class should have taught you that you're going to be buying less. Less purchasing means even fewer jobs.
Final thought - if deficits continue to outpace economic growth - pretty soon the guy with the accent will be talking about USA instead of
PIIGS.
With Thanksgiving being one short week away, I am stunned once again at how quickly the semester has flown. In addition to advising graduate students, I teach the tax research class in the undergraduate and graduate accounting programs. We are in the middle of registration and admissions for the spring, processing applications for graduation in 2010, setting up for spring orientations, managing the office, trying to help my son manage to get his homework done (an unending struggle) and on and on and on...
So you know what? It's time to take a breather!! I give my exam on Saturday morning, and then we have a short week next week. And about time, too! The program office will close on Wednesday, November 25th at 2pm and reopen on Monday, November 30th at 7:30am. For students, you are outta here on Tuesday night. Be sure to use this time to take a breather for yourself!
We host the Thanksgiving meal at our house every year and it is something I really look forward to. Everyone is so busy that this is the only time of year when we are all able to be together. I hope that you will be able to spend time with your friends and family as well. And if you are away from home, call some friends and make your own celebration for Thanksgiving. But above all, take this time to rest and be ready for the final 3 weeks of the fall semester. Remember, January is just around the corner...
Sometimes things sound like a great idea to us upfront, but upon closer inspection things can look different. That's what graduate business education is all about - learning to read between the lines, look beyond the obvious and see the pitfalls that can be too often overlooked.
For example, there is a discussion about using tax money to give credits for new hiring to drive the economy. I'm sure to anyone out of work right now, it sounds like a great idea - I even have a job and at first glance it sounds great. If you've had an intro to economics class, there's a fair bet your book was written by Dr. Mankiw.
Dr Mankiw discusses in great detail all the reasons that this idea would go wrong in the real world. The first and most obvious example would be the difficulty in implementation and eliminating cheating in the program by companies firing Peter to hire Paul.
Kelley is teaching me to look past the obvious idea of 'we want to incentivize business to create jobs' and see that adding complexity and bureaucracy to the issue isn't going to solve it. Jobs need to be created naturally in order to be sustainable. Sustainable jobs are created through new business, new technology and innovation - not tax incentives. As soon as those tax incentives go away, all those people are right back out of work, we've wasted a ton of money and prolonged (and probably intensified) the problem.
Tax incentives may be an easy way to create jobs quickly, but a better educated workforce and entrepreneurs (Kelley-educated of course) with great ideas is the right way.
Leave a comment, how would you drive unemployment down and end the recession?
Since I started my graduate school work last fall, I've taken the courses of taxation, financial accounting, and business law. I particularly enjoyed tax courses, since they are so practical that I can immediately take advantage of the knowledge and information I got (I love saving money on taxes just like everyone else!). "Estate and Gift Taxation and Income Taxation of Estates and Trust" was another class that gave me useful information. I was aware some of the disadvantages of not being a US citizen and keeping my status as a permanent resident. The quickest example of such disadvantage is the right to vote. I, as a permanent resident, obviously have no rights to vote. From this estate and trust course, I learned that disadvantages exist in the area of taxation, too. The course taught me the importance of being proactive as to estate planning. Maybe I should think twice what I want to do about my nationality.
As the spring semester is almost half over, it's time to pick classes for summer and fall. Believe it or not, the day of my graduation will come quickly, and I will soon start working full-time. But, before that happens, there is still plenty of stuff that has to be done. Choosing the right classes, keeping up with the classes, researching for my career, networking, studying for CPA exams, passing the exams, and so forth... I am still not sure, after a couple of major career changes and years of education (and for that matter, it's still ongoing), whether I will be able to finally get "my dream job". Or does such thing really exist? Or do I deserve to earn it?
Someone said to me that we all are doing soul searching no matter what we are looking for. She said that all the efforts you've made (and speaking myself, I am still making) will someday get you where you feel it's a good fit for you. It may not be something you dreamed of, or even thought of. That's fine. Satisfaction comes in a variety of ways, and it can change over time. While worrying about what will happen later, I just do what I can do now, and enjoy my endeavor. The important thing is having fun while doing. I know that's the key to making the magic happen.
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