Some great articles I strongly recommend
- Generation Wired Goes To Work: 5 Tips for New Grads and ‘Old’ Bosses – FoxBusiness.com foxbusiness.com/personal-finan… via @foxbusiness
- Dimon: U.S. Debt Default Could be ‘Catastrophic’ – FoxBusiness.com foxbusiness.com/industries/201… via @foxbusiness
- Entitlement Nation: Makers vs. Takers – FoxBusiness.com foxbusiness.com/industries/201… via @foxbusiness
Analysis of Roger CPA Review
Rogers CPA Review is the next on my CPA Review course by course analysis. I am incredibly impressed with everything Rogers does from a business stand point. Their website is phenomenal and they have a lot of helpful tools. I also like that they have sample lectures and text books posted on their website. I will base my following analysis upon the audit lecture. Continue reading »
An interesting study worth sharing
I was flipping through CNN.com and found an intersting article discussing a study conducted by Greenpeace. (Yes, it’s weird for me to discuss ANYTHING environmental, but please follow for a minute.) This study discussed the energy usage of major companies for storing and transmitting data. Among those studied were Facebook, Apple, HP, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter and IBM.
They analyzed the amount of energy they consumed as a percentage of clean sources (wind/solar) or dirty power (coal, nuclear) and that is when I became a bit disenfranchised with this article. I think we can all agree some energy is dirtier than others.
Wind and solar power are very clean. I think that the environmentalists are kind of funny in that regard. Their worried about nuclear waste, but don’t seem to recognize the effect wind farms and solar farms have on the environment. I have been in the around more than 1 large wind farm in my days. They are a true sight to be seen. They are incredibly large and have can change the landscape greatly. Solar farms are less invasive in that nature, but still have an effect on the desert ecologies.
I would also argue that nuclear power plants are far more clean than the other options as well. It may not be 100% renewable, but the requirements for it are much easier on the environment (in my humble opinion) than mining coal, or drilling for oil/natural gas.
Why Become an EA and a CPA
My friend sent me a Google Answers conversation a while back and I thought it may be relevant to our current subjects of conversation. If you are a CPA concentrating in taxation, you could be considering the Enrolled Agent certification. Continue reading »
“My” review of Gleim CPA Review
You’ll be surprised but after googling for about 45 minutes, I couldn’t find many objective third-party reviews of the software. Likewise, I found it difficult to even find blog posts on it. Fortunately, I finally found something. Continue reading »
Becker CPA Review
Becker CPA Review, to me is hands-down a CPA Candidates best chance of passing the Uniform CPA Exam. If you use Becker CPA Review and DONT pass, Becker has “The Becker Promise”. This gives students who meet the program’s specific criteria to receive a tuition waiver for taking the course over again.
The material: Becker CPA review comes with DVD lectures by our good friends Peter Olinto and Tim Gearty. They both bring to the table a certain level of energy you don’t often receive from professors or instructors for course work. They also have different teaching styles in the program giving you ways to better improve your own study skills. I actually learned how to study from them as much as I learned the review material.
Online, Self-Study or In-class provides the same materials for the same price. I have done both self-study and online and have liked online more because it is more guided and holds your feet to the fire more. I think they are the best options for working professionals who may not be able to lock into a set weekly schedule. The only problem I had with online is that you can only take classes when they are offered which for me wasn’t always when I wanted to take the course.
I think the best part of working with Becker was the access to their multiple choice and simulation problems broken down by chapter section. I don’t know exactly how many questions I did while studying, but I must have done thousands of questions (some repeated to learn, of course.) The software is very close to what you will say the day of the exam at the testing center.
Becker sells prepared Flash Cards (about 18″ thick stack) color-coded by exam, then coded at the top of each card by chapter and by card number. The cards are helpful for a lot of information, especially Regulation and Auditing when reviewing more qualitative information (like itemized deduction floors, and auditing standards.) Additionally, they offer for a slight up-charge flashcards for the iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phones.
They offer Final Review which is composed of 30 hours of lecture 700 more multiple choice and 80 new simulation tasks geared to giving you that extra “oomph”and to help ensure you pass the exam. All this is yours for the low price of $570 for all 4 parts or individually for $240.
After successfully navigating the CPA exam hopefully you can be as happy as Peter Olinto!
Peter Olinto is just one of the many reason you should invest in Becker
Comparing CPA Review Materials; What You Need to Succeed
All of us accountants know how important the CPA certification is. Likewise almost all of us know how much time and money we must invest to pass it, or do we? There are many study options for the CPA exam that many of us may not have been aware of; the quality and cost vary greatly among programs and the one you choose may mean passing or failing this all-important exam. Continue reading »
Random video of my family. Maybe you’ll laugh
This is my brother. He and I were rocking out at a Misery Index concert in North Eastern, Mass. Needless to say, it’s pretty awesome that A) someone videotaped him and B) he was the one to find it online.
Enjoy!
Why are most Americans in debt?
As an accountant, I cannot tell you how many times I have been called cheap, penny-pinching, money grubbing or a miser. My question is, when did practicing healthy thrift become such a negative thing? Society has told generations of Americans now that spending is amazing and thrift is obsolete. I’m here to argue that point. I am not preaching from a soap box, and I am not on a high-horse, because I am in the same situation as many of you. Continue reading »
Post for the week
I’m waiting on some more information for my post. As a sneak preview, this will help you entrepreneurs out there track expenses.
As an auditor, I will have some special tips to help you out. I anticipate this article to be posted by Wednesday, April 6th.