Am I more or less likely to drive a Lamborghini someday for going through all of this?
I’ll be honest that im not one of those “I find absolutely everything in the CFA program super fascinating and im studying this purely for fun and for my own knowledge with no hopes of a personal gain in any way shape and form” types.
there has to be a metaphorical “carrot” that you’re chasing to go through this.
That being said I do find some topics very interesting and I would genuinely feel compelled to learn more on someday, especially would like to use in my career - seriously. I just bought prechter’s latest 800 page book on socionomics - helluva page turner.
I’m purely talking financial. what’s the present value of someone completing the program versus someone who hasn’t? Removing all outliers from the model. Like people who use family connections to get jobs, and people who invested in bitcoin. Two comparable Jr. Analysts, Timothy and Chad. Chad is a charterholder, Timothy has a history degree. Both subjects are 26 years old.
its also kind of binary. meaning you got it or you dont, for every person who plans to do it, there is a high change they wont receive it!and the time you put in is sunk cost with no tangible benefits!
It’s I think impossible to quantify this, particularly on any sort of meaningfully averaged basis. It’s not like an MD which has a binary doctor or not a doctor outcome and it definitely depends on a lot of other factors that will determine how much you can leverage it. For many back office types the direct career impact will be negligible. However, they may see intangible benefits through their career as a result of being more aware of the broader industry and being generally financially literate. For a top two MBA type it may be largely irrelevant particularly depending on which part of industry you wind up in, although a lot of sell side roles like to see it as a prerequisite. Anyhow, for me it was useful because after an abysmal undergrad experience it got the ball rolling for me personally in terms of getting me back on track taking control of my own learning, gaining better overall industry understanding and ultimately probably helped drive my income up by multiples because of the butterfly effects that came with it.
Awesome right? I’ve been making great use of the local public library, firing through a book a week myself. Barely even watch TV anymore these days. It’s great.
this is impossible to calculate at least for majority of us. Way too many variables. I started off in hedge fund in nyc after my undergrad in 09. Since then my all-in comp more than quintupled. Can this be from CFA alone? No way. Combination of others? Yes. The combinations are record setting bull market since my graduation, few rocket ship stocks I chose, growth of fund AUM, my experience, my network, my relationship with CIO, jumping to a different fund with good connections with deep pocketed pensions and endowments, decision to get EMBA, and luck. How much to allocate to CFA? No idea.
I studied off of CFAI books for levels 1 and 2 and really enjoyed them. The books are much voluminous than Kaplan’s but they contained hundreds of real life examples and stories whereas Kaplan merely went over the concepts. I went with Kaplan for Level 3 because I didn’t care about financial advising and client wealth mgmt - just wanted to get it done with. All in all it was a great experience. Plus, I learned tons of stuff and that to me is positive PV.
Timmah has been plowing chad’s girl on the side while Chad’s at the lib studying.
Chad finds out and uses his sadness to propel his career into 7 figure land. gets the coveted three letter credentials, buys a flat in the city and has a new escort every night
Timmah’s history degree doesn’t get him far, plus he realizes he is far too intelligent for finance and much prefers history. Quits his jr analyst role to become a high school educator.
Chad, now early 40s and all the money in the world, feels empty and realizes no dollar or, high end russian, can fill his perennial void. Through the support of liquid encouragement, jumps from the roof deck and leaves all his money to charity.
Timmah’s sexual urge has never simmered and finds himself in a love triangle between his wife and his underaged “favorite” student, Liz. A lawsuit is filed and Timmah is arrested for intercourse with an underage. During Timmah’s 2-year prison sentence he is labeled “short-eyes” and constantly beaten. Through the support of toilet brewed liquid encouragement, Timmah hangs himself leaving behind no money and a love triangle child to an underage, unsuited, teenager.
By all means PV this back to FV. Btw, your CFA certificate is delivered to everyone in a Urus.
