Is Getting a CPA Worth It? An Accountant Shows You 2,000,000 Reasons It Is

I measured how much my CPA license contributes to my income over the years and the results are so awesome I wanted to share them with you!

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[walterbutler]

Im 36 and decide to go back to school for accounting and in the future get my CPA.

[francismazanet]

Self employed CPA. I make a little less than $500K a year. My minimum annual fee is $15K per client. I have one client who pays me $60K, another $30K. I only do books for businesses making over $2 million a year in sales. I do not do personal tax returns unless they are the business owners of the companies I am the CPA. I am not unique. I developed a strategy of seeking higher paying clients and then letting go of lower paying clients as I go along. I work about 70 hrs a month. My success, and yours, is be based on recognizing who has the bucks, not businesses making less than $1 million and certainly not regular personal tax returns. My time is valuable. If I am not making between $400-$700 an hours, I am not interested. Now, you may not be able to start with that mindset, but it should be your goal. Remember: Don't do work for people who complain about money; always look to find wealthier clients and let go of the poorer clients as you go along to free up your time to service wealthier clients. It may take 5 years, but if you stick with that philosophy, you too can make almost $500K a year as a CPA. One last thing: I DO NOT charge per hour. I charge on a fix fee. You will find as you go along, the more you knew the client's books, the less time you take. Hence the fixed fee gives me more money per hour as I get faster on doing the client's books. And I always raise my fees 10% minimum each year on existing clients. If you build trust and your client feels they cannot live w/o you, you can raise your rates 10%+ per year. One client I charge an extra $1, 000 a month for every new store they open. Be creative with how you make money from your fees.

[virgnthermostat]

I am finishing college a little later in my life (early 30s) but I'm 75% done with my bachelor's degree in finance and accounting. My dream is to open my own CPA and investment firm. Thank you for the information.

[AlexJDuer]

Just sent my CPA application into my state board yesterday! It was a grind (early 30’s with family) but I’m very excited about the opportunities that should open up.

[boney]

You are an inspiration Sir, thanks for sharing such information especially your career path. It helps guide final year accounting students like myself who dream of such a career. Much love from Ghana🇬🇭.

[ManofSteele]

Thank you for the video. I'll be graduating with my Master's in Accountancy in less than a month. Thanks for the inspiration!

[HeartwarmingStories]

I hope I can get there. I took an accounting class when I was 19 and I dropped out because it was hard. Now I’m 44 and looking for a career change and I’m going to go for a cpa. Going to get bachelors and hopefully masters, and I’m hoping within 5 years I’ll get there, because I have to make it work. Thanks for your encouraging videos.

[paul-gtgy]

And you see CPA's leaving Accounting and becoming recruiters, something doesn't add

[jaimeponce]

Thank you for the video! I just graduated college and am studying for FAR before I start full-time in PA

[Greenham]

Coming from a Controller; accounting is not difficult. It's a little tricky when you first start (as with most things), but it is very practical. Once you TRULY understand that what you do to one side, MUST be done to another, and you understand the impact to your CORE financials you're pretty much functioning at a senior level at this point ( earning 60K-90K).

I'm not a CPA, sitting at $123K (31yo) and my wife who is a CPA makes $77k (31yo). (we don't live in an area of high incomes, so we are in a pretty good income bracket)
The CPA lets managers know that you understand primary principles of accounting. If you work for a company and are able to prove this knowledge in your work, the CPA will be less important in the beginning of your career. And as you climb the ladder, you will be compared more with CPA candidates, now if you understand the business inside out. If you understand the strategic direction the business most go to grow and you can lead that initiative, you will be a CFO rather you have a CPA or not (That is primarily function of the CFO, but a CPA always helps)

One thing that helped me out-earn my CPA peers, is that I really try to understand the flow of the companies activities and how it effects my financials, this is important because I've been apart of a couple ERP/EPM (accounting systems) projects and those assignments need people that really understand how accounting should flow through out a system and how to set-up a system to do so.

For example, my wife can tell you how receiving inventory, will flow from your docks, to your books (balance sheet) and when it should show up on your P&L based on your manufacturing/assembly process and she can give a pretty good explanation of your Cash Flow impact during this process. All while making sure you holding accurate records to stay compliant. That is what the CPA license tells management you can do.

I can do that as well, but I really like accounting systems, so I can take that information, and set-up your accounting system to reflect it - that is where my premium comes in the market, even though I'm not a CPA. I've set-up Chart of Accounts for companies, and implemented accounting systems that flows their operations in a manner that compliant and accurate.

Accounting is so great, because there are so many routes you can take with it. And if your primary goal is to make $100k+, that is not an unreasonable request from this field.

My main point, is rather you have the CPA or not as long as you know your stuff, you can earn a good living in this field, and this material is not difficult. (and I agree the CPA is 100% worth it - if my wife could set-up systems I'm sure she would be earnings more than me $140K+)

[zuriacuna]

Thank you for this. I am getting my bachelors in accounting in my early 30s this is definitely motivational!

[NATSCOTT]

This video has completely lit the fire underneath my behind. Starting at 30 years old. Thank you

[michellehall]

Thank you for your videos. You and your wife are truly awesome and encouraging!

[tscoms]

All of those months of studying and grinding, I’m glad it’s completely worth it. I’m still not a CPA yet as I need to get the work experience but I’m so glad to be done with the exams

[Greenham]

We are blowing this man's video up - TFC has to be watching this video thinking who would have know this would be this popular lol. I think this is one his most popular videos (in relation to how fast he has accumulated views).

Great video man, Thanks for sharing!

[aparnap]

I wanted to thank you ❤️.
I watched your video for interview preparation and i got the same questions for the interview. Also you explain concepts well.

[poonamtambe]

Thank you for sharing your smart Ideas and strategies for successful financial career 😊

[lunamorris]

Your videos are very useful and provide lots of information. I have received lots of help after watching this post, please continue to share this kind of information. Thank you.

[zurinarctus]

Non-CPA people in Audit later switch out to finances. They make way more than average people sticking with accounting and pursuing a CPA. Even if you later become a Controller with CPA, then high-end people in finance are still edging you out, and most Controllers plus Finance VP are non-CPA. If you even think to use CPA to set up your practices, then your major stream of revenues will be helping people to file tax forms. Enrolled Agents are already cornering the market against CPAs badly, so it's not even that good anymore. Good luck with running independent Audit practices, national firms and the Big 4 will eat you alive. If you stick to being a corporate slave at national firms and Big 4, the path of getting promoted to Partner is treacherous, and most people later switch to finance instead of sticking around.

My friend originally stayed at Audit for a year, and later spent time grinding leet codes and getting a job in SWE. He is now making more than your average Audit manager at Big 4. AICPA is making things worse with their Evolution 2024, and the CPA shortage will even get worse. Our salary in Accounting is not getting any better on the eve of the 2020 Great Depression.

Spending more time networking to get a financial job or a tech job >>> Passing the CPA.

[vikingredsonja]

This is a good video, however a lot of places won’t promote you past senior until you have your CPA.