Tips And Tricks For Passing The Financial Portion Of The CPA Exam

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If you’re preparing to take the CPA test, you may think that the whole process can be overwhelming. Not only is the test difficult to pass, but you have to study and prepare for four different sections that have equal importance. The entire exam is quite comprehensive, so you have to learn a lot, and learn it well, to pass with flying colors.

Fortunately, you don’t have to kill yourself with all-night study sessions, as we have compiled a list of tips and tricks for you to use. In this article, we’ll focus on the Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) section, which goes over maintenance of your client’s finances so you can report them to the government properly. These tips come from CPA tutors, so make sure that you make this part of your CPA study material.

Take FAR First

If you talk to most people who have passed the CPA test, they all recommend that you start with this section because it is the longest and it’s good to get out of the way. Because this part takes the longest to study for, and you have a limited amount of time to take all four sections, you want to utilize your time wisely. This way, you can study as much as you want before you start the clock on your CPA exam.

Don’t Rush Studying

Because FAR is the biggest section of the exam, you have to spend the most time studying it. The concepts are not very difficult, but there is a lot to learn. Don’t try to speed things along or skip over things and hope that you won’t see them on the test. It’s far better to go slow and steady for this section.

Learn the Layout

Before you take the test, it is a great idea to learn what parts will be on it so that you can prepare yourself better. The sections of FAR are conceptual framework, financial statement accountants, specific transactions events and disclosures, and accounting for government and private entities.

Overall, when it comes to CPA tutoring you can check out CPA Exam Guy. They offer several different resource for studying for the CPA exam. You may want to take your time and move forward once you’ve mastered each section. This will ensure that you will be well prepared to pass the entire exam.

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December Income – $2587.59

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Here is a breakdown of my income for December.

Qapital $5
Interest $1.79
Online Income $105.85
Amazon FBA $2453.72
Cash Back $21.23
Total $2587.59

 
My December income was pretty good. Amazon sales go crazy from the last half of November through Christmas and I was able to send in quite a bit of inventory to benefit from those sales. December was my most profitable month on Amazon FBA so far. I hope I’m able to send in more inventory and do even better next holiday season. If I was able to make this much every month from FBA I wouldn’t need any other sources of income. If I was able to make this kind of money from FBA and  earn a full-time job income I’d be doing really great.

FBA income will be way down this month now that the holiday sales are over. Also, I won’t be sending in much inventory this month since my time will be taken up by my job. On the plus side, I will be working full-time this month and will make a decent amount of money. I’ll only get one paycheck  this month so my income will actually be lower this month. It should be a nice amount higher the next three months though. I plan to build up a nice cushion of savings in order to be able to travel and/or do whatever the rest of the year without being overly worried about money.

December Expenses – $1523.68

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for December.

Household $444.82
Entertainment $0
Transportation $40
Food $56.36
Student Loan $500
Travel $0
Phone $298.88
Health $183.62
Total $1523.68

December was a low expense month. A big reason for the low expenses was the use of gift cards purchased in November that were reflected in November’s expenses. The use of a previously purchased movie gift card allowed us to go to the movies a couple of times and still have a $0 entertainment expense for the month. The use of restaurant gift cards allowed me to only have a food expense of $56.36. Most of that total was made up of the $50 a month I contribute towards groceries each month.

 

The big bills were $500 to my student loan and almost $300 of phone expense.  If you take away those two expenses I would be under my monthly target of $1000 in expenses. The student loan payment was made to reach the max  $2500 student loan interest tax deduction.

The phone expense reflects over $250 spent to purchase a Nexus 5x in order to switch to Google Fi phone service. My Virgin Mobile phone died on me and I decided to try out Google’s phone service. I didn’t want to spend so much on a phone, but the 5x was the cheapest phone they had.  The new phone plan should save me a few bucks a month, but it will take a long time to make up for the cost of the phone.

I expect January to be a low expense month and most of my expenses should be in their normal range. Sometime this week I plan to post a yearly summary of my expenses and income.

How was your month?

2016 Review and 2017 Plans

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Since this year is almost over it is time to reflect on how this year went and look ahead to what I would like to accomplish in 2017.  Before writing this post  I had to read last year’s post to see what my goals for this year were. That was a pretty good indication that I did not achieve this year’s goals.

I don’t feel like I accomplished much this year which is exactly how I felt last year. And that was probably true for at least a couple more years before that. I definitely feel that I’m in a bit of a rut. Looking back at my “goals” posts I see a lot of goals being set, but they are hardly ever being achieved. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again since it is still true, I have to start working towards my goals and not just writing about them.

The only goals I set for this year were to run a 23:59 or faster 5k and to be able to do a pull-up. Those goals were carryovers from the year before. I didn’t make any progress on those goals and only worked towards them for a little bit of the year. Although those goals are both things I’d like to accomplish they aren’t things I really want to do right now so I’m not going to make them goals again this year. I might make them goals again if things change.

My priority goals for 2017 will be the two goals I set last July of losing 50 pounds and completing the Appalachian Trail before I turn 50. I won’t be able to start hiking the trail again until after my tax job ends in April. I should be able to finish the A.T. in a little less than two months of hiking. I can start losing weight right now and I have some ideas on how to do that. I’ll share those once I have actually put them into effect.

The title of this post talks about my 2017 plans rather than goals since my goals for this year aren’t yet detailed enough to really be called goals. I am also trying to plan what I will do with the year. The first half of the year is all planned out. I’ll work the tax job until midway through April and then hike the A.T. until about halfway through June. After that my plans are a little murky.

I have three different plans of what I might do for the second half of 2017 and beyond. I’ll provide a brief overview of these possible plans now and possibly write a more detailed examination of them later. The first plan is to work the tax job in the spring and then travel the rest of the year. I can travel pretty cheap making it possible for me to  live off my tax job income and other random bits of income. I’ve always wanted to travel extensively and I feel like I’m running out of time to do so. However, I wouldn’t be able to save much money or pay off my student loan debt under this plan. There would be other drawbacks to this plan as well. If I write a blog post about this plan I’ll include a more complete list of pros and cons.

A second plan is to find a job with the government or a non-profit. After ten years of working I’d be eligible to have my student loan debt forgiven. I’d also be able to put a large chunk of money into savings. If I got a job with the state of Missouri I’d be vested in the state pension after ten years. The big drawback is I’d have to work at the job for ten years. I haven’t come remotely close to working a job that long. Also, I would be 60 years old by the time I got my ten years in. I always thought I would be retired before that age. Working ten years and getting six figures of debt and qualifying for a pension is a pretty good deal though.  Another thing to consider is that there is a chance that the loan forgiveness rules could change before I’m eligible to get my student loan debt forgiven. Although I don’t love this plan it is a pretty sensible and achievable plan.

A third plan is to find a relatively high-paying job that would allow me to pay off my student loan debt in the next three to five years. I estimate that I’d need to make at least $60,000 a year in order to pay off my student loans in this time frame. A big problem with this plan is I don’t think I’d be able to find a job paying me $60k a year. The seasonal/temporary jobs I’ve had the past few years would pay about $40-$45k a year if they were full year jobs. The extra $15-$20k seems like a pretty big jump. My spotty employment history and poor interview skills would also contribute to making getting a high-paying job an extremely difficult task.  That being said, a $60k salary isn’t really that high for an attorney/J.D. so it shouldn’t be impossible to find a high-paying job. I just don’t have any idea how to do it. A drawback to this plan is that after three to five years of paying off my debt I would be at zero. I’d still have to work a few more years or figure out another way to make money before I’d be able to retire.

Those are the three possible plans I have for my future right now. I’m not sure which one I’ll pick and it is possible that things will change and I won’t do any of them. What are your thoughts on these possible plans?

November Income – $1470.28

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Here is a breakdown of my income for November.

Qapital $15
Interest $1.41
User Testing $10
Online Income $61.91
Amazon FBA $1333.53
Cash Back $48.43
Total $1470.28

My November income was an improvement over October. It still needs to be a lot higher. It should get to an okay level once I start my tax job.

Most of the improvement in income in November came from increased Amazon FBA earnings. Black Friday shoppers and early Christmas shopping in general helped boost my FBA earnings. I’m hoping for a record month of FBA earnings this month.  I’ve sent in a lot of inventory and plan on buying and sending a lot more inventory before Christmas. Even with a record month I doubt I’ll make as much as I really should be making. I do feel like I’m slowly making progress on my FBA business, but I think I should be making a lot more. It would be nice to get my income up to about $5000 a month which I think is possible. I’m just not sure how to do it.  FBA will get put on the back burner once I start my tax job so it will be a while before I’m able to ramp up the FBA business again after this month.

Although the income is less than I like, it is enough to pay my basic bills and keep me going until I start making more money from the tax job.