What to do prior to starting the CFA program

Thanks Sophie, I appreciate the input.

From what you are saying, I gather that the materials for the CFA are different/updated as the years go on in order to keep up with the growing industry. I would imagine most of the information being published today would still be relevant in a couple years. If I buy some books now, how long do you think the information I gather form them will be relevant?

When I was in grade school I wanted to be an accountant. Although I was not exactly sure what an accountant was, I know I liked numbers and math. I was in accelerated math classes through elementary and middle school. In 7th grade I was receiving letters from Duke to join their ‘honorary math club’ or something like, that because I was in the 99 percentile in the state for math scores. Then I got into high school, found alcohol, girls, and started to party all the time. High school was a struggle for me, I graduated just a few spots from the bottom of my class. After high school was pretty much more of the same, I took classes at the community college but was eventually kicked out of the University system of GA when I was 23 or 24 for failing too many classes. I moved to CO when I was 24 in an attempt to get away from the local crowd and straighten things out. I worked out there in a restaurant and started classes at a community college. After about 2 years out there I had things back on track. I moved back here to GA a little over a year ago, when I was 26, and a buddy was able to get me a job with him as a freight broker. Although I had no real interest in the field, it was a way to get some experience working in an office and make a decent salary, considering I don’t have a college degree.

So now I work in this office while taking classes online. I should be graduating with an accounting degree from University of Southwest GA in about 3 years. I am 27 and way behind the punch for breaking into finance. It’s a tough industry to get into as a fresh graduate from Harvard, let alone a guy in his 30s who graduated from a school no one heard of. The whole time I have been interested in finance, especially securities. Outside of school I have read many books on financial statement analysis, securities evaluation, and the like. My interest has always been in finance, so I am now re focused on going in that direction. I know I have my work cut out for me, but I will not let being a little late on the draw stop me.

Although I am unsure exactly what specific line I want to take within finance, I do want to work with money and numbers

P.S. I work in logistics right now so I am in a completely unrelated field. I have been working in this office for about 18 months, prior to that I was in restaurant management.

Thanks again Sophie.

Although I wouldn’t consider it ‘light reading’, I went ahead and ordered the level 1 Schweser books. With work and school, it will probably take me the next 2 years to read through these books, just in time to start on the real material for the first exam. This is not a fun process is it?