Honestly, Andies Candies, you’re biting off more than you can chew. More than I can chew at this point. Something like calculating the value of a contract is largely an estimate, an estimate that takes years of experience in a given field or a weath of data for a given field, not something you’re going to be able to do by learning about accounting.
The best way I can help you is to tell you there is a reason other people get paid for this. It’s dangerous to go outside of your area of expertise (IT). A seasoned CPA is well worth the money you’ll pay because he’ll save you a lot of time and effort trying to learn about things on your own, and he’ll still end up doing a much better job because he has years of knowledge and experience that don’t come from books.
It’s good you want to speak the language, but don’t get bogged down in the details, there is a whole profession to do that for you at prices far better than the price you’ll pay trying to learn these things just to fuck it up down the road anyway.
[quote]countingbeans wrote:
What you learn in school/from a book is not even the tip of the iceberg.[/quote]
This.
You’ve thrown out accounting, real estate, finance, investing and economics as topics you want to learn more about. To simply lay a foundation in these topics I had to complete a related 4 year degree. And I still feel like I barely know anything!
It sounds to me that you are a “dabbler.” People who"dabble" in everything get good at nothing. Unless you are about to enter college and are deciding on a major, you need to narrow your focus on EXACTLY what you want to learn and what specific purpose this knowledge is going to serve you in the future.
If your goal is to start your own business, find a few books on starting up your own business. You’re better off leaving the accounting to the professionals rather than wasting your time trying to learn the foundations of something you will never get good at.
Accountants, attorneys, tax preparers are worth their weight in gold in my opinion. In no way would I attempt to try and replace them. I believe that a smart businessman realizes the value of those he has around them, so maybe it was a bad example to say that I want to be able to estimate the value of a contract on my own.
Let’s put it this way, when I begin investing or starting a company, I don’t want to blindly follow my accountant. I would like to ask him questions and understand what he’s talking about. I want to know enough to realize when my chain is being pulled and when I need to start asking more questions. Same thing with real estate, I would never purchase property without a Real Estate Agent, however I would like to tell her what I’m looking for and when she shows me properties I don’t want to blindly put an offer without knowing what kind of questions I need to ask her. The same applies with taxes, I don’t need to be an expert, but I want to know enough to know what questions to ask and understand what they are telling me.
I do disagree with the fact that I need a 4 year degree and tons of experience in each field to begin investing or running a business. I think a little knowledge can take you a long way, because with a little knowledge I can find good accountants, tax attorney’s, real estate agents and I know enough about the subject matter to know what to ask/ tell these people when I go to them for advice.
For instance LankEy, you are a CPA. If I wanted to start my business and hire a licensed CPA as a business consultant and I hired you. I currently know ABSOLUTELY nothing about accounting. I would imagine it would be pretty frustrating for you if I started asking you basic questions that were totally irrelevant. By studying accounting and knowing the basics I will know what to look for when I hire you and I will know what the data you give me represents. If a licensed CPA came and started showing me graphs and data and balance sheets I’d be lost. But if I learn the basics, I don’t need to master them, I can rely on people who have mastered them and know what they’re talking about when they start spounting their technical jargin.
Oh and I’m DEFINITELY not a dabbler… When I want something I go get it… Thats how I’ve always been and thats what got me where I am today.
I just turned 24 make good money, and just bought my first house. But other than promoting at my current job (where I plan to retire) this looks like it’s pretty much it for me. I get antsy when I don’t have something to focus my energy towards. So this isn’t a dabbling move, for me this is the next chapter. I mastered IT and busted my ass to get the job that I got, now I plan on busting my ass to learn everything I can to start investments.
Part of my job is financing small business startups and purchases, and while a knowledge of accounting is important, you would be better served becoming extremely knowledgeable about the particular business than learning about accounting.
Evaluating a business is always a case of best guess. Even a good accountant won’t be able to know all the particulars about every business as there are just too many variables out there. If you know the business like the back of your hand, a good accountant could walk through it with you and give better advice than they could without it.
Frankly, I am suprised that no one has gotten in a dig about you starting a landscaping business yet.
Aside from that, stick with a dummies book, which will at least get you familiar with some of the terminology. At the very least you won’t waste a lot of a pro’s time (expensive time I might add) with them trying to explain relatively basic concepts. I once spent 20 minutes trying to dumb down net worth to a barely literate farmer. It was like trying to describe the colour yellow to a person blind from birth.
Edit
I got stuck talking with a coworker for a while and missed your last couple of posts. I think you have the right basic idea, you just misunderstood what the word accounting encompasses. It can involve far more than what the average person thinks, which is typically just bookkeeping.
If you get the ins and outs of the business down, you will be in a position to get better advice from an accountant, and even decide if the accountant you have is the right one for your business.
^ man i want to MONOPOLIZE landscaping. I want to be the Colonel Sanders of Grass, the Ronald McDonald of Flowers, the Donald Trump of lawn mowers, the George Foreman of weedwackers!!! When someone thinks of grass I want them to either think of me or Snoop Dogg, depending on the grass they’re referring to. Other than that, I want to snuff out all competitors!!!
sorry got a little excited there
No but seriously thanks for the advice. Accounting for dummies it is, and putting in an order for a subscription to wallstreet journal.
Now you’re starting to make sense. You just need to speak the language and have general knowledge.
I’ve never read the “Dummies” books so I’m not sure about those. I still think it’s a good idea to read the WSJ and look up terms that you’re unsure of via investopedia.com.
There are also tons of articles that (at first glance) look like they could be helpful, although, admittedly, I haven’t read them.
Cool, now were getting somewhere, those links have been officially been bookmarked… Thanks guys. Except Counting Beans! He’s been suprisingly unhelpful, so I have to weigh in and say LankEy does seem to know more than he does… I hear he can push more on the prolwer too Ouch!
At my university there was a finance course that only non-commerce majors could take. Believe it was called personal finance. If you have the dough and drive do a similar course. A lot of the time they are offered via distance education.
[quote]AndrewG909 wrote:
Cool, now were getting somewhere, those links have been officially been bookmarked… Thanks guys. Except Counting Beans! He’s been surprisingly unhelpful, so I have to weigh in and say LankEy does seem to know more than he does… I hear he can push more on the prolwer too Ouch![/quote]
LOL!
Shorty articulated everything much better than I could have today.