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is accounting a good profession to go into for jewish living standards? our cost of living is so high.
If your cost of living is more than you can afford, you need to be more frugal and more modest. If you are living better than a kollel family with poor connections, no supportive parents and a spouse who spends most of her time doing childcare, you need to cut back expenses.
If you like economics, businesses and math, accounting is fine. If you want to get filthy rich, you’ll have to move over to management. Pays well but is soul crushing. Note that if Ha-Shem really wanted you to be rich, your parents would have left you a trust fund.
It has to fit your personality. It is not just math, it is knowing numerous government rules, and then following them through and explaining/reminding your clients about them. I would first look at accountants you know and see if your personality is similar. Then talk to them about what they do during the day.
The good part of the lifestyle is that you can be an independent contractor serving multiple clients and be in control of your time, so that you can be there for your wife. children and hevrusa
As an accountant I can tell you this- if you open your own business the sky is the limit but so are the risks.
An accountant’s income starts at 75k and caps at around 150k. (where I live)- do your research in your community and decide if you can live on that.
The income greatly increases were you to use your accounting knowledge and experience in a specific field to become a CFO. (which is currently my goal).
Note- not all accountants do public accounting/ tax returns. Every business needs an accountant and there are many career options.
Regarding personality, I don’t think all accountants need to have the same personality, in my case, I enjoy math, numbers, probably solving, working with complicated spreadsheets for hours, and explaining difficult concepts. On the other hand, I am a very social and outgoing person, not the typical “accountant” personality.
Hope this helps and good luck!My husband’s friend is an accountant in Lakewood and they have parnasah problems with the usual maybe 5 or 6 kids. My friend is an accountant but got promoted to something else and she seems to be doing very well, but not superrich, with her husband working as a therapist.
If you need to save money, then I humbly suggest
that you stop buying *** ALL *** flavored drinks,
and instead drink ONLY pure water.The list of flavored drinks includes: soda, apple juice,
iced tea, Crystal Light, orange juice, Snapple, etc.ALL of these flavored drinks are expensive.
ALL of these flavored drinks are unnecessary.
ALL of these flavored drinks contain unhealthy
ingredients that cause: obesity, diabetes and tooth decay,
including: HUGE amounts of sugar, various acids,
artificial flavorings and colorings, and preservatives, etc.Soda makes a double-attack against your teeth:
First it attacks your teeth with sugar, then with acid.Orange Juice appears to be healthy and innocent;
yet it contains huge amounts of sugar and acid, just like soda!RACHMANA LATZAN!!
High-sugar drinks are even worse than high-sugar foods,
because liquids are digested more quickly than solid foods.RACHMANA LATZAN!!
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Accounting is an excellent career for an Orthodox Jew.
IF you are very good at it, and IF you truly like it.IFyou are an EXCELLENT accountant, you can make more money than a lawyer!
Unless you plan to climb the ladder to become the CFO or Director of Audit at a major company, or as another poster noted, build your own accounting firm, you are unlikely to make much more than $100k working as a staff accountant. While thats a good parnassah by national standards, it doesn’t go that far if you live in NYC or one of the other major metro areas and/or have a large family with several kids going to yeshiva or facing $50k/yr college tuition.
Are the income figures being thrown out above referring to what a CPA would earn?
In the 1990s, I knew one CPA, in his own private practice,
with his own private clients, who charged $300 per hour.SQRT, indeed, being able to be an independent business owner. There is a big thing. An eved is a person who does not control his own time. So, when you are an employee, you are to a degree an eved. And, in most companies, eved knaani .. or l’knaani, needing to go ask nicely for an early Friday or yom tov off. Some people enjoy explaining shmini atzeret to a Hindu, I don’t. So, as a self-employed you will be working 24/7 – but not in a row.
Of course, make sure you have math and business skills and know and can follow halochos of honest weights, etc.
Reb yosef is correct. A top notch CPA with his/her own practice can charge several hundred dollars/ hour for his/her own time plus profits earned from any Staff accountants in the firm but that is not the “norm” for most CPAs who work in accounting firms or as an inhouse accountant for a small-mid size business. Many CPAs move on to take positions in corporate finance departments and can earn even more. Again, that is still the exception, not the norm. Nonetheless, if you want your own business where you have control over your hours, its a great profession.
When I was growing up I thought I was going to be a CPA. Although it is a respectable profession, when I started college my father convinced me out of it for the following reasons:
1. To sit for the exam you need 150 credits (not necessarily a masters per se but basically the equivalent),
2. After passing the CPA exam you still need a certain amount of experience to officially become a CPA,
3. The salary plateaus at a certain point unless you’re ambitious and put in lots of extra effort to really get ahead,
4. Ask around if you need different certifications for different states- it would be a shame to get certified in NY and then need to get additional certifications if you move to NJ.
5. This may not apply to you but he felt that I didn’t have enough personality to become a CPA.
This was all about 30 years ago and things may have changed since then (although I never looked back and regretted my decision).
Before making a decision though, check online what the going salary is for your location is and read the article in Mishapacha Magazine (Issue 1030) regarding the tuition crisis. It would be a shame to put in so much effort only to ask for scholarships, live paycheck to paycheck and not able to afford anything else.
Whatever you decide I wish you lots of הצלחה.
My CPA is an ehriche Yid that … does not charge by an hour. I have him on a modest monthly rate and he does routine stuff and deals with whatever emergencies happen within that rate. He has many clients, is very busy, earns enough but not much and will be able to answer the question whether he dealt with clients honestly. Shana Tova.
wrong, wrong and wrong. Especially if you talking about 30 years ago
1.30 years ago the requirement was 120 hours with a certain amount of accounting credits in New York. some other states started earlier but most states with frum populations were later
2. so what, you still need work and experience. The is no difference in salary for the first few years whether you have a license or not. It will prevent you from promotions and more money after a few years, but not starting ut
3. the salary of any job plateaus, basically if you want to make more money you need to move up in position and responsibility.
4. There is reciprocity between most states as long as you have been working long enough,This is a very loaded question. It all depends on so many variables.
1) if you compare it to other professional “ corporate” like setting then the pay is really the same. It’s not any worse than an actuary, data scientist, IT, coder, and in some cases even a lawyer . Pay is the same.
2) Following up on #1, assuming you want to be a professional, are you the type that wants to work in a secular environment like an actuary or data scientist? Or do you prefer a “frum” setting ? If the later than accounting is the best profession. There are by far the most “frum” jobs.
3) following up on #2, because there are lots of frum opportunities you aren’t just stuck in a corporate setting. For other professions you’ll get capped at 150k-200k . (Although that comes with a nice 401k) In frum settings you can become a CFO or partial owner of a company where you’ll earn more .
4) Just beware that for a while you will struggle . You’ll earn sometimes just 60k when you start, may have to schlep into the city, loose programs and work long hours . It takes time to get to 150k even.
5) Lately there are people in other fields whether Amazon managers/ healthcare industry that do better initially but the jury is out there how high they can go and if this self created frum eco system can stick.
6) To peoples point that you need 150 credits, that’s a joke. You go to pcs and can get that in 18 months . Re the CPA it beats actuary exams or the bar.“The salary [for CPAs] plateaus at a certain point unless you’re ambitious and put in lots of extra effort to really get ahead”
Hello!! The last time I checked, the compensation for just about ANY profession plateaus at a certain point unless the individual is willing to put in the effort to be sucessful. Even government positions are capped at a certain point (albeit with some CoL increases) and the only way of increasing your income is (i) to qualify for a job with more responsibility and higher pay scales or (2) start your own business where your compensation is only limited by your talent and willingness to take some risks.
People mention desire for “frum” environment, but also consider “ehrliche” environment also. I heard about a hesitant law student asking R Soloveitchik whether it is ok to go into a profession where many are involved in lies and other ad behaviors. He responded – “so, you will be a poor lawyer”.
Indeed, there is a need to have a profession that will support a family and let you be an ehrliche yid. There is no need to be at the top of a particular profession if this requires compromises. There are might be some jobs where even earning a modest living honestly is hard. For example (notionally, not saying that every business is in this predicament) you run a construction or re-modeling business – how do you compete on price with those who hire illegals and ignore codes? Or, running a nursing home or selling standard merchandize on amazon – where margins are small, you again can earn a living by skirting rules and quality controls, every undernourished elderly would feed you … In this sense, accounting seems like a moderate risk – of course, you can get in trouble by joining a company in fraud, but it is not that difficult to earn a living by being honest, and even keeping others honest. At the other side of the spectrum, if you strive to be at the top of your profession – being an engineer or a computer programmer might be better. In this jobs, someone who is good at his job will get paid more just for that, no tricks required.
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