(Part 2) Best products from r/Accounting

This is probably more than what you are looking for, but I’ll go ahead and pass on what I have been using. I was already thinking about putting together a less expensive, non-Becker CPA exam strategy for r/accounting once I pass all the exams; so this will be a good warm up.
I haven’t taken all of the exams yet (I have passed the ones I have taken), but I can tell you the resources that have seemed to help the most far. I am pretty cheap, so I have tried to obtain my materials as inexpensively as possible (which is odd because my employer is paying for everything upfront).

For all of the exams I have purchased the Wiley CPA exam prep books; If you are lucky you might be able to find them at your local library.

I also use the Gleim multiple choice questions, and simulations. Gleim questions are in my experience more challenging than the real test questions, which make the actual exams seem not so bad (which is a great confidence booster). I try to answer 1500-2000 MC questions in the last couple of weeks leading up to the exam. I went through the Gleim regulation simulation questions once before the exam, and they really helped me a lot.

For BEC I pretty much relied on tons of Gleim MC questions, and the Wiley materials. I also used my managerial accounting textbook for reviewing cost accounting.

Additional materials I used for REG were my undergrad Business Law textbook, and the Federal Taxation book I mentioned in my last post.

For FAR (the test I am preparing for now), it had been so long since I took any financial accounting courses, I felt I needed a more fundamental review. I have been working through Schaums Outline of Intermediate Accounting I, Second Edition and Schaums Outline of Intermediate Accounting II, Second Edition. I have also been reading Governmental Accounting Made Easy, which has been helping with governmental accounting concepts (I never covered this in school). I am hoping that Wiley and Gleim materials will be sufficient for IFRS.

I’ll have to get back to you on AUD in a few months, but I am assuming that it will probably be a Gleim, Wiley, and old text book combo.

I hope that this helps. It has worked pretty well for me, but everybody learns a little different. Good luck!

Bear with me as I try to regurgitate what I've learned from /r/mfa. Yes, shoes are absolutely important in the business world where first impressions are everything. Like they say, dont dress for the job you have but dress for the job you want.

But besides from that, you are also doing yourself a favor by buying better shoes. Lets look at Allen Edmonds for example. In my eyes they are the most you can justify spending with it still being practical, anything higher to me is a splurge (Ive gotten my strands from amazon with 20% off codes that drops is to around 200, my fifth avenues I went with the brooks brothers version that were around 250). They're American made, durable and soft calf leather upper, leather sole, and most importantly, theyre goodyear welted which means that you can bring them to a cobbler and have them resoled multiple times which prolongs the life of the shoe by a considerable amount, given you clean and condition the upper fairly often. From my understanding, other brands such as Cole Haan have glued on soles that cant survive the resoling process.

I once had a job (non-accounting) that involved a lot of powerwalking and required us to wear slacks and black shoes. I decided to go with some Aldo loafers. Holy hell in 3 months that shoe went to complete shit. My boss was cool with me wearing some all black jordans which was a relief as I never had to wear those shitty Aldos again.

Now in terms of looks, what you want is something round toed in shape. Also cap toed in the front. You also want to make sure they're oxfords, which means the laces and closed, this is the more formal option. The AE Park Avenues fit this to a tee. Understated, yet classy and stylish. Try not to go for anything too trendy yet, such as wingtips or anything with too much brogueing until you've nailed the basics down. If you plan on wearing a black suit than you want to go with black shoes. Never mix black with brown in a formal setting. When you go with navy or charcoal, black or dark brown shoes are both fine. As you go lighter in suit choices, grey, beige, etc, then the appropriate choice would be a lighter brown such as walnut. Make note that if you go with brown, you also need a belt in a similar brown which can be troublesome as a dark brown belt would not look right with a light brown shoe and vice versa.

If you can't afford to drop ~$200 on a pair of shoes just yet, Johnston & murphys are a great choice. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UUKD6G/ref=twister_B000UUGZN6
are also goodyear welted and office formal appropriate while remaining stylish.

Hope that helps and good luck on your new job. And for the love of god burn those squared toed shoes once you buy your new pair.

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty details of accounting and don't mind reading textbooks, a textbook for an intermediate accounting class would be good. Not sure how in depth your other book went, but if it was just an intro book it' won't help you really understand what goes into financial statements very well.

This is the textbook I had for my intermediate class and I thought it was pretty good, I used it for two classes and found it pretty helpful. Intermediate covers the core of financial statement transactions (bonds, leases, pensions, receivables, revenue recognition, deferred taxes, etc.).

Intermediate Accounting

An advanced accounting book will go over consolidations, foreign currency transactions, government/not for profit, and some other various things. This is the textbook I had and I thought it was pretty good at explaining things.

Advanced Accounting

Hope that helps!

Definitely I recommend going to a tax pro. There are plenty of online articles on "how to choose a tax professional."

One option available to you is that you can do a Qualified Joint Venture. Basically, this means you do a Schedule C, one for each of you, and you just split the revenues and expenses.

Definitely get educated Tax Mama has a good book for the self-employed (I haven't read it but she is a trusted source of information). She also has a website that describes taxation in a more plain language.

Get into good bookkeeping and tax compliance habits now. Self-employed individuals tend to shoot themselves in the foot when they don't bother getting educated on taxes. It's boring, but it can make a huge difference on your profitability.

The fact that you are on here asking questions is a very good sign. Good luck on your business, I'm sure you will do great!

Ok, well a lot of Introductory Accounting books are really more about bookkeeping than anything else. I'd avoid those. If you want to get a head start, the Phillips and Libby one is good. I teach it in my Intro Accounting class. This is an older edition, but you can get a used version for $3.00 on Amazon so that's a plus. Everything builds on the concepts in this book. To succeed in Accounting, you have to master debits/credits and journal entries. There are lots of great YouTube videos on Accounting concepts too so if there's something in the book that's not making sense, see if you can find a good video on the topic.

Here's a link to purchase the Phillips and Libby book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0078025370/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1465504702&sr=8-1&keywords=fundamentals+of+financial+accounting+book+libby

Also, I haven't read this book, but it sounds like it covers all the basics well.

https://www.amazon.com/Accounting-Made-Simple-Explained-Pages/dp/0981454224/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465504552&sr=8-1&keywords=intro+accounting+book

Best of luck!

Take a break from drinking. It doesn't help anything.

I'm a lawyer and an accountant, and drinking is a huge problem in the law, too. I was at a big firm for almost seven years where we worked 70-100+ hour weeks. Everyone drank. Well, except for the people who were using hard drugs. There were a number of them, too.

Long story short, I quit drinking at the end of March 2013. I went on antabuse. The first week was not a whole lot of fun. I had DTs and could barely sleep, and what sleep I got was full of nightmares. Things got a little better after the first week, but I was kind of miserable the first month.

Then everything got a lot better. Really, it did. I don't miss alcohol and things are good. I did tell all of my family and friends that I had a problem and that I can't drink any more. Everyone was fine with that. No pressure to drink and everyone knows I'll be a DD.

As for meditation, how familiar are you with it? It can be very helpful. The book that brought me in is Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen. I wasn't religious, raised atheist, even. There is no belief in the supernatural here. There is nothing unscientific. It is a different way to look at life and I found it very compelling. Instruction for meditation is clear and precise. There are no drawbacks to trying it, so why not? Maybe you won't find a benefit, but you won't lose much by trying. On the other hand, you might find it incredibly useful. You can read through the book in a night or two, but it is one of those rare books that takes a few months to sink in and take hold. I eventually converted, something I never thought would happen to me. I don't know if it would be right for you. But that is something for you to think about. If you're curious, this book can open the door.

I sincerely hope you find a way to crawl out of the bottle. Life is better without it.

I really enjoyed the book Never Eat Alone which is a great guide to making meaningful and lasting connections.

Another one that really clicked with me is The Charisma Myth which argues that charisma isn't something you're either born with or not, it's something that can be practiced and focused in a way that is incredibly useful. Highly recommend this one.

And finally, I recommend The Like Switch which has some really useful guidance for communicating in a way that makes everyone involved in the conversation feel better, which makes people like you, which makes them more receptive to you.

I also have a 1 hour commute and don't have the attention span to follow along with fiction when I'm driving so I listen to a lot of non-fiction like this.

I'm not aware of a whole lot of books specifically about accounting, but here are a few recommendations of books about finance, economics, business or that I just think might appeal to /r/accounting.

Anything by Michael Lewis. Liar's Poker has been mentioned elsewhere, but The Big Short is excellent as well.

Ben Mezrich has written some good books about business, but not really accounting specifically. He's most famous for The Accidental Billionaires which is about Facebook (I believe it, along with The Facebook Effect were the main sources for the movie The Social Network) and Bringing Down the House which was about the MIT card counting team and inspiration for the movie 21. You might be interested in Ugly Americans or Rigged though.

Here's a few more that are a little less fiction-y:

Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Traders, Guns and Money by Satyajit Das

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) by William Poundstone

EDIT: Now with links!