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+--- Thread: Engineer changing careers to become CPA tax accountant (/Thread-Engineer-changing-careers-to-become-CPA-tax-accountant)
Engineer changing careers to become CPA tax accountant - ENG2ACCT - 01-10-2025
I am a mechanical engineer working in MN with a BS & MS in mechanical engineering. I currently work full-time at a local semiconductor fab 9-5 Monday-Friday. I am also 33 years old and married with a four-year-old son and 11-month old daughter.
I met a CPA at the 2024 Boglehead personal finance conference who recommended I consider becoming a certified financial planner (CFP) based on my personal hobby and interests in index funds, financial and estate planning. He runs his own assets under management (AUM) wealth management firm in Northern California.
A certified public accountant with three or more years of relevant work experience can follow an expedited track to become a CFP since most of the CFP educational requirements will be waived.
How Does CFP® Certification Complement My CPA? | CFP Board
In my mentor's opinion, a CPA/CFP is a very strong combination for a financial planner who wants to do advanced tax planning by merit of their experience with doing tax forms for trusts, individuals and small businesses. CFPs are more limited in the amount of tax planning knowledge they have compared to CPAs, which is why he recommended I take the longer path of getting a CPA first, if I am willing to put the work into it.
My career path would be to get the educational requirements completed in order to sit for the CPA exam, pass the exam, get the required work experience in Minnesota so that I can become a CPA. Then I will work for a few years at either a dedicated tax firm or a financial planning firm that also files taxes on behalf of its clients. Then I might spend a few years at a financial planning firm before going out on my own and starting a solo tax filing, financial planning business.
Since I already have a bachelors and masters degree, Minnesota has a route for me to sit for the CPA exam without getting a business or accounting degree. I just need to get 24 accounting credits at an accredited college university that are at an "intermediate or advanced level, not introductory level". See MN Rules 1105.1500 option D
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/rules/1105.1500/
Minnesota Board of accountancy CPA exam requirements link: https://boa.state.mn.us/applicants.html#educationsection
My CPA mentor's son who is currently working to obtain a CFP too said college level accounting coursework only importance is preparing you for the CPA exam. He recommends paying for a Becker CPA exam prep course, which is his preferred test prep company. Therefore they told me I should take accounting courses that help prepare me for the exam. Minnesota says my 24 accounting credits have to be in the four branches of accounting: financial accounting, managerial accounting, auditing, and tax accounting. It does not look like Minnesota cares whether my credits were earned from a college or university located in Minnesota. The only thing they care about is whether the college or university is accredited.
I tried calling the Minnesota Board of accountancy, but they told me that they don't advise anyone on what routes to take to fulfill the educational requirements. The recommendation was to talk to an academic advisor at the college or university where I plan to obtain my accounting credits. The problem is no school will let me sit with an academic advisor until I apply. There are many options for me to get accounting credits, so I would like everyone's opinion on this topic. I will email the MN board of accountancy once I have a proposed educational plan in place so that I can get their blessing in writing before I proceeded.
Questions:
- What are the cheapest and fastest routes to get college level accounting credits completed? Thus far, I am considering going for an accounting certificate from TESU. The problem is, some of those courses are 1xxx level, which means they are probably introductory courses and won't help me satisfy the 24 credit accounting requirement. So I would like to skip out of those. I only found one CLEP exam in financial accounting. Sophia.org offers two past fail classes: one in financial accounting and another in managerial accounting. They do partner with TESU, but I will probably have to talk to the registrar's office at TESU to confirm that they will accept those sophia.org courses.
- If I use a faster self study route such as sophia.org, will that provide me enough practice problems so that I can confidently move on to upper division accounting courses at TESU or another school such as WGU? I never took any business or accounting courses as an engineering student, so if I'm going to start from the beginning with accounting, I don't care which option I follow to get the credits completed as long as I am learning the requisite knowledge and getting more comfortable with the field of accounting as I get closer towards sitting for the CPA exam.
- Looking at the TESU catalogue, it looks like I am allowed to take some of their upper division accounting courses as a self-pay option. From what I understand, this means there is no required homework, quizzes, or midterm exams. I am given Free non-graded chapter practic tests and can take each course is graded final exam when ready. Has anyone used that course option before? Does that course option even provide practice problems for me to study from?
- From what I have read online, it looks like introductory accounting textbooks are updated by their publishers frequently because of changes made to US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which makes introductory textbooks obsolete quickly and adds a lot of costs for students. Are there any good open access textbooks people can recommend and managerial and financial accounting for self study? If not, this suggests I should just bite the bullet and take formal online accounting classes from a school where the instructor has all the study materials laid out for me.
- my fear with following a traditional path to completing 24 accounting credits is that I don't think I have the ability to take more than one traditional course per term since I have a full-time job and I married with two children. If there are self study options available for me, that might make it easier to squeeze in more than 3-4 credits per term. I'd love to get all 24 non-introductory accounting credits completed in one calendar year, but that may not be realistic for my situation, so guidance and Frank advice is welcome.
RE: Engineer changing careers to become CPA tax accountant - origamishuttle - 01-10-2025
I don't know anything about accounting, but have you looked at UMPI?
UMPI BA Accounting Degree Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UMPI_BA_Accounting_Degree_Plan
Accounting, B.A.
http://catalog.umpi.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=7&poid=801&returnto=260
RE: Engineer changing careers to become CPA tax accountant - LevelUP - 01-10-2025
UMPI (CBE format)
UMPI would be your best path for the advanced Accounting credits.
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UMPI_BA_Accounting_Degree_Plan
You could I guess only take the 24 credits of accounting though it would be strange not to go ahead and get the full Accounting degree there considering you were serious about doing accounting.
Timeframe:
You could easily do 24-30 credits of UMPI courses in 2-4 months. Then add any time if you plan to do Sophia or Study.com courses.
SNHU (Traditional Education Format)
SNHU's CFP Board-registered online financial planning fulfills all the educational requirements needed to sit for the CFP exam. (you'll still need work experience later to be a CFP)
https://www.snhu.edu/online-degrees/bachelors/bs-in-finance
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/SNHU_Finance_Degree_Plan
Timeframe:
You could easily do 30 credits of SNHU courses in 8 to 10 months. Then add any time if you plan to do Sophia or Study.com courses.
Note:
General Education requirements are waived at UMPI or SNHU if you have a bachelor's degree.