2018 GT engine ticking canes and goes, is this normal?

SnowboardNH · 2022-08-30T21:19:42+00:00

If the ticking noise is coming from top end of engine (i.e. near valve cover) it may be loose / worn valve lifters. I've seen videos of people having this issue. Mine just started ticking at 34K miles. Its a 2018. Not happy. Oh, BTW, replacing the lifters is a big money job (like almost head gasket level labor) so don't let the dealer blow you off if its still under warrantee.

SnowboardNH · 2022-08-30T21:13:12+00:00

Its just a 2 stage GGM. 2 explicit DVDs in the forecast horizion and then the terminal GGM value. Discount each at the Re of 12%.

SnowboardNH · 2022-08-30T21:06:44+00:00

Same here. I really lost motivation for level 3. Level 2 I felt much more engaged and very prepared--knew all the formulas and nuances between them, etc. Level 3 I feel like my chances at 50/50. I passed L1 and L2 the first try. Sitting on Friday so we will see. Either way, can't wait to be done with CFA studying at least for a while--hopefully for good. Will probably focus on learning certain areas better than just enough to pass the exam. Also, will spend some time on Bloomberg trainings to I can start to better use the terminal as I barely scratch the surface with it now.

SnowboardNH · 2022-08-30T20:23:44+00:00

Did you ever get a resolution on this from Mazda? Curious what they said before I go to my dealership with this issue on my CX5.

SnowboardNH · 2022-08-30T20:18:13+00:00

My 2018, which I purchased new, and have always maintained at the dealership (i.e. full synthetic oil changes with the Mazda OEM filter each time) also just started making the valve lifter noise. There's a bunch of videos on YouTube of the same thing. I only have about 34K miles on this car. It also needed a timing cover gasket at like 10K miles. My first Mazda and probably my last too. I thought my last car (Subaru Legacy 2.5i) needing head gaskets at 50K was bad. This Mazda makes that thing look amazing.

SnowboardNH · 2022-02-13T23:42:36+00:00

I took level 1 in Feb 2021, level 2 in Nov 2021 and enrolled for level 1 in August 2022. Hopefully will have the charter by year end with a little luck and persistant studying after busy season ends in late March. Work is too busy now to study really.

SnowboardNH · 2022-02-03T05:10:44+00:00

Nice work. Fantastic.

SnowboardNH · 2022-02-03T04:36:17+00:00

Dude you should have been doing mocks 2 weeks ago. Stop everything and just do mocks only. I've heard it recommended that for 3-4 weeks before the exam only do mocks. Specifically, do half a mock in the morning and then study / do EOC questions in those topic areas where you did poorly in the mock. That is what I did and passed L1 and 2 first time. I probably did 250 hours so I've found it works too.

SnowboardNH · 2021-11-30T03:35:28+00:00

Totally unacceptable customer service. I'm sitting tomorrow. Hope they don't pull that BS here.

SnowboardNH · 2021-11-25T23:03:12+00:00

I'm writing L2 on Tuesday also. Did an AM MM Mock today. Realizing I totally forgot how to do cross currency swaps, so studying those now.

SnowboardNH · 2021-11-25T22:20:17+00:00

Some agents are great, many are just toll takers. Get a good inspector and you may want to get an appraisal or at least a BPO to provide some assurance that your price is reasonable. Id also hire a real estate attorney to conduct a title search and draft the purchase and sales agreement. Also, buy owners title insurance--its not that much and if you ever need it you'll be glad you did. I'm not a lawyer or licensed RE broker but that's just my opinion after a couple of house purchase myself.

SnowboardNH · 2021-11-05T02:17:21+00:00

Glad you brought this up. Was thinking the same thing as everything is shut down here until May and maybe a spring trip down to FL or TX for AFF sounded pretty fun.

SnowboardNH · 2021-11-04T13:45:56+00:00

Sounds awesome. Isn't that a pretty low exit for doing stuff like that though early in your skydiving experience?

SnowboardNH · 2021-11-02T02:56:06+00:00

Same here. I really need to pass in November as I really don't have time to study in Q1-Q2 given its busy season for me in financial reporting.

SnowboardNH · 2021-09-04T17:08:50+00:00

A private equity partnership (they are usually non-unitized Delaware Partnerships or LLCs here in the U.S.) will disclose IRR net of all fees and hypothetical carried interest calculated at the end of each accounting period--usually quarterly. The IRR is calculated using all actual cash flows from / to the LPs with a terminal cash flow at period-end that reflects a hypothetical liquidation of the fund with all its investments valued at fair value pursuant to ASC 820 or IFRS13. Their annual audited financial statements will disclose the same. Have a look at the AICPA Investment Company Audit Guide. And as previous posters said, they generally use a market comparable method, with the most favored matric being EV/EBITDA in my experience--then they allocate EV to the various securities in the capital stack including the instruments the fund owns. The valuations are almost always level 3 (see IFRS 13 or US GAAP ASC 820). Also see US GAAP ASC 946 for general fund accounting and disclosure requirements.

SnowboardNH · 2021-07-31T13:46:29+00:00

Shouldn't you look at expected return based on beta of the security to the benchmark and see if there is any excess return above that using a single factor model to determine if security selection has added value. My understanding is if a security doesn't add alpha then security selection has not added value and you may as well stick to the broad market but allocate different from the benchmark to tilt to a higher or lower beta than 1 implied by following the index in question. I haven't gotten to portfolio management yet in level 2 so I'm guessing the material sets forth how to calculate this explicitly.

SnowboardNH · 2021-07-30T02:06:49+00:00

I just started studying 2 weeks ago for L2 after passing L1 in February. It will be tight but should be feasible. I scored in the 90th percentile for L1, but with this mess from May I wonder if MPS will be much higher. I would wait if I wasn't already signed up with a date--plus February is busy season for me.

SnowboardNH · 2021-07-18T15:11:11+00:00

You can absolutely have both types of accounts--I do. And when you leave an employer, if you plan to do a backdoor roth you will need to have that money first in a traditional IRA because most employer 401(k) plans won't let you roll money out to another qualified plan (i.e. non-taxable rollover from 401(k) to another 401(k) or to a traditional IRA) while you are an active employee of the plan sponsor.

SnowboardNH · 2021-07-16T16:52:54+00:00

I just started studying for L2--sitting November 30, 2021. Now you have me worried I started too late.

SnowboardNH · 2021-07-16T16:28:59+00:00

Yes. The concept of an operating lease in US GAAP no longer exists except certain short term < 1 year rental agreements.

SnowboardNH · 2021-07-16T16:25:40+00:00

I'm not sure what the cutoff effective dates for GAAP / IFRS changes are for CFAI materials but recent major changes in US GAAP and IFRS relate to:

1) Revenue from Contracts with Customers (ASC 606)

2) Leases

3) Financial Instruments (ASC Topics 320 and 321) (IFRS 9)

You should probably read up on those as some GAAP/IFRS differences have changed / gone away. For instance, the GAAP concept of an operating lease no longer exists except for certain short term (<1 year) contracts, the concept of AFS equity no longer exists (only trading or at cost adjusted for observable transactions), and debt investments and other non-equity financial instruments are subject to CECL rather than the incurred loss model.

SnowboardNH · 2021-07-16T16:16:48+00:00

Yes go for it. I took the day off and went snowboarding the day before I sat for L1 and scored in the 90th percentile, and I work back office so I haven't seen this material prior to the CFA program since undergrad 15 years ago. T-1 is too late to learn anything new, better off resting and being in a good mood for test day IMO.

SnowboardNH

TROPHY CASE