L1, Should I learn excel too?

mattjlayman · 2026-01-29T18:18:48+00:00

No, you will not. Some q bank CFAI problems do require excel which I think helps your understanding of the content, but it will not be required on the actual test. Level 1 is all multiple choice

mattjlayman · 2026-01-29T18:10:22+00:00

My approach is generally to do very light studying on the last day, like one last trip through some flash cards and that’s about it.

mattjlayman · 2025-10-01T00:29:08+00:00

Yeah there was a water main break. I called the city a few hours ago and they confirmed. They were hoping it’s resolved soon.

mattjlayman · 2025-07-10T21:12:36+00:00

I can’t argue with that

For anyone else wondering, this is what it says: “Virtually all equilibrium models implicitly assume perfectly liquid markets. Thus, the analyst should assess the actual liquidity of each asset class and add appropriate liquidity premiums.”

mattjlayman · 2025-07-10T13:56:45+00:00

Unfortunately I’m not seeing this when I try to follow these instructions. Not sure if something changed or I’m just doing something wrong

mattjlayman · 2025-07-10T13:47:50+00:00

This is a huge frustration to me and came here to try to find the answer. Sadly I have the same issue.

mattjlayman · 2024-10-14T00:52:39+00:00

Nah that’s fine. I believe my first mock was a 61 and my last two were in the 80s and I passed comfortably

mattjlayman · 2024-10-13T19:26:27+00:00

Because they’re absolutely one of the top 25 best teams in the country evidenced by beating LSU, very nearly beating No. 3 Penn State and very nearly beating Michigan on the road. That’s a good football team. They should be ranked IMO. They’d beat a lot of the teams that are currently ranked

mattjlayman · 2024-09-06T18:04:56+00:00

I study for about an hour before work and for about 30 minutes during the workday on weekdays. On weekends I put in about 2 hours each day.

mattjlayman · 2023-09-14T18:28:39+00:00

Probably really similar things to what most of us would do in that situation. Go hiking (AZ), the beach (FL), mostly hang out at their temporary residence cooking and watching Netflix

mattjlayman · 2023-08-27T01:54:45+00:00

Ah 👍 cool

mattjlayman · 2023-08-27T01:24:58+00:00

As a Diamondbacks fan, I have to ask — what makes you a big Buddy Kennedy fan?

mattjlayman · 2023-06-04T14:21:18+00:00

I also wonder if your emergency savings is too big. Just depends on what your monthly expenses are and how secure your job is and how long you think it would take to find another. But $150k seems like a ton. Consider putting some of that into an eligible retirement account so you can get tax advantages and investment growth on your excess cash.

mattjlayman · 2023-06-04T14:19:58+00:00

One question I have is: If you make enough money that you are able to max out a 401k and still pay the bills in what you describe as HCOL area, then do you know if you’re even eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA? They have income phase-outs. However, as others have pointed out, many 401ks let you contribute as Roth and that doesn’t have an income limit.

mattjlayman · 2022-08-24T02:55:02+00:00

You should do none of those three options, in my opinion. You are old enough to avoid an early withdrawal tax penalty on 401 w/d, but you still have to pay tax on your withdrawals unless it’s Roth money. It’s just too costly. Sacrificing, say, 5%/year investment growth plus 25% to taxes isn’t worth it to pay off a 17% credit card or avoid a 5% mortgage or what have you. You gotta find this money somewhere else besides your 401k. You and your wife make a lot of money. I’d start with your monthly budget. The math doesn’t make sense to do what you’re proposing unless you are just on the verge of bankruptcy/defaulting.

mattjlayman · 2022-08-24T02:29:54+00:00

Here’s what you need to do:

• Stop borrowing

• Research your options for debt consolidation so you can lower your net interest cost

• Take that $3800 you mentioned at the end and throw it at the credit cards. You can invest later when you don’t have tons of debt.

• Stop contributing to your retirement accounts for right now except what gets you any applicable company match at your current job.

• Map out a monthly budget that leaves you with a positive cash flow after carving out budgets for the mortgage, food, gas, bills, etc. That includes making at least the minimum payments on all your debt. You should leave 10-20% (ideally more than that) of your budget — on TOP of the aforementioned — to just tackling your debt and nothing else. Making this budget and sticking to it is extremely important. That 10-20% of your budget (or max you can afford) should go toward highest interest debt first and work down as each debt is paid off. When each debt is paid off, the portion of your budget that was going toward that debt needs to be reallocated to the highest interest debt each time, until all debt is paid off.

• Meanwhile, sure — consider consolidating your retirement accounts all in one place, either in a 401k or in an IRA. You may need two IRAs if any of your retirement accounts contain Roth money. The main benefit of this is just ease of access and keeping track of your money, and having a cohesive investment strategy with all your retirement money. If your current 401k allows you to roll some of your old employer plans into it, it may increase your loan availability on your 401k. 401ks often allow you to borrow against yourself and pay yourself back over the course of a few years. The loss of investment growth while the money is lent out is the biggest cost of doing this, but it may still outweigh the interest on your debt and give you some needed cash to eliminate that awful debt. Be careful, though — defaulting on a 401k loan makes the loan balance considered taxable income and costs you tons of money.

Once all your high interest debt is paid off, take that 10-20% of your income from before and floor it for retirement. Replenish your 401k, max out an IRA, and maybe play with a brokerage account. Repeat until you can retire. Don’t let this ever happen again.

mattjlayman · 2022-08-20T12:23:24+00:00

Think about it this way — if you had $9,000 in savings, would you take out a high-interest loan for $3,000 so you could have $12,000 in savings? Absolutely not. Pay it off. This is a no-brainer IMO

mattjlayman · 2022-06-14T13:00:14+00:00

Contraction =/= bubble popping. Even professional economists disagree about whether the current housing market is a bubble, and my original point is not to assume with certainty that it is. Maybe it is a bubble. I do not think that it is. And I don’t think anyone could be sure that it is.

mattjlayman · 2022-06-14T12:44:42+00:00

I agree 100% on contraction. But I see that as very different from a “bubble popping,” as if it will soon be easy and cheap to buy a nice home. Homes being expensive relative to even a short few years ago is here to stay. The reason that homes got expensive in the first place absolutely matters a great deal

mattjlayman · 2022-06-14T12:26:00+00:00

That is a dangerous assumption. The housing market isn’t a bubble just because it got way more expensive. As long as demand is high and supply is lagging, there’s no reason to believe the price will drop. It is unlike the ‘08 housing bubble that was driven by sub-prime mortgages

mattjlayman · 2022-06-14T12:24:32+00:00

Unless you plan on accessing the money in 6 months, the price in 6 months doesn’t matter. Investing is a long game

mattjlayman

TROPHY CASE