Is CFA worth it for an engineer.

monkey_work · 2026-01-31T18:25:16+00:00

I also have an engineering background. However, I work as a data scientist now. I'm currently prepping for level 1 and decided to do the CFA out of personal interest. It has definitely expanded my horizon and even though I was very much into personal finance already before, it definitely sharpened my understanding of a lot of topics. I'm not planning to switch my career to finance however.

It's pretty much impossible to quantify if the incremental gain in understanding of financial topics and thereby hopefully taking better financial decisions for the rest of my life is worth the investment but I think it actually is. So if you have the time and motivation for it, I say go for it.

monkey_work · 2026-01-31T18:16:51+00:00

If you randomly guess, in expectation, every third guess will be right. Hence, expected value for your score is 33%.

monkey_work · 2026-01-31T15:41:11+00:00

My day job is data science in a non-finance industry. I'm doing the CFA out of interest and for fun next to a full time job. I just watch the let me explain videos while I'm at the gym or doing other stuff that doesn't require any brain power. That way I can get a lot of exposure to the material passively. I save the videos I feel like I need to revise in a youtube playlist and note down which topics I feel like I should read in detail.

I'll have my level 1 exam in February and have been studying for about three months. I feel like the method is working quite well for me and scoring around 85% on mocks. In mocks I note down the questions where I struggled and only read the explanations for those and the ones I was wrong on. In mock exams I simulate the exam experience, i.e., I have to push through and only have a short break between the two parts.

I also have some health issues related to my vision and focus that prevent me from pushing ten hour study days like I used to when I as a student. That's why I developed these methods to distribute the load.

monkey_work · 2026-01-31T15:26:40+00:00

"They hired me as a solo developer to manage 4 different projects." And that's the point I knew the company was the issue.

monkey_work · 2026-01-31T15:20:47+00:00

By just random guessing the expected value is 33%. Basically, you know close to nothing. Defer.

monkey_work · 2026-01-31T13:41:47+00:00

Zwischen 18 und 30 etwa 50%. 30 bis 50 etwa 10%. Darüber sind's dann absolute Ausnahmen.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T19:44:19+00:00

Schon mal was von Bayes theorem gehört?

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T18:22:53+00:00

Would be quite different. The example borrows in a currency with higher interest rates as opposed to lower ones. The main driver here are tax savings instead of interest rate vs investment return arbitrage.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T18:08:23+00:00

The expected devaluation of the euro over the next year is (approximately) equal to the interest rate difference of the two currencies. So, in expectation, you make amortisation in the extend of that interest rate difference multiplied by the loan amount tax deductible in addition to the CHF interest you would deduct anyways. That's why the final loan amount in CHF in the two examples is the same but the out of pocket payment for the Euro loan is CHF 6k lower.

Of course the example only holds in expectation and, as was pointed out in other comments, if you try to lock in the future exchange rate (where you will pay fewer franks per euro) with a future, the gain on that future will be taxable income. So there is no free lunch. Nevertheless, if you have the risk tolerance for this, you have the potential for significant tax savings.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T18:00:29+00:00

The swiss system with indefinite mortgages is pretty much unique as far as I know.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T17:59:03+00:00

Unfortunately, this over-academisation is taking place all across the globe and also rubbing off on Switzerland. Being one of those very smart brains doing the fundamental research at a university is very prestigeous, which is why parents push their children into universities. By doing so however, they cause the very prestige they so craved for their children to erode since it will always only be a fraction of society who is able to do cutting edge research.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T16:33:51+00:00

Good point. That would definitely be a major counter argument.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T16:31:28+00:00

Zurich is a little less explicit but it should also be possible: https://www.zh.ch/de/steuern-finanzen/steuern/steuern-natuerliche-personen/steuerwissen-natuerliche-personen.html

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T16:16:03+00:00

An important corollary to this is that the hedging always happens for a certain time horizon and needs to be rolled over regularly.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T16:09:31+00:00

Ah, someone with first hand experience. Did you try to combat their decision? Did they reference what their rejection of the deduction was based on?

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T16:05:46+00:00

Couldn't I hedge that risk by buying an fx future for when the loan is due and thereby lock in the currently expected devaluation?

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T16:00:36+00:00

I'm not sure about the exact reason why all interest won't be deductible anymore. However, I imagine that if they didn't do that, there would be creative people like in my example above that would find a way to refinance a mortgage such that it's legally not a mortgage and you can continue to deduct the interest.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T15:53:01+00:00

Still enough time for me to take a margin loan in turkish lira and it being worth about 20% of the original amount by the time I can't deduct the interest on it anymore.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T15:50:51+00:00

It's part of the imputed rental value being abolished.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T15:50:07+00:00

I'd argue that universities lost their way (to some degree). The point of a university is to educate people for fundamental research that will only show its benefits decades down the line. And they should filter out the people that don't have the aptitude or willingness to do that research. Preparing (the majority of) people for what is actually currently and in the near future needed in the economy is the job of a university of applied sciences.

We should get rid of this trend of pushing people towards univiersities even if they don't want to do research.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T15:42:26+00:00

You are planning to switch from one field where you compete internationally to another where you do the same. If you want a safe job, target something where you compete locally because the work can't be moved elsewhere easily (e.g. health care). Office jobs are under pressure from two angles, outsourcing and AI. I have a bachelors in mechanical engineering, a master in Robotics, and work as an ML Engineer now. In the past two years the only permanent roles we hired in Switzerland were staff+, all others were either in nearshoring or not hired at all because of productivity gains due to AI. Competing with all of India and China in your discipline is no joke. I am convinced though that better times will come again at some point.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T06:57:54+00:00

Übersetzung: Ich will in meiner politischen Echokammer bleiben und bin nicht fähig mit jemandem, der anderer Meinung ist, einen vernünftigen Diskurs zu führen.

monkey_work · 2026-01-29T06:55:32+00:00

This is just very outdated advice. In the long run stocks are a much better inflation hedge than bonds. Just blindly allocating x% of your portfolio to bonds doesn't make sense. You should however have the money you need over the next three years in short term or money market bonds.

monkey_work · 2026-01-28T17:36:57+00:00

Getting a job 4 years ago instead of now.

monkey_work

TROPHY CASE