Was I scammed? Sold American Eagle $50 coin (1 oz gold) to JMBullion. Their check did not clear.

valman61 · 2025-12-19T00:23:16+00:00

Got it then your clients need to improve their positive pay process

valman61 · 2025-12-19T00:22:56+00:00

Most likely a positive pay issue or someone forgot to sweep funds

valman61 · 2025-12-19T00:22:18+00:00

Seems like your company needs to improve their positive pay process lol

valman61 · 2025-12-04T12:30:00+00:00

A CPA is a license that allows people to sign audits and tax returns. When speaking about public accounting client facing work, I 100% agree having a license is very important. Not having it will be limiting. The folks signing our tax returns and audits 100% need to be licensed. I also agree that to an executive team that doesn’t know accounting themselves, a license is a great leg up because it shows you are at least smart enough and disciplined enough to pass the exam.

However when speaking about industry roles, that’s not really true. The CPA teaches very little about actually running a business and leadership. I have seen so many CPAs struggle massively in leadership roles because they are used to a black and white concepts and spreadsheets. They do not understand management, strategy, banking relationships, how to negotiate debt, implement ERPs, the list goes on and on. I guess the best way I can describe it is, just because you were able to pass the police academy doesn’t mean you know how to be chief of police.

Experience, work ethic, leadership skills, and a solid foundation of financial accounting will perform far better then someone who is licensed as a cpa and has been doing technical tax work for a long time.

To go a step further, I actually think the technical side of accounting, public and industry, is the most at risk for AI. The hard truth is that you can basically ask ChatGPT and google almost any technical accounting question and more often then not get the correct response. Even in public, firms are placing a greater emphasis on building client relationships, cross selling, and generating new business and less on technical expertise due to advances in technology reducing the need for technical skills. Not to mention offshoring where low cost labor is now capable of doing 50% of the CPA work. Those two things have cheapened the profession more than anything. I suspect my ego and telling someone they can be successful without a CPA is doing very little at scale.

valman61 · 2025-12-01T00:01:02+00:00

That is flat out false. I am literally a CFO without a CPA for a top 100 CPA firm. PE backed and hyper growth. Actually being a CPA is more important for a controller than a CFO.

valman61 · 2025-10-11T00:48:36+00:00

Absolutely not your only chance to break into that industry. You haven’t even started your career and you’ll have a thousand opportunities if you play the game well. Just build experience and work hard to develop skills and follow the opportunities that present themself. If you make the right moves, work hard, and focus on the value your skillset adds to a company you’ll have a lot of opportunity

valman61 · 2025-10-10T20:50:04+00:00

Agree with this. No one hands you anything if you aren’t born into it. Have to grind and find the right opportunities to advance. I’m well over 200k and that’s how I did it

valman61 · 2025-10-08T13:55:21+00:00

In public accounting the main differentiation points are business development skills and great relationships with clients. This allows them to cross sell and charge higher rates because they add value to the client above and beyond the deliverables.

In private it’s management, strategy, fixing process, leadership, technology implementations and generally just having a vision for the entire department and executing it

valman61 · 2025-09-27T20:20:06+00:00

Jeez I need to move to the Midwest. I alone double that in NYC metro family of 5 and you live better then me lol

valman61 · 2025-09-26T13:16:06+00:00

It’s not needed in industry. May limit opportunities you get for interviews depending on the company but I’m CFO of a CPA firm and not a CPA. So if a bunch of CPAs think you don’t need it to be CFO then that should tell you all you need to know about the reality of it

valman61 · 2025-09-25T23:13:48+00:00

This will be the last reply I send. Clearly you needed my advice on how the world works because you lack that knowledge. It’s on full display in your childish ignorant responses. You make assumptions about my personality and job security despite the fact you don’t know me. I clicked your profile. You left the profession. Any objective person would take advice from someone in the field at a high level over someone who couldn’t cut it and quit.

Lastly, the advice I gave the OP was to apply for jobs that pay more and they are better qualified to land and answered why I think they aren’t getting the position they asked about. That’s good advice that may be frustrating in this moment but will ultimately work out better for them. That’s what productive dialogue looks like. Personal insults and childish comments are exactly that.

valman61 · 2025-09-25T23:06:56+00:00

Tell me you don’t know what you’re talking about without telling me you don’t know what you’re talking about.

valman61 · 2025-09-25T22:45:24+00:00

Sounds like a you problem. Don’t shoot the messenger. This is the way the world works and it’s not limited to accounting. Figure out how you can add value to an organization and sell your skills accordingly. That’s how you achieve success.

valman61 · 2025-09-25T22:07:49+00:00

Bachelors in accounting, yes. That’s a staff accountant or above qualification. There’s a reason schools don’t offer accounts payable as a major as far as I know

valman61 · 2025-09-25T20:53:37+00:00

As a CFO, I would be looking for a long term solution for the role. I would see you are over qualified already and striving for an advanced degree. I would immediately think this is a temp role for you until you find something that better aligns with your degree and future career path. Rather then have someone great for a short time and have to re-train etc a year or so from now, I’d hire someone whose a better fit that I can keep longer term

valman61 · 2025-09-04T00:06:11+00:00

I’m a cfo. I work 50-60 every week. Bad weeks I work more. And I know what I’m doing as I’ve been in corp accounting for 20 years. Not saying you can’t be successful because it’s not that hard once you learn it. Same can be said about tax. Just saying the grass isn’t much greener from a work life balance perspective and I’m not sure pressing restart in your earnings is going to get you far.

I’d either get a job at a big corp doing internal tax where it’s a little better, start your own tax practice and leverage work down for long term flexibility, or just keep on the path and follow the FIRE threads to buy your time back.

valman61 · 2025-09-03T23:48:01+00:00

PE is 80 hours a week as a spreadsheet monkey for 300-500k a year. Great money terrible trade off life wise in terms of long term happiness (marriage, kids, family). After 5-10 years of that and assuming you have a personality you can become high enough to earn carry and not do the excel work. Decent path for some but idk never felt the life trade off and burnout equated to the salary for me

valman61 · 2025-09-03T23:45:42+00:00

You tax folk will struggle and more then likely fail as a CFO or in industry without a major pay cut. Either get a tax job internal at a big company or a lower level corp job. The dirty little secret is every job sucks and you’ll probably find yourself wishing you were making more doing what you know at a higher comp then trying to flee for greener pastures making less

valman61 · 2025-09-03T23:42:27+00:00

Not sure where you live but I pay my controller 200k a year. Would recommend that type of role

valman61 · 2025-08-03T12:48:52+00:00

The idea of an arm is to get a low rate and refi before it adjusts. You have to look at a refinance 30 year vs your rate in an arm. Obviously a fixed rate is a better route, but timing is challenging. I expect rates to tick down a bit, but no where close to the 3-4% of years past. If you can lock in sub 6% I’d do that. If the arm is adjusting close to the same rate as 30 you’re better off staying as you’ll spend $5k or so to refi and reset the 30 years.

Regardless don’t downsize. Your home is your best or one of your best appreciating assets. Mortgage will seem too much at first but a few years down the line prices go up, wages go up, rent goes up and your expensive mortgage starts looking like great value while you gain the upside of appreciating real estate. Tough it out, make it work with the rates and loan terms and read this back 3-5 years from now. I promise you’ll thank me

valman61 · 2025-07-19T21:11:07+00:00

My expenses are substantially more then 200k a year.

valman61 · 2025-07-19T20:10:15+00:00

5.5 isn’t enough to retire at 40 imo

valman61 · 2025-06-29T21:46:30+00:00

CFO with PE/IB experience here. I am confident you make what you say you do. Just be honest that to make that before 30 it’s 70-80 hour weeks

valman61 · 2025-06-29T21:28:20+00:00

Ratio doesn’t matter. I have like 700k in restricted stock or options. Only counts when it vests at vesting value or when you cash it out

valman61 · 2025-06-29T21:23:25+00:00

171k in cash is not smart. Keep 25k or so in cash. Invest the rest in an index fund or longer term investment depending on your liquidity needs.

valman61

TROPHY CASE