18 yrs old, should I start self-studying CFA?
Do you guys think jumping the bandwagon and starting to look at CFA material early on would be beneficial, considering I'm only first year college. I just need to know how to start and I think in my spare time I could start hammering down on trying to understand some major concepts.
No
No. Most of Level 1 materials you will learn throughout college in your finance classes. Instead, focus now on networking and reaching out to alum or people on LinkedIn.
The advantage of connecting with people this early is you look more genuine vs those who start networking a few months before/after they apply for internships/jobs.
There are better uses of your time, eg your assigned coursework, networking, other resume-building activities, or, god forbid, enjoying your freshman year of college.
Plus, who knows if you'll end up in a finance career that really benefits from a CFA? Wait until you settle on a career objective before you decide if the CFA is a worthwhile investment. There are some paths where it helps and some where it does almost nothing for you in terms of professional advancement.
Don't waste the best years of your life - when its 11 p.m. on a Friday night and you are changing font sizes on a pitch book while your C average friends are dry f ing babes on their 60K/year salary, you are going to wish that you didn't try so hard as a freshman because it really doesn't matter what you know at that point
Absolutely not. There are a million reasons why this is a bad idea. Here are a some:
1) you need 4 years of work experience to get the charter so you’re still ~8 years away from getting it 2) your time is much better spent right now maximizing your gpa, getting internships, and HAVING FUN 3) it will be much easier to understand the material after you’ve taken college courses and had some internship/work experience 4) if you take it while working you can probably get your company to pay for it 5) it’s easier to study when youre a working adult with a more structured schedule and you won’t be constantly missing out on all the fun stuff available to college students 6) you may decide to pursue a career where the CFA isn't relevant
Jesus Christ, you're 18, don't get ahead of yourself. Here are your priorities (more or less in order): Join a frat. Get some ass. Don't let you grade's slip. Get some more ass. Network to an internship. Get even more ass. Keep your grades strong. Get more ass. Get a FT offer. Get some more ass (notice a trend here?). Start your FT position. Now you can lock your cock away for a couple of years and start thinking CFA and certifications and MBA and all that other shit. If you don't live life for yourself, no one will remind you and it will pass you by before you know it. Good luck to you.