i was just wondering how much money can an accountant actually make ?

[funnylife33]

 

[user 135067]

It depends on your level. My wife has a supervisory position with a bachelors in business and a masters in accounting. She makes about $80K annually after about 30 years of it. A CPA can make more.

I would expect an associate degree could start you at about $35-45k, but don't quote me.

 

[randomguy]

I'd say it depends on how skilled you are at skimming other peoples money into your own bank accounts without getting caught

 

[Finished]

The amount of money you can make varies greatly. A normal do as your told accountant is about to $60K. It's kind of boring. But, it's also therapeutic if you like working with numbers and software. I do. Hours and days just zoom by without much drama. You can basically go on auto pilot. Accountants that step up and do auditing can make a lot more. But, it requires more thought and the abilility to catch errors and a good understand to know certain accounts should be handled differently to save money while knowing what will cause red flags to pop up. It's a little more stressful. No auto pilot option here. Ha! ha!

But, good money is in managerial accounting. That's where you make decisions on how to move items from one type of account to another, slightly changing an asset to depreciate it faster to save on taxes now, and how and when to buy/sell items. Much money can be saved / lost from the decisions. If you are good then you get rewarded or you go somewhere that does reward you. If you aren't very good then you go work for the government.

However, the real money makers are the accountants they work closely with slimy scum bag attorneys who twist the various laws to save big companies huge amounts of money. For instance, lets say a new law comes about to waive taxes for the first two years of a small companies existance. Well, after very close examination and interruptation the attorney believes a new company in this instance could be an old company that changes and becomes new. The law is poorly written, which is usually the case. So, the accountant, with the attorneys help, splits the huge company into 20,000 smaller companies thereby creating 20,000 new companies all of which do not have to pay taxes for two years saving the original huge company many $millions. Then a new law comes about a couple years later to save taxes for large companies that hire atleast 5,000 new employees. So, then the 20,000 companies get combined into 50 large companies and each hires 5,000 new employees. However, they really aren't new employees. It's just that the companies are now new again, which means the employees are too. So, you just get the employees to sign new contracts, agreements, or whatever. Also they switch around where the locations of the businesses operate to save taxes. Tax savings can be super huge if you are willing to play loosy goosy with the law and MOST do. The more willing you are to risk breaking the law and getting caught the more money you can make especially because the bonuses can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Although not a CPA myself, I used to write very specific software to do all the calculations, predicted savings, projected pitfall scenarios, and the estimated tax statements and payments that got sent to the IRS. I had to learn and understand the laws and accounting proceedures in order to make things as accurate as possible while skipping the years of experience that's really needed to understand them. I had to program in educated guesses and let the computer run different scenarios to figure out what actions provided the best results and what problems could arise. Then others decided which way to go. They really funny thing was everything was electronic. But, in order to cause the IRS grief only paper forms were submitted, meaning truck loads. Good luck auditing that stuff. Things may be different now though. But, I doubt it. Ha! ha!

So, it really does depend how much stress, effort, and risk you want to deal with in order to make lots of money. IMO, being a basic accountant that works towards their CPA and slowly progresses at a comfortable speed can have a nice, mostly stress free, financially secure life.

 

[user 135067]

I'd say it depends on how skilled you are at skimming other peoples money into your own bank accounts without getting caught

Well, there is that. The pay is great, but the benefits could suck; free rent, three squares a day, free medical, and juice on Christmas.

 

[funnylife33]

Thanks for all the reply ...

I got a lot of points from all those ...

i just took a quick look at the CPA thing , and this is what i got from the search results ...

To pursue CPA certification programme, the candidate must have a Graduation degree or equivalent. To earn the CPA license, the candidate must complete 150 hours of the CPA course semester. Many states require candidates to have 1-2 years of experience under a CPA

So i don't think i can actually go after that ...

I am a graduate ... but the rest of the requirements looks too tough to follow and achieve ...

My plan is to get into a small accounting firm first ... then after getting some experience ... i can try to get into some bigger firm ...

I also joined a gym 2 days ago .... so i am mostly focusing on that from the last 2 days ....



I also have plans to join a kickboxing training school soon ...
my original plan was to join a muay thai training school ...
but the nearest one is 40 kilometers away ...
and the kickboxing training school is only 5 kilometers away ...





Got to get fit soon ....

I have been spending at least the last 6 years in front of books , so i really need a break from books .



Thanks again for all the replies ...

 

[9006]

If you're like the accountant in the last place I worked... however much you feel like, since she was stealing from the company. She ultimately got jailed after stealing almost a million lol.

 

[NoxApex(N/A)]

The amount of money you make is the easier of the two to track. It's the amount of money you spend that is the make-or-break.

Because if you're making +60K/year, but you're spending +80K/year, well, then the amount of money you make is no longer relevant to your problem.

I don't know if that's preliminary in college, but it should be. Because the number of friends I have had that went to college for careers and now can't retire because of how they've committed to investment is too high.

 

[Melli12]

Love that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[hundal]

It depends on your level, experience, and place of employment.