Is it too late at 37 to go for an Accounting degree with goal of getting CFA?

[sung1contrarian]

@former_trader

Or become an actuary.

Being an actuary was another option I am looking into. It also looked like many years of self study and grueling exams as well. Are you able to shed any light on how age impacts entry level positions in the actuarial field?

[sung1contrarian]

@rawraw

I’d stay in tech. There are a lot of quant-type jobs that aren’t Wall Street. For example, vendors for financial companies like banks often need people with an understanding of finance and computers to help design the products. But I have no idea if their pay is a bump compared to 90 or not as I’ve never looked into these positions before.

I had an accounting professor who didn’t do accounting until 30s and he turned out great and made a multiple of 90,000 – so it is possible. But outside of being a professor and then consulting on the side, I don’t see the allure. Like others said, I’d expect you’d start off in accounting at 60 and work up from there.

I have a distant cousin who is a quant at a huge bank in NYC and is making over 250k. He does have a PhD in math so I would think that should be the lower end of what he can be making. It is definitely possible to make that kind of money in management level in tech, but its the longevity that I worry about. Even Craig Barrett, the co-founder of Intel, said “the half-life of an engineer, software or hardware, is only a few years.” And he used to be an engineer himself! On a personal note, I’ve been dealing with IT departments of small to mega corps for almost 15 years in the NY/NJ area and I can’t recall anyone at any level, over 50.

Since we are on the subject of income, isn’t the average income of a CFA in a major city ~200k+? Or am I mistaken?

[Robotech]

^ That may be the mean, but most probably not the mode.

[sung1contrarian]

@JBrowntown

^ That may be the mean, but most probably not the mode.

So what would you say is a more common #?