King of Disorganization

Results from last month: My target was 12% return for October 2021. My actual was 12.37%.

Strategy last few weeks: Mostly buying and selling SPY calls and holding SPY, VOO and DIA ETFs, equally weighted. Buy on Tuesdays and Sell on Wednesdays and Fridays. I liquidated about 25% of my crypto holdings and my portfolio is currently about 8% in Crypto.

Strategy Going Forward: Holding shares in SPY, VOO and DIA ETF shares for the next few weeks when the market is right, maybe SPY calls when the market has positive momentum. Overall, I plan to have 30% in Options, 50% in ETFs, 12% in stock and 8% in crypto.

Investing Goal For November: My target is 4% overall return for November. My typical weekly return for the last 20 weeks has been around 2.39% a week so it's an attainable goal.

I realized a year ago I was burned out in public accounting. Fought through it but didn't really fix the issue. Put more time and energy into working on the financial investing side of my career, mostly with managing options.

I'm still trying to find direction in my life and working on a plan of where to go from here professionally. With my ADD, the only thing I seem to be able to hyper focus on is related to investing activities.

Results from last month: My target was 1% return for September 2021. My actual was -0.02%. My return for August was 2.13%.

Strategy last few weeks: Mostly buying and selling SPY calls and holding SPY, VOO and DIA ETFs, equally weighted. Buy on Tuesdays and Sell on Wednesdays and Fridays. About 11% in Crypto.

Strategy Going Forward: Holding shares in SPY, VOO and DIA ETF shares for the next few weeks when the market is right, maybe SPY calls around the middle of the month.

Investing Goal For October: My target is 12% overall return for October. My typical weekly return is around 1.5% a week so it's a lofty goal, however I believe I can achieve this return if the market turns the way I think it will.

I originally decided to start my CPA (certified public accountant) journey in my senior year of high school in 2001. Unknown at the time, my inattentive ADHD derailed me in college. I still managed to graduate in 2009 with my B.S. in accounting and started work at a public accounting firm. Still needing about 20 credit hours, I enrolled in a B.S. in finance program in 2011 and in 2013 I was then eligible to sit for the 4 CPA exam sections.

My whole post high school life I was always reminded on how hard it was to pass the exam sections and since each section cost around $230, I didn't want to register for the exams until I was ready. With ADHD, I realized I would never be ready. When you qualify to sit for the exam you have to register and take at least 1 section of the exam within 18 months of being registered... so at the 17th month I took my first section, Audit in 2017. I failed. This was the section I was supposed to be an "Expert" in since I handled audit matters at my firm. This devastated me and drove me into depression.

In January of 2018 I purchased Rogers CPA review program that included video lectures, text book and practice exams. I took AUD again in October of 2018. I studied about 30+ hours watching mostly Rogers lectures and I passed! I didn't find out right away, after around 40+ days of waiting, I found out right after dropping my kids off with their Nana. I wish I'd found out just an hour earlier so I could have celebrated with them but nonetheless, I was so excited.

This left me with three more sections to pass (BEC, FAR and REG). I was motivated. When you pass a section, you have to pass the remaining three within 18 months or you lose credit for the one that you passed 18 months ago. Obviously, this meant I would quickly schedule the remaining exams ASAP.

Wrong... I waited about 8 months before taking another section, BEC and I failed. I studied less than 2 hours for that section. Then in October of 2019 I passed FAR (I studied 30+ hours). However, I scheduled my REG just two weeks after FAR and I was so burned out that I didn't study at all for REG and I failed it. So at this point I passed 2 exams out of 5 total attempts with my BEC retake coming up in December. I failed my BEC retake (studied 2 hours). Now I passed 2 exams out of 6 total attempts.

I was distraught, my window to passing the remaining two (BEC and REG) was quickly closing before I'd lose credit for passing AUD (meaning I'd have to retake AUD). I'd have to pass the remaining two by March of 2020 and if I failed just one of them, I wouldn't have enough time to retake them before losing credit on my AUD exam. I was depressed and demotivated, believing I was a crappy accountant and dumb as a bag of rocks. Compounding my negative emotional state was the fact that now my Rogers exam prep course subscription was now passed the 18 month window that I purchased a couple years ago. Additionally, the fact that I didn't really use Rogers that much in studying for REG or BEC prior to this point just fed into my depression. I called them and they graciously allowed me to have a 6 month extension. I finally took advantage of those video lectures this time!

I then changed my mindset, I went full throttle and scheduled my BEC exam for the middle of January of 2020 and my REG exam at the middle of February. I decided I was going to study 30+ hours for each, came up with a detailed study strategy and watched hours of the Rogers video and audio lectures while taking notes.

It takes about 20-30 days to get your score back after taking a section of the exam, this period of time was excruciating. My ADHD couldn't properly handle this period of time. My BEC score release was a day after the Super Bowl. I am a HUGE Chiefs fan, this is the Super Bowl they WON!! The very next day I found out I passed BEC with a total of 10 hours of study time. I was on cloud 9, I was motivated. I was happy, really happy!

This momentum propelled me through my study time with REG which I took on February 13th wearing my Chiefs dress shirt. If I failed, I'd have to retake not only REG but also AUD.

On February 24, 2020 I learned that I passed REG (with 20+ hours of study time). It took me 8 attempts to pass the 4 sections and yes, I know if I'd spend at least 30 hours studying for each of them then I'd most likely would have passed all on the first attempt. However, I'm not built like that, and working 50+ hours a week in public accounting at the time didn't help either.

To be fully honest, I didn't accomplish any work between February 13th and February 24th as I refreshed the score release website at least a million times. I've finally done it. This realization didn't sink in right away, I was so overwhelmed with emotion, joy and relief.

The process wasn't fully over yet, as I had to wait for the paperwork from the state's accountancy board and to finish the experience verification process and complete the ethics 8 hour CPE course. Besides the lack of publicly available information on this process as a whole that left me with huge amounts of anxiety, I found it very difficult to focus at work. Ethics exam was the worst part, having to get a 90% or higher just seemed tedious to me. Finally forced myself to take it in April and was officially awarded my CPA license on May 15th of 2020.

My only wish would be to have my Mother alive and with me to share in the celebration and because I know this would have made her so happy. However, some of my good friends here threw me a surprise party and I am so blessed to be surrounded by awesome people like them!

Normally this would result in me attending the initiation of new CPA members at the state Captiol but due to Covid, this was instead turned into a youtube digital video of just my picture and my name.

Looking back on it now, I am very proud of my journey. Finally accomplishing a goal that I've had for almost 20 years and at the same time seeing my beloved Chiefs win the Super Bowl is a memory that will never leave me.

Results from last month:

My target was 9% return for July 2021. My actual was 4.82%. My return for June was 64.32%.

Strategy last few weeks:

Mostly buying and selling Target, Apple and SPY calls, equally weighted. Buy on Tuesdays and Sell on Fridays. About 7% in Crypto.

Strategy Going Forward:

SPY calls for the next few weeks when the market is right, maybe Target calls. I will need to find and identify a 3rd entity to buy calls or puts in over the next week or so.

I will have around 15% in crypto or so.

Investing Goal For August:

My target is 5% overall return for August. My typical weekly return is around 0.9% a week so it's a lofty goal, however I believe I can achieve this return.

Results:

I've been trading for awhile. Had huge gains this year from January through April. Went all in on Ethereum when I thought it was going to $5K. I'm down about 50% from my all time high since the Crypto Crash but I have recovered about a quarter of the loss since then (I blame this on my Impulse buying behavior as a result of my ADD)

Strategy last few weeks:

It took awhile to abandon my strategy of just leaving it in Ethereum until it recovers. Not a bad strategy but I don't like that Crypto was 85% of my portfolio. So I re-balanced my portfolio to only 20-30% crypto initially and am now out 100%. I also got back into options (where I maid most of my gains in the first place). Bought Visa Calls in middle of May and made about 25% on them. Then I purchased Spy Calls then Spy Puts and made a net 20% gain on those over a two week period. About a week ago I purchased Amazon calls and am up 50% on those (down a little today).

Strategy Going Forward:

I'll sell Amazon calls later this week unless my stop-loss order is evoked then obviously it'd sell sooner.

I am going to buy SPY Calls around Thursday June 24th I believe with intent to sell mid July as well as hold amazon stock.

If Amazon is at a good price point in mid july, I'll probably get back into Amazon calls at that time (when I sell my Spy calls).

I will probably stay out of crypto or at most be 15% in. Currently ETH pricepoint is at a good spot but I'm making so much more return on Amazon and SPY calls/puts than in crypto.

Investing Goal For July:

Kind of stuck right now in my public accounting role. Through continuous harassment from the owner, including aggressive schemes to turn the firm against me so I’d leave, I’ve lost all desire to be productive. Most days I just waste time in my office while my backlog grows and grows. 

I’ve come to realize that part of the problem is that I’m burned out, mostly from the toxic environment. I know a change and a move out of public accounting is the right path, but I’m reserved about it because the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. For mental health purposes, I must at least try what a career outside of public accounting is like and run with it. 

This last week I’ve been pretty productive, probably the best I’ve done in a while. 

Me documenting my number one main priority everyday plus 3 mid level things to work on each day helped keep me focused. 

Additionally, going back to documenting time spent on each project through a manual horizontal log sheet has also improved my focus by forcing me to purposely keep what I’m supposed to be working on in the forefront of my mind. 

What I’m doing:

1. Writing down main task and three mid level tasks first thing in the work day

2. Taking adderall earlier in the day (prior to 9am) and taking other medications at a later time so they don’t cancel out the Adderall benefits

3. Keeping a manual log of time started and time stopped on projects through out the day to keep my mind focused on task at hand

4. Utilized “Cold Turkey” app to block twitter, facebook and redditt during the day. Helps some, but still a long ways to go as far as improvement

5. Stopped listening to podcasts during working hours (caused me to pay more attention to listening to what people had to say rather than on task at hand)

Results:

Still a long ways to go, overall I felt a huge positive swing in my productivity levels, though last two days have been pretty bad (mainly just yesterday).  So far I’d give it a rating of Promising. Overall I give my self a 2.8 out of 5 productivity rating for my work the past 7 days. Up significantly from last week. 

Going Forward:

I finally passed the CPA exam back in February of 2020 and since then 2020 has been my least productive year as an Accountant.  Some is of course because of the pandemic and working from out has thrown me out of my element.  But I attribute most of the decrease in productivity to a loss of purpose.  

When I was studying for the CPA exam, I had a career goal, a decade plus long goal that I was striving to accomplish. I had an outside focus. Once passed, I no longer had an achievement to accomplish or a career wide goal I was aiming for. I became listless, burnt out from studying plus the euphoria of finally getting my CPA plus a non existent boss with little accountability at my office.

After speaking with a co worker I finally came to realize I was truly listless and it was because there was nothing professionally nor personally that I was trying to complete.  But I was still burnt out and still listless... until now. 

I’ve narrowed my next big mission list to the following things:

1. Completing my masters in route to getting a PHD in either informational technology or Accounting

2. Find a new job at a place with an environment that will assist me in becoming a better professional

3. Improve internally becoming the CPA and professional at a top performance level at my current firm

4. Open my own Firm by improving my current ability to socialize and network

5. Find a job outside of public accounting.

Some of these things can be combined or parts mixed and matched. My initial feeling at this point is that I do not want to do public accounting anymore. At first it was difficult to pinpoint if my poor performance was because of the horrible management at my current firm or because I just didn’t like public accounting. My thoughts on it now is that it’s a mix of both things, firm is not conductive of me being happy with my job and my lack of enthusiasm for the tax side of my profession both make me very unhappy with my job.  

I originally thought having a CPA and Masters would be redundant but I found while looking for jobs, that a lot of employers still request you have a masters regardless if you had a CPA or not. But my thoughts on the matter is that I’m still just happy with my CPA and feel it to be a waste of money to get a masters at this point.  If I want to go into teaching, I will start my journey to get a masters at that time. 

My current path is to tune up my networking and social skills to try to become more comfortable with potential clients. While concurrently looking for jobs outside of public accounting.  I think improving management like skills and executive function ability will help tremendously.