My CFP Certification Journey

June 18th, 2010 Vijaianand No Comments »

This week I am so happy and mentally relaxed, feeling a big sigh of relief.  I finally completed the CFP course and I am so excited about it.  Yes, I did it after all!!

Many of you know or might have saw it listed as one of my goals is to get CFP Certified by 2010. Completing 6 course series is one of the education eligiblity requirement to sit for CFP Certification.  While I am thrilled about finishing the course, I know my journey is not over yet. I just crossed half of the ocean. I need to cross another half and hope to make to the other side soon!!

Like my friends you might ask, what is CFP actually? What is the big deal in getting CFP certified? Let me explain a bit if you didn’t google about it.

What is CFP?

Many say CFP certification has reputation similar to ceritifications like CPA and tough to pass close to bar exams. It is recognized as standard among those who seek the knowledge and skills necessary to objectively assess their clients’ current financial status, identify problem areas, and recommend appropriate actions–in short, to provide comprehensive, client-based financial planning. With trouble economy, consumers are looking for trusted and authority advisors. CFP is a symbol of authority for planners to show their expertise in financial planning to help guide clients in the right path of financial well being. 



What is CFP certified means?

CFP ceritification is administered by CFP board which enforces strict rules and ethics to be followed by the planners. This gives great level of comfort to consumers who wants to talk about their personal financial matters and their future growth. It is difference as simple as asking advice from nobody or certified plumber to fix your faucet.

The Certified Financial Planner® or CFP® Professional Education Program has defined the financial planning profession since 1972 and has been the basis on which many other financial planning education programs have been developed.  


To become a CFP certificant, you must get thru (5 E’s):

  1. Eligibility – To start with, certification will require an undergraduate bachelor’s degree from an accredited college.
  2. Education – Satisfy an educational requirement taking CFP board-registered program if you don’t have finance background.
  3. Exam – Pass the CFPCertification exam: a 10-hour test that takes 1.5 days (four hours on Friday and six hours on Saturday), conducted three times during the year (typically on the third Friday and Saturday of March, July and November).
  4. Experience – Acquire three years of qualifying full-time work experience (or equivalent). Qualifying work experience is defined by the CFP board as “the supervision, direct support, teaching or personal delivery of all or part of the personal financial planning process to a client.
  5. Ethics – Agree and adhere to the Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility

As of now, I just got through 2 E’s and need to get pass another 3 E’s.

Motivation and Experience

I even asked myself, Why am I doing CFP? Being a software guy by education and profession, what is the need and motivation to take on this leap effort?  The answer in short, I am passionate about money management. At the same time, I want to share my wealth of every day successful experience about money and help guide others. In the blog flocked internet era, anybody who has small experience are also posting and sharing their experience. How can I differentiate myself and show authoritative. A person is only considered as an authoritative source only when he has formal education and experience.

Today, I share my knowlege and experience through this money matters website and other avenues as ordinary individual. But I want to be an authoritative source. I have motivator that’s Mr. Ray Lucia, CFP who can talk and answer almost any type of financial questions. I want to be like him, may be work for him some day. Whether I make money or not, I want to help middle class individual with their money and financial issues. 

One more thing, I like to challenge myself now and then. I get bored if I don’t do that. I took the challenge to run a marathon in 2002 just after starting to run in 2001. I completed in 3 hrs 41 mins. So this is another challenge which can help others too. I feel this is even bigger than Marathon. I have done many Microsoft certifications in the past and I thought it would be a breese.  I was proven wrong. I signed up for Self study course with Boston University CFP program. The program was well explained and also got good support from tutors. I paid only 60% of fees compared to other insitutions charge because I signed up the right time to get a very good offer.

 
I started at Dec 17,  2008 and took me till Jun 15, 2010. There were hundreds of topics discussed in detail manner. I thought of completing well in advance but once I started it took me 4 months to finish my first course and another 3 months to do the next one. I realized, I won’t be able to complete all of the course in 18 months time period given by BU. I have heard many people took 3-5 years via self study path and I don’t want to take that long. So I decided to speed it up and start to put more time and completed one by one in every 2 months by skipping the reading assignment.

I am so glad it is over and my long study hours are done for now.  It took around one and half year while working full time and having another baby along the way. It is well worth an experience to learn and connect every aspect to the real life scenorio. But it wasn’t an easy task. I am happy to have accomplished part of my 2010 goal.

For all these, I owe a Big Thank you to my lovely wife. She stood behind me, pushed me by reminding and encouraging me all the time to get this course completed.

Next Step

I am taking a break for couple of months. I am so close in getting my 2nd rental property and need to  work on it to put up for rental. After that, I plan to sign up for review classes in August to prepare for the Nov exams. I have confident and hope to clear the exams in the first attempt and plan to write about it. 
 

Image source from bionicturtle.com

Auto Insurance: Do I really need to report minor accidents?

June 3rd, 2010 Vijaianand No Comments »

Last month, it was bad one for my vehicles. I was involved in two accidents. Fortunately, I am ok but it is unfortunate to have accidents and none of ’em is my fault. Both times, I was actually rear ended and spared with minor damages. It is not fun to get involved in any type of accident. That’s for sure. But what can we do, even if you drive safely and careful enough other drivers tends to just find us and hit.

First, it was my Ford Truck which is already 13 years old but runs quite well so I can’t complain. It was a teanage driver who was trying to squeeze her Ford Tarus car on the left side to take left turn while I was waiting infront of the light. She hit me on corner and caused small dent with scratches on the bumper. We stopped and witnessed the damage. I decided to let her go because it wasn’t that bad and truck was already old. I didn’t bother to get it fixed. For the benefit of her, I let her go even without taking any insurance information.

Next my Honda Accord which is only 6 years old. It is in good shape and I like to keep that way because it is our family car. This time it was lady again who thought I started moving after lights change and read ended directly behind me. I felt little neck pain but not bad. We pulled out of traffic and stopped near by to assess the damages. It wasn’t too bad outside but I was worried about internal cushion/absorber damage. So I took her license information anyways but didn’t call any cop for the report and we left.  

Daunting Questions

In both the instances,  damage was minor and nobody was hurt. Like any accident, they came shocking and unexpected, bringing in some kinda of uncomfortable feeling. At that moment, one has to act fast and think what needs to be done next.  This only holds true when it’s a small/minor accident and you are in stable and consicous condition. Questions I started thinking were,

1. Do I call the insurance company and report?
2. If I want to report, do I need to call Police to get report?
3. Am I ready go through the hazzle of getting this small problem fixed?

Answers to all the above question depend on analyzing various aspects like,

I. How old is your vehicle?
II. Do you own the vehicle or lease it?
III. Are you some one who care so much about your car, even small scratch bothers you?
IV. Are you willing to go thru the hazzle of insurance calls and fixing the vehicle?
V. Are you in hurry to go somewhere?

For example, if it’s my own car, reasonably new and damage was physically visible, I would better call and report to insurance and also get  a police report if I and other party has more time.

Let me remind you one important thing. As per the insurance contract, we all are suppose to inform the insurance company of any accidents to our vehicles. But how many people do it for sake of avoiding the hazzle and insurance premium increase.There are surely Pros and Cons behind reporting.

Pros

1. Increased resale value because of dent/damage free vehicle
2. Peace of mind because your Vehicle is safe without any internal damages

Cons


1. Your future auto premium can go up according to your Insurance score were claims are part of calculation. If you make more claims whether it’s your fault or not, insurer might have unfriendly logic to quote higher premiums as per my experience.


2. Hazzle and Time Consuming process – You either have to take your vehicle to body shop or make an appointment for an appraiser to come out and get estimate. Take to body shop to get it fixed. Meanwhile you need to get rental vehicle or alternative commute arrangement to work and list goes on.


3. Vehicle might not be safe to drive with damages unless they are cosmetic.


4. Carfax report gets updated with vehicle accidents and reselling might be hard. At the same time, if you didn’t fix the damages you won’t get price for the vehicle. It’s a catch 22.

So I would like to conclude by saying, Use your own judgement. My situation and decisions might not fit everybody’s. Try to use the lists of questions mentioned above which might help you to make a sound decision. Don’t drive a unsafe vehicle just because you need to spend some time and money. That would be my personal caution.

Five minute can save you…

May 21st, 2010 Vijaianand No Comments »

I am sure many of you heard of the famous line from GEICO Insurance ad, “A five minute call can save you 15% or more on car insurance“. I don’t know whether that’s really works or not. But I am going to steal their tag line to stress a point, “A five minute call or googling can really save you some dollars every day“.

That’s right. Five minute which may be a small amount of time but reasonable enough to save you tens of dollars. It’s saved me and saving me everyday. You can save too, just spend five minutes for a worthy cause to save yourself some money.

A five minute call…

Every year I have a tradition to call my service providers asking them for any promo’s or discounts. I pitch my tone in a way, asking them whether they can save me money for being a loyal customer. I don’t see anything wrong in it. If you are giving business to somebody and being with them as a long time customer, they should be able share some profit with the customer to show their appreciation.

So I called Vonage last week and happened to get good customer service rep in a long time. She was mindful and understanding. She couldn’t find any promo but she gave did waive one month of service fee including all taxes which was worth $34. That will surely pay for a sunday lunch with my family.  She even encouraged me to call me back next month to see whether they got any offer if not they can do something about it. I like the way I was treated by Vonage. I surely deserve it for being customer for almost 6 year with them and recommended atleast 10 people to signup with them.

If you are loyal customer to your phone company, cable provider or pest control company, any business. I urge you call them every year and try out in a nice way by asking them to save money and share some profit with you. I don’t see anything wrong with it. Let me know how it goes.

A five Minute Googling…

Googling can be addictive. These days, everytime we think of something and need answers, we automatically go to google. Why not google when you think of buying something? I know many frugalers and money smart savers research and google before buying anything. Being a frugaler myself, I do it all the time and don’t have too be scientist to do research. Just google for 5 mins and you will know whether your purchase is a deal or no deal.  I saved more than $100 on my online orders in last few weeks. See the list below,

1. Bought USI Electric Smoke detector – $54(w shipping) – saved $15
2. Bought Wireless Router from Buy.com – $39.99(free shipping) – saved $15
3. Ordered Perfume from Amazon for my in-law – $42(free shipping) saved –  $30
4. Purchased Laptop Battery – $49.99 with $5 discount from seller and also saved $30 compared to hpdirect.
5. Got new DC Adapter for vonage router – Free from vonage – saved $10

These are just few purchases from last few weeks. Almost all purchases only needed 5 mins of googling to price shop and order them.

You can also save money in this tough economy and keep it stored up in your saving account for future. Please share your experience about googling and 5 min calls. I can’t wait to hear.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »