Secretly Studying + An Intense Desire to Pass the CPA Exam

11 Oct 2011

Club 75 Candidate Bloggers

Mark is a weekly Another71 Facebook blogger as he documents his journey through the CPA Exam.

The wife still doesn’t have a clue that I have started to study again. She sees me on my laptop a lot, but I just tell her that I am doing “work stuff.”

If you’re reading my blog for the first time, my wife doesn’t support my studying for the CPA exam because I went down this road a couple years ago and it just took time away from the family. What do I have to show for it now? Two lost credits for REG & BEC.

My wife went to the Taylor Swift concert on Saturday at Dallas Cowboys Stadium with her sister, so I babysat my kids and my nephew that night.

And when I say “babysat”…what I mean is that I let them watch whatever they wanted on TV and eat whatever they wanted….because I was in the other room studying the indirect method of the statement of cash flows, which I still do not get.

If any of you have any tricks to studying the indirect method…or heck…all things related to the Statement of Cash Flow, please email me. (markplinsky@gmail.com)

In my first week studying, I hoped to put in 25 hours. I fell short of that goal. I only put in 18.5. My struggle isn’t a matter of sitting down and hammering through the study material. It’s a matter of balancing my responsibilities as father and husband with that of studying.

Jeff posted a video by Eric Thomas, and Eric said that once you desire success as much as your need to breath, you will achieve that success. I agree 100%. My desire to pass the CPA exam is intense, but at the same time, I want to be a father to my young kids and an involved husband to my wife. I have three high priorities right now and according to Eric Thomas, that probably won’t work.

So now I stress over knowing that my wife doesn’t support this journey of the CPA exam, studying when my wife doesn’t notice, making sure my kids know who their dad is, and making sure my wife doesn’t feel like she is a single-mother, all while we are faced with the decision of whether to do surgery on her neck again. It’s not exactly a perfect world example, is it?

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4 comments

Allyson 12 years ago

Huh? I don't understand the previous comment. Anyway, Good luck with your new mistress, the CPA exam. I look forward to your blogs. You are stretched pretty thin, but you can do it. It's hard but you will do it.

CPA_in_CO 12 years ago

I didn't understand the first comment either NOR the one mentioned on Kricket's latest blog. And it is suppose to be a CPA Accounting Service?!?! Scary!!!

Jeff - another71.com 12 years ago

It was a Spammer :)

Shawn 12 years ago

Yeah, that's quite a bit on your plate. Still 18.5 hours is very impressive imo. Who knows, your kids might actually prefer the study style of babysitting! All you can eat and watch?