Personal Finance and Investing

 

While most think that the recent economic trends will adversely affect their future, accountants are able to see this downturn in a positive light. Accounting is a very stable career path. Despite being a stable career path, accounting is also quite recession-proof. Though almost all jobs are on the decline, accounting remains one of the top positions searched for by companies these days. There is never going to be an economic downturn for accountants because accountants will be needed for everyday commerce. As long as there is business, there will be a demand for skilled accountants so that companies can allocate costs and reduce them as well as increase production where they are making money. Whether the economy is on the rise or becoming sluggish, accountants will always be safe. A strong economy means that there will be more businesses, meaning more businesses that are looking to hire accountants. Even a sluggish or stagnant economy will has a high demand for accountants because the businesses will want to cut costs as much as they can in order to stay competitive.

The demand for accountants is at an all time high recently because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has made businesses pay closer attention to those they hire in the accounting, auditing, and financial fields. Because of this legislation, businesses are looking to hire the most adept professionals in their field to keep up with the new regulations presented by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The strict regulations create opportunities for accountants and auditors to audit financial records more thoroughly.

The transition to International Financial Reporting Standards is also playing a role in the all time high hiring of accountants. The shift to IFRS is a very costly process and many businesses and accounting firms are doing all they can to ensure a smooth transition. To do this, firms are looking for accountants with knowledge in both U.S. GAAP and IFRS. The shift from U.S. GAAP to IFRS will take place for some companies in as early as 2009. These companies have been preparing for this for years. They are hiring more accountants to make it a smooth transition.

The recent economic downturn has actually made the demand for accountants rise. Because businesses are looking to save money by cutting costs wherever they can, they are hiring accountants to find out where they are making their money and what sections of their business are less profitable. Unlike most other jobs, accountants are always in demand. Whether business is good or bad, accountants will always be needed. Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, businesses are looking to accountants to keep the integrity of their business because of the more complicated business deals that go on daily.

Accountants are also being hired more steadily today because of scandals surrounding the accounting community. The scandals create more accounting jobs because businesses and auditing agencies want more detail in their analyses because of the strict regulations and more auditors means more detail. Accounting is one of the rare professions that have an increase in people hired after there is a scandal involved in that line of work. The demand for forensic accountants has been steadily climbing in the last ten years. Because of the lack of ethics in business today, with crimes such as embezzlement, bribery, and securities fraud becoming commonplace, the demand for forensic accountants to detect illegal financial activity by individuals, companies, and organized crime rings.

Hiring is going so well for accountants that some firms even go to colleges and universities in order to find future employees. Many firms nowadays are looking to hire graduating accounting majors right out of college. One reason accounting firms are doing this is because the firms can train the new graduate in their own way of doing things. Also, because the demand for accountants is so high, firms can seek employees at a much lower cost.

 

Accounting is a great career path because there are there are many different types of specialties in the field and the fact that the demand for accountants has been increasingly yearly with no end in sight of this trend.

 

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The significance of accounting has never been more apparent than in today’s market, with the struggling economy and the job market in decline.  Though the loss of jobs may be happening in many fields the one that continues to stay strong is accounting.  The reasons for this are the same reasons that accounting is such an important aspect in the economy and in society.

                Before we can begin to understand the importance of accounting, we first must understand what accounting is.  Accounting can be defined as the theory and system of setting up, maintaining, and auditing the books of a firm.  It is the art of analyzing the financial position of a business through its sales, purchases, and overhead.  These records must be kept in chronological order and must be summarized in a useful format.   It is also responsible for identifying information on the transactions, analyzing it and then interpreting each and every document.

                Now that we have begun to understand what accounting means we can begin to examine how important accounting really is.  The first way in which it is important is that an accounting education can be applied to any job industry.  For instance a secretary uses accounting in managing a company’s check book.  Also the executives of this same company must be able to analyze the success of their business through analyzing the accounting statements from the past and present.  These are just two of the many job positions found in any company that must have some knowledge of accounting.  Another reason that accounting is important to all business majors is because of the fact that the business world has now come under much scrutiny.  As a result they are held much more accountable for their financial practices.  This has occurred because of the events of the Enron and WorldCom scandals.  For this reason nearly all businesses require their employees to have a general knowledge of accounting.

                Another way in which accounting is such an important aspect to any business is that accountants are responsible for providing information that is used to determine the present and future economic stability of the organization.  It has been proven that these companies that use good accounting practices have a competitive advantage over their opponents.  Also they have the ability to improve their decision making abilities.   Those that do not use these practices face an inability to compete in the market and make their decisions simply on a hunch.

                Not only is accounting very important in the business world it is also beneficial for ordinary people to know as well.  Each and every person uses these accounting skills in their daily lives when making financial investment decisions.  They also use it when assessing their interest rates in order to pay off their house mortgages.  The final way in which they can use these skills is to balance their check books and to calculate the rates of their car payments.

Within the accounting department can be found the forensic accountants these are individuals who use the audit and investigative skills to assist in legal matters and to make recommendations in order to minimize future risks.  Their jobs also can be extended into civil matters, for instance to find any hidden assets in certain divorce cases.  These individuals are just as important as regular accountants because of the fact that they are also in very high demand.  The reason though that their jobs are so important is because of the fact that fraud is becoming much easier to commit.  These actions are a result of the fact that technology has increased significantly and that gives people individuals the ability to commit fraud on a massive scale and get away with it very easily.

The significance of accounting not only is clearly vital in the business world but it also can be shown that it plays a part on the individual scale as well.  For these reasons and many more it can be shown that accounting clearly is if not close to the most important skill in todays’ society and will continue to be in the future. 

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So you’ve seen the commercials, heard about it from your friends or colleagues, but you want to know what P90X REALLY is about. Not just “Oh man…it’s EXTREME!” Pull up a chair and I’ll give you an in depth look at the workout program that WILL change your life.

Let’s get right down to it and start with the workouts. Have you ever bought a workout video that was a half hour or forty-five minutes of a more talk than working out? Then the workout you do get is for beginners, or is better suited for your 12 year old? Yea, me too, but P90X is not it. First of all, they give you a full DVD on how to get the most of the workouts. The trainer, Tony Horton, gets serious, and gives you serious motivation to get the change in your body you are looking for. Then, they give you a whopping TWELVE DVDs. That’s twelve hour-long workouts! These guys are nuts! Not only are they twelve workouts, but also if you are not in shape like a professional athlete, you WILL NOT be able to finish the workouts. I’m serious, and so are the workouts. Their strength workouts are based on circuit type training. The strength workout DVDs are: chest and back; shoulders, triceps, bicep; back and legs; chest, shoulder, triceps; back and biceps and finally the “Ab Ripper X”, as they like to call it. Each one starts with a warm up and stretch, and each one has a cool down period…so you are completely done in 1 hour.

Now, I want to tell you about the chest and back a bit more. Basically, you rotate a chest exercise, then a back exercise. It starts out with pushups, then pull-ups. You will rotate regular grip, then wide grip then narrow grip and finally reverse grip (pull-ups). Tony then has you doing some decline and incline pushups, bent over rows, back flys and some crazy military push ups that the Navy SEALS have a hard time doing. There are of course a couple other exercises that I didn’t mention, but they are all variations of the above. So, with about 15 seconds rest in between each exercise, you finish the first round and you are SPENT! Then he says….”This is where most programs are finished….but not us! We’re not done!” And you look at the TV screen like..”Are you kidding me right now..I can’t even lift my arms over my head…..and you want me to get back on the pull up bar”??? Yea…that’s right…get back up there. But, don’t worry, about half way through the 90 days….you’re yelling back at the TV screen going…….bring it harder old man!!! (Oh yea..Tony is the most ripped 48 year old guy you have EVER seen….EVER!)

So, that about covers one DVD. The rest are more of the same torture (at first, then you realize you are a friggin’ animal, and begin to love that stuff). But wait, I’m not done! There are cardio workouts! Plyometrics, Yoga, Cardio X, and Core Synergistics. All of which will have you scraping the floor with your tongue if you are not already a marathon runner. Oh yea….I know someone who IS a marathon runner, and he STILL had trouble with these babies when he first started! Yea, these workouts are serious, so you should be too if you want to tackle them and get in the best shape of your life! Did I mention they give you a calendar and a workbook to track your progress and a 40-page guide to all of the workouts in addition to the DVDs? Yea…they do.

Let’s talk about the P90X nutrition plan now. So unless you are a professional athlete (actually….professional athletes can benefit from this nutrition guide too) you need this nutrition guide. It’s really like getting a masters degree in how our bodies work. After you read the P90X nutrition guide, you will want to sue someone every time you see the crap on TV and in the news about how to lose weight. Everyone is feeding us misinformation!! It’s crazy that the owners of these companies are not sent to jail!!! Because it’s a crime!! The P90X nutrition guide shows you IN DETAIL how EXACTLY to burn YOUR fat, and build YOUR muscle, not someone else’s fat and muscle. They take you step by step, calculate your energy requirements for rest, for exercise, for everything, then give you a solid number to hang your hat on, so you know every single day, that you are either losing fat, or not. In addition, they give you meal plans, down to the last calorie, carbohydrate and protein, so that you know EXACTLY what is going on in your body. No more guessing if you are losing weight because the scale might be wrong. The hell with the scale! You don’t need it! It’s throwing you off! Calculate your weight loss!! Then, in one month, look at it in your pictures….you will be astonished! In addition, P90X puts you on three different phases of your nutrition plan: a fat burning phase, a strength phase and an endurance phase. You can watch you body change each week in the mirror….it is totally crazy!!! They even give you an entire 90 days worth of meal recipes. If you don’t like those, they have a “Portion Plan”, so you can chose your own foods and still follow the plan. Of course, the online website has tons more recipes from other people that went through P90X who have submitted so others can benefit. This is the most complete, real, and healthy way to get super-fit that you will find anywhere…..I can guarantee that!!!

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