AboutPaul Henneman Expertise Stock forecasting and fair market valuations.
Experience
Past/Present clients CBSMarketwatch.com, Hoovers.com, Multexinvestor.com, Bank of NY, numerous hedge funds and institutions, other partners and clients can be viewed at http://www.valuengine.com/about/careers.html
Question Hello, this is a bit off topic, but I am a sophomore in college and trying to decide if I should keep pursuing Finance as a major. The thing is, I hate accounting and am wondering if my finance classes would be simular to my accounting ones. I interested in the stock market and such, but not accounting. Is this going to be a problem? thanks
Answer Thank Miss Kitty for your question!
Unfortunately yes, accounting is a part of finance. To successfully analyze any publicly traded company for investment, it is typically necessary to review their accounting numbers very closely. Because of this, finance classes do spend a bit of time reviewing things like income statements and balance sheets. Accounting and various math is all integrated into the process that a financial professional does every day: pour over numbers. The only way to be successful in the stock market is to spend a great deal of time on these numbers.
I am sorry that I could not give you a more positive answer, but it is best that you know what you are getting into if you do decide to go down a financial career. Also, another thing to consider is that the financial industry is in turmoil. This will hopefully improve in the future, but for the next few years there will be very few, if any, openings for new hires in finance. Most investment banks, research companies, and other firms in finance are letting go huge numbers of people. This is something to consider as you look for a career choice. Things always go in cycles, so the financial industry will improve in the future, but perhaps not in time for when you graduate and begin seeking your first real job.
However, I do encourage you to keep your interest in the stock market and other investments. If you start to invest yourself at a young age, you can begin building real wealth for you later in life. Investments take time to grow, if you start while you are in your 20's you can build a huge portfolio of investments by the second half of life. If you wait for your 30's and 40's, you will not have enough time to really build significant wealth. Make it a hobby and learn all you can in your free time. Start with "Investing for Dummies", you can get this on amazon. It will take you through most forms of investing, and you could then look up and do more research into the specific areas that interest you most.
I hope this helps! Please do not hesitate to follow up with me if I can be of any additional service.
Sincerely,
Paul Henneman
President
ValuEngine Inc
www.ValuEngine.com
