Life as a CPA after FIRE??

[taylorcpa]

I'll be 50 next month and am ready to FIRE. I want to keep my CPA license and skills up to date without the rat race of life in public accounting. I am sure I could contact local firms and sub out during busy season, but honestly I am tired of it. Of course, it could be because it's April 16th and I'm just tired. Are there any other CPA's here? I want to be able to jump back in the work force in case I need (or want) to.

 

[Jerry1]

I gave up my license. I had it in reserve for many years because I worked in industry. Then when I retired, I let it fully lapse. However I was 60 at the time. Remember, the license, a CPA, is to sign off on financial statements. You don’t need it to do taxes. I’m sure if you want to or need to get back into a firm to do some per diem work, it won’t matter if you have your actual license. However, if your state is like mine, you could put your license into reserve and then to put your license back in effect, if needed, was just a matter of getting current on your continuing education.

 

[Letj]

I am/was a CPA. I retired at 50 but have steadfastly refused to work for any amount of money or anyone. I am too busy living an amazing life in retirement. The first year I retired I took my CPEs but didn’t continue after that. It’s fairly easy as you know to take CPEs if you choose to begin using your CPA designation again but I have no interest. I am about to head to Mexico for 8 weeks so living my life is far more important. Sorry I am not much help here.

 

[OldShooter]

Not judging pro or con on working in retirement and IANACPA, but ...

When my company controller resigned I ended up hiring a woman who marketed herself as a part-time CFO. She was always available by telephone and she visited once or twice a week to do office-type tasks like payroll reviews and to answer questions accumulated by our accounting manager. We were running Great Plains Dynamics at the time and she had some passing expertise with that too.

It looked like a great deal to me. She worked only where she wanted to work and she could manage her workload to whatever level she chose. We still had a CPA firm for the annual reviews that our bank wanted and they also did the taxes, so no tax anxiety for our part-time CFO.

I recall seeing an advert for a firm that offered part-time CFO services to local nonprofits. Probably there are other such firms in most markets. But it's probably better to contract direct than to have a middleman to answer to.

 

[pb4uski]

I'll be 50 next month and am ready to FIRE. I want to keep my CPA license and skills up to date without the rat race of life in public accounting. I am sure I could contact local firms and sub out during busy season, but honestly I am tired of it. Of course, it could be because it's April 16th and I'm just tired. Are there any other CPA's here? I want to be able to jump back in the work force in case I need (or want) to.

Retired CPA here. Retired just after my 56th birthday. Last 13 years was in advisory with a Big 4 firm and last 5 years was as a subject matter expert. It was a bit funny when I told them that I would be resigning in a few months... they said that they would miss me and that I added a lot of value and they didn't know what they would do without me... while I appreciated the accolades I told them that they had a lot of really smart people and that I was sure that they would be fine.

We both left the door open for me to do some part-time consulting with them after I left. Fast forward two years after i left... they hadn't called me and I hadn't called them.... so all was good.

I did renew my license the first renewal after I retired, just in case. I was a little behind on CPE so I signed up for some self-study CPE, selected subjects that I knew stone cold and then just took the tests to get the credits that I needed to renew. When my next renewal came up 2 years later, I started with a US GAAP update and promptly fell asleep after 5 minutes of subject matter that I would have been all over when I was working and decided that I could always renew later if I needed to.

 

[pb4uski]

I gave up my license. I had it in reserve for many years because I worked in industry. Then when I retired, I let it fully lapse. However I was 60 at the time. Remember, the license, a CPA, is to sign off on financial statements. You don’t need it to do taxes. I’m sure if you want to or need to get back into a firm to do some per diem work, it won’t matter if you have your actual license. However, if your state is like mine, you could put your license into reserve and then to put your license back in effect, if needed, was just a matter of getting current on your continuing education.

While I was licensed since I was first eligible at 24 years old, I was never in a position where I signed an audit opinion, review, compilation or a tax return... never had a situation in my 35 year career where I really needed to be licensed. In fact, I had let it go inactive for a few years when I was with the Big 4 and it took them a while to figure it out and I filed to get reinstated.

Technically, mine is "inactive"... if I took the requisite CPE hours and write out a check I could get it reinstated.

 

[Montecfo]

I'm a retired CPA. License inactive but could reinstate it.

I did financial and tax, Big 4, big industry, small industry, two startups.

My plan was to do seasonal tax work, particularly state and local. But after a few extra years hoping my company would get sold and produce a lucrative exit, I had exceeded my "high" target number. So for that reason I have not worked.

But it is probably one of the better credentials for PT work, as long as you don't get roped into FT for part time pay.

 

[Franklin]

I just turned 66 and way back in 1979 (just out of college) passed my CPA exam (with the help of Newt Becker and those awful jokes) and went to work as a CPA doing write up work, audits, and taxes. After a few years I realized that wasn't the career I was expecting. Did learn allot from the time spent but the best lesson was learning what I didn't like to do. Walked away simply with the knowledge gained and never looked back.

 

[youbet]

But it is probably one of the better credentials for PT work, as long as you don't get roped into FT for part time pay.

That's the real catch with most professional PT work. DW retired as a public school teacher at 55. At that time she was on the adjunct faculty at a local private college teaching two night classes. When she mentioned she was now retired from her full time gig, they offered, and she accepted, some additional classes to the extent that for one semester she was teaching as many hours as some of the full time staff, at about one third the pay. That ended after that semester and it was a good lesson learned for her.

 

[PatrickA5]

I kept my license up (with CPE) while I did my H&R Block retirement gig. After I finished doing that, my state finally came up with a "retired" status that allows me to keep the license without doing any CPE or paying an annual fee. The odds of me ever going back to work are slim, but I'll probably hang on to it for a while longer since it isn't costing me anything.

I was in the oil and gas industry. My CPA didn't do much of anything for me, but glad I did it.

 

[Bamaman]

My uncle was a CPA and managing partner at our state's largest independent CPA firm.

He died suddenly at about 50 years old of a heart attack.

My father always said it was the numbers that killed him.

If you've made it to ER and are healthy, take advantage of the time you have left on this earth.