As tax season fast approaches people begin to look to accountants for assistance in preparing their yearly mathematical nightmare. Matt Stevens is a local accountant at U.S. Bank and has completed his fair share of tax returns. Stevens strives for excellence in every way possible, while behind the desk analyzing numbers strategically making his next move. "The numbers consume my computer screen day in and day out, but this is what I love this is my soul. My strength is math and if it wasn't for math I would be out of the job not to mention the money is excellent." Stevens said.
Most people despise dealing with the entire math involved in their daily lives and that's why they turn to accountants. The constant and critical need for accountants earns them an average of 60,000- 85,000 a year according to (salary.com). Not only do accountants deal with numbers they have to deal with clients and if you have unhappy clients you're going to get an earful from the business or person who hired you. "I take care of my clients, this is how I keep them coming back, and I'm in this for the long haul so I treat them as if they were family." Stevens said.
There are many concerns to deal with being an accountant. People are not only trusting you to do their taxes, but also trusting you with their life savings in many cases. This is where fraud can come into play and is often publicized in the media which can give accountants a bad name in the public eye. "Of course you're taking a risk when you're putting your money in someone else's hands, but like I said if you screw someone over, then you have lost a lifelong customer and your reputation." said Stevens. Unfortunately, a few people who have entrusted their life savings into accountant's hands find their money missing in their time of need such as for college, health care expenses, and retirement. The legality of cheating someone simply isn't worth it; most of the people who get caught money laundering don't do much jail time, maybe two to five years, but who wants to spend time in jail?
"A lot of people would find the job boring, but think about how much time you spend on your phone or behind your computer screen playing a video game like Candy Crush. It's basically the same thing for accounting except I'm doing something I love, making money at it, all by working with numbers", said Stevens. "I mainly use Microsoft Excel for my work, to me it's like the Bible of accounting, it's hard to do business without it, but of course you need to have a good business sense too," said Stevens.
Why do numbers get such a bad rap? "Numbers get a bad rap simply because the teachers can't teach it, in most cases it's you get it or you don't, and if a student doesn't want to do anything with math then they more than likely won't need a majority of the stuff we learn throughout school, where as I use it all the time maybe not algebra, but spread sheets and Microsoft excel. Quite frankly if the other person doesn't want to learn math then that's okay with me, because that just means more business for me which turns into more money and a more secure future for me," said Stevens.
Is money everything? In a world consumed by branding and marketing, yes, money is everything in this material world; you have kids who can't even spend three days without going to the mall, but that is a story for another time.
The future is bright for accountants as the tax codes continue to get more difficult and Americans in general become worse at math. As a result, people need someone like an accountant to work numbers for them. In a Huffington Post article it stated, "U.S. students rank 31st in the world in math just a few points higher than the very bottom among the OECD (i.e., developed) countries. One earlier exam, called TIMSS, had U.S. twelfth-graders at the very bottom of the OECD in math. So the government stopped giving that test to U.S. twelfth-graders." All of these statistics means more opportunity for people to get good paying, secure jobs in the field of accounting or mathematics.
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