I’m the one from FWF who put up when the ***hole would’t shut up.
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No real credentials here.
Like some above in thread, also an engineer. In the past I’ve had fun gaming contest shenanigans (~$10k profit range back when in college in the Hershey’s/eBay one. That involved purchasing over a literal ton of candy bars…), as well as ~$20k total small timer eBay sales. I’m at 33 and have ~8 X current post tax income net worth, I want to retire early to travel more and find some full-time hobbies. Mostly that’s from slightly better than average stock trading returns (in spite of risky and poor individual stock investing choices) and always using deals on the “spending” side to keep that low and maintain a high savings rate.
I’ve also currently got about ~$9k value in various credit card and points rewards.
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Why not invest your own money along similar lines? If you’ve got enough to consider retiring, managing it well will pay more than a typical job. For me I’m less worried about the hassles of raising money as the time and expense of dealing with regulations, compliance, accounting, etc. most of those things are much cheaper and simpler if you are only investing your own money.
I try not to advise anyone on any thing. Giving people advise only makes them angry.
Agreed. Lots of downside reputational risk to giving advice, and little upside unless you’re getting an AUM fee on a huge pile of assets, never mind it’s hard to actually form a clear and correct opinion in the first place.
I retired at 49. Don’t care about credentials.
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Nicely done. If you’re up for sharing a little about how you made that happen, I’m sure people would be interested.
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Interesting question.
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I infer people’s credentials here from the content of their posts. Like Xerty’s cartoon implies, a dog could post on the internet that he’s a financial whiz, MSed $5M a month and is SIS’s personal accountant. So for me, the content of a person’s posts become their credentials. This puts the onus on the reader, not the poster, to determine the cred. (Hmmm… this post seems like it was written by a dog!)
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My credentials are probably mostly due to my mother’s guidance. She was great at numbers – we’re talking adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, area / volume calcs, simple interest and the like. The thing is, she was one of those rare individuals (perhaps a lot more common here…) that could actually apply the math to real world situations. She also had the imagination to dream up ways to apply the math to financial transactions. So from her I learned one could borrow at THIS rate and save / invest at THAT rate and pocket the difference.
From Dad and some radio shows (remember Sound Money?), I learned that taxes have a huge impact on return, so I began to focus on ways to minimize or eliminate taxes from the equation. I’m nowhere near an expert at that, or even good at it, but at least I have an awareness and have benefited from this awareness.
I suppose several years of engineering school helped cement a lot of the math abilities in place for me, got me into spreadsheets (VERY handy for a lot of the shenanigans we do) and didn’t damage me too much in destroying imagination and creativity. Engineering school DEFINITELY helped me with problem solving skills. I’ve been known to draw more than one “Free body diagram” of a financial shenanigan…
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There really isn’t one. I did a semester of community college after I graduated high school, realized college was a scam, started working in localized IT (computer building, repair, networking, etc.), and now I’m consulting about 12 years later. All of my finance “knowledge” has come from the internet (and of course, personal experience)–so clearly I’m an expert. 
I do appreciate the folks who value my advice/opinion, and I also appreciate the folks who don’t. Everyone’s entitled to an opinion, and everyone’s entitled to debate. I admit, I’m never as objective as I try to be (or claim to be) but I think that’s part of the human condition. No one is truly able to set their bias aside, no matter how much they believe they can/do. And! There’s typically always more than one way to do things–which I have struggled with for years.
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I’m a CPA that does individual income taxes as a side job (my day job isn’t anything that would relate to advice on Fragile Deal Forums). So I know my way around a 1040 and have about 30 middle class clients with fairly common tax situations that give me a decent understanding of how individual federal income taxes work.
After becoming a CPA and before going back to work in a CPA related field, I was recently a patrolman for 7+ years at an urban (population ~200,000) police department with 700+ sworn officers. The city I worked has a murder rate equivalent to that of Atlanta (in a good year) to New Orleans (in a bad year). I worked in a bad part of town. Based on my time at this job, I have a unique experience and understanding of people from all walks of life and all morality levels. I also have a decent understanding of my state’s criminal justice system - more so than most attorneys (except traffic and criminal trial attorneys, of course). Back when FWF had a lot more threads with legal questions, especially regarding traffic crashes, I had fun chiming in. Not so many of those threads here unfortunately.
I’m probably doing better financially than most people my age, but compared to others with a similar education and certification, I’m likely in the bottom quintile thanks to my odd career moves.
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Uh. … well i had a life health insurance license. Uh … well … i dont offer much advice lol
You might consider another career change – something in the lumberjack / forester area.
I’m assuming your only career goal is to have maximum cred on hot topics in FWF / FD…
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I’m an attorney , real estate investor , and car collector : you will find my topics tend to focus on these subjects as they are my areas of expertise - although I don’t proclaim myself to be an expert or providing advice to anyone - I’m just sharing my experience and trying to help others make money .
For some frame of reference , while I started posting at fwf in my 20s, i am now an old geezer (in my early 40s ) , with over 15 years experience as a landlord and attorney , with more that that number of homes, more than than that number of cars . Experience almost always trumps formal education - and much of my financial education was learned from the same fwf threads many of us all read . I’ve never taken any formal finance classes .
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Haha. I like the maximum cred idea. I’m thinking of getting into real estate so I can have some landlord cred.
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Former Marine, currently work in the trades (concrete acid stain and epoxy), have a couple rentals, make personal loans, flip things on ebay and craigslist. I have an Associates of Art Degree from a local community college. Started reading about finance 10 years ago and have been hooked since. I may be one of the younger ones on here at just under 30 years old.
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Isn’t it kinda moot to write down credentials on an anonymous online board? I mean anyone can pretend they have whatever credentials they want to back their alleged expertise. Even if you posted verifiable credentials, it could be someone else’s you know. With so much available a google away, it’s nearly impossible to be sure short of physically coming into their workplace and checking for yourself.
I put more faith in what I read after verifying from other sources. If somebody gives advice or information that is repeatedly well documented and backed up by facts from other reputable independent sources, over time I tend to put more weight to their posts (I’ll still double check anyway). Many people seem to have area of expertise too so their post on specific subjects are more believable if they have consistently posted solid information on that subject in the past.
Personally, I claim no credentials whatsover. My work expertise has nothing to do with finance, banking, investing or whatnot. Whatever expertise on financial topics I got, I shamelessly leached from other people, books, and websites more educated than myself in this area. There are just topics - say 529 plans or retirement accounts - that I had a personal interest in researching and keep up with recent changes so I’ll tend to post in those areas simply because I have more of a clue than on other topics. No credentials, formal training, or work expertise to speak of though but hey you get what you pay for. 
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What you say is true about pretenders, but I took it that the OP was posting out of curiosity rather than looking for rock-solid certified credentials. The burden is always on people to take whatever advice is given with a grain of salt.
FWIW, I’ve found this topic interesting and it helps us learn a little more about each other. 
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It’s possible to lie, but a few of us do know each other in real life and from other groups.
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I put on pants with both legs at the same time.
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The common thread I see here is that most of us have achieved a level of success by reading, learning, and applying what we’ve learned regardless of credentials or formal education.
It’s not the credentials or professional background that makes the magic happen - it’s the individual who wants to better their circumstances and do what it takes to learn and get there.
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Hesring these stories Also helps me to put less value on credentials from random people I meet IRL
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I somewhat sortof kinda agree… I find this thought process intriguing.
I could be a GREAT bricklayer without a high school diploma. Your typical quant trader on Wall Street needs a college degree (or would be essentially a black swan).
Do the years of college math, biology, chemistry, humanities make a better dentist? Probably not. They are (somewhat? mostly?) there as a weeding out tool but don’t have too much to do with how well you can drill out a cavity and fill it in properly. (I didn’t mean to make a dentist seem like a brick layer on purpose… really)
In my case, Mom and college engineering courses combined to make me a better financial problem solver than I would have been with just Mom.
On the other hand, I FIRMLY believe that our education system diminishes creativity. Many of us in successful careers or who have been successful financially have been able to resist the education system enough to remain creative.
I totally agree with the part of your post that I bolded below. Add “brainstorming” to the mix too… we need creativity, imagination and the like also. Guts / grit / self confidence are also big pluses.
I also think that many people don’t know enough to know they can have more… So the part of your post that I italicized may not be a realistic opportunity for folks who don’t have the great mom, dad, mentor. I totally agree that it is central to how the folks here got here.
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