Today is the 3rd anniversary of Skyview CFO. It’s been a while since I last posted… I’ve been busy!

A lot has happened since I last posted, so I wanted to share my recent experiences in an effort to show those who may be feeling challenged entering the workforce or finding the ‘right’ career path, that there are plenty of different ways to get your foot in the door.

In August 2022, I moved Skyview HQ out of my apartment and into a WeWork office in midtown Manhattan. While I was unpacking, one of my neighbors walked into my office and asked what I did. I told him that I provide CFO services to small businesses, and he nodded and said, “I could probably use that soon.”

Less than a month later, he became my biggest client. After more than 20 years in construction, he recently started his own general contracting firm and needed someone to help manage the financial operations. While I had experience in other industries, I knew nothing about construction. I can’t even hang up a picture frame, if I am being honest. Nonetheless, I had to teach myself all about the unique financial processes in the field, and luckily my new client was patient and saw that I was a quick learner.

At first, like most of my clients at the time, he only needed my services for a few hours per week. But over the next year, his business kept growing . It was growing so fast, I was faced with some tough decisions. In order to provide the level of service he needed, I would have to drop some of my other clients. I had tried hiring people to manage those relationships while I grew the business, but in the end it became tough for me to train and provide the same level of service my clients expected. After negotiating, my client agreed to a new rate that would allow me to part ways amicably with those other clients, while still allowing me to maintain some of my smaller accounts who only required my services for a few hours each month.

Fast forward a few more months and I am now managing the financial operations of a multi-million dollar company, in an industry I knew nothing about two years ago. I still have helped other clients on the side, including a start up I invested in after meeting the founder while I was judging a business plan competition at my alma mater, Syracuse University.

While the journey of Skyview CFO has many miles ahead, it has taken a major pivot from since I launched in May 2021. My original intention was to provide financial services within the summer camp industry, but I found that my business model did not really work best for them. Currently, I am no longer providing services, or taking on clients in the summer camp industry. Not until I decide to buy one, that is.

The point is that there is more than one way to get a job. I’m not saying you should make a consulting firm and take the route I did, but there are more ways than just applying to job posts behind a keyboard. You need to think outside the box. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been far from perfect. I was losing money every month in my first year and made plenty of mistakes along the way. It was not easy, especially while earning my Master’s in Accounting, and dealing with my parent’s lengthy divorce at the same time, but I have finally found myself on a path I am proud of.

I see a lot of recent graduates trying to enter the workforce now, complaining that nobody is hiring, while expecting six figure salaries to work remotely in jobs they have zero experience in. No job is going to just jump out and get you. Sometimes they fall in your lap, but more often than not, you have to figure out alternate routes and prove yourself. You have to be okay not being a millionaire in your 20s. You have to be okay not making money, coming into an office, and learning. I have no idea where I’ll be in five years, if Skyview CFO will still exist, but what I will tell you is that I’m always trying to figure out how to increase my value while doing something I enjoy.

I intend to do more writing. I enjoy blogging about business topics and might consider putting out a new book in the future so stay tuned.

Lastly, I could not have done this all without my strong support system who has gotten me through the times of doubt, and to remind me that the people who are hating on my path and trying to bring me down are insignificant.

If you have any questions about my experience or want some advice, please email me at brandon@skyviewcfo.com .

-B

Over the past few years, we have experienced a period of high inflation, leading to a rise in interest rates. Although it my sound complicated, having a basic understanding of how they relate to you and your business can help you make more informative decisions, when it comes to borrowing, hiring, spending, expanding, and much more.

The most common challenge small business owners face is the cost and quality of labor, which are directly impacted by inflation. After the pandemic, the labor market began to tighten, meaning that the number of available jobs increased more rapidly than the amount of available workers. When this happens, workers are able to demand higher wages because there is little competition for job openings.

Imagine you are a business owner needing to hire someone. When interest rates are low and the labor market is tight, you may start looking for a candidate and find that there are not many applicants to choose from. Let’s say you finally find someone with just enough qualifications, however, they are demanding a wage of $22/hour which is more than you have offered for a similar position in the past. Due to the lack of applicants, you decide to make the hire anyway. In order to pay your new employee, you go and borrow money from the bank until your sales are able to catch up with the new cost. The bank offers you a loan and charges a 3% interest rate. Now that you have an employee with a higher wage and a loan to pay back, you decide to raise your prices a bit. Inflation.

In order to combat inflation, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates. By doing so, they are essentially trying to slow down the economy by discouraging borrowing, and loosening the labor market, which would lead to a slow down in rising prices.

Let’s go back to your business. A year goes by and you want to hire more employees to keep expanding your business. The labor market has only gotten tighter, but the Fed has begun to raise interest rates. The new candidates are demanding a wage of $25/hour, so you go back to your bank and ask for a bigger loan. But now the bank is charging an 8% interest rate. You figure that it would be too costly between the higher wages and the interest, so you decide to hold off until the interest rates go back down.

Instead of borrowing more money, hiring more people, and selling more product, you are choosing to wait, which is what the Fed’s goal is when they decided to raise interest rates. Other business owner’s facing the same predicament as you also choose to hold off on borrowing and hiring. As less businesses create job openings, the labor market begins to loosen. With fewer openings, more people become unemployed for longer; the competition in the labor market increases.

The person you hired for $22/hour is not panning out, so you decide to replace them. You’re pleased to find that there are plenty of eager applicants and they are only demanding $19/hour. Since your labor cost just got lower, you want to gain an edge on your competition so you decide lower your prices back down. More and more businesses like yours cut their labor costs and lower their prices, while the interest rates are high. Inflation defeated.

Eventually the Fed is happy with the decrease in prices, and can gradually begin to lower their rates. Allowing you to reconsider borrowing money, hiring more people, and selling more product.

Back to reality. Interest rates are still high and the Fed is debating whether or not to raise them even more, as the labor market is still tight. However, It is likely that they will begin to lower them at some point next year.

As you navigate your business over the next couple of years, you’ll want to keep all of this in mind. By understanding economic factors like interest rates, and inflation, make better decisions for your business. It is important to pay attention to what the Fed is planning to do with interest rates in the near future, as you will understand how this will affect your cost of borrowing and labor. If you are planning to borrow money, you may want to consider whether or not you can hold off until interest rates ease up.

Let’s face it, paying taxes isn’t fun. However, it’s best to get ahead of it to ensure you don’t end up paying any fines or late fees.

Luckily, fractional financial service companies, like Skyview CFO, have become more commonplace over the last couple years. The lingering effects of the pandemic have led to a rise in freelancers, and virtual services that mesh with the work-from-home or hybrid working environments

Fractional financial services can help business owners save time and money by ensuring your accountant doesn’t have a large pile of disorganized information to bill you at a substantial hourly rate to make heads or tails of.

What are Fractional Financial Services?

At Skyview, we provide three different types of services: Fractional bookkeeper, controller, and CFO services. Think of us as the translator between you and your accountant. Maybe you just need someone to clean up your books, or just an extra set of eyes on your numbers. That can seem costly, especially if you don’t have the budget to hire anymore full-time employee. This is where a fractional services can be a cost effective solution.

Fractional Bookkeeping

It’s 2023 and the days of bookkeeping being recorded in actual books are well and gone, as are the days of needing a software downloaded on your desktop. Accounting platforms, like QuickBooks have made the shift to online which allows for the virtual bookkeeping industry to exist.

The average salary for a full time bookkeeper is approximately $50,000. By providing our services virtually on a part-time basis, we are able to come in at a significantly lower rate – as lows as a couple hundred dollars per quarter!

A fractional bookkeeper will categorize your income and expenses, save and file your receipts, reconcile your bank accounts, process your payroll and produce your financial statements essential for both you and your accountant.

Fractional Controller

A fractional controller is more hands on than a bookkeeper. They can provide services such as budgeting, forecasting, price shopping, pricing strategy, and other analytical reports, in addition to the standard bookkeeping services above

Fractional CFO

A fractional CFO is more geared towards startups who need financial guidance, business planning, and funding tactics. This can be a much better alternative to a full-time CFO who will either demand a substantial salary, or equity.

Find Out More

If any of these services appeal to you, or if you just want to set up a free consultation drop me an email at brandon@skyviewcfo.com !

When Charles Duhigg published The Power of Habit in 2012, it was an instant best seller and became widely regarded in the psychology and business reading communities. As the title suggests, the book focuses on the science of habits and how we can utilize them to our advantage. I know I’m about 10 years late here, but the book still holds up today as the lessons can be applied to multiple aspects of life and business.

I often find self-help books to jump all over the place, often failing to focus on one main message. Duhigg, on the other hand, does an excellent job of creating a linear flow, as each chapter builds upon each other, allowing the reader to follow along and learn as the book progresses. Below I will outline the major points Duhigg brings up, but I do strongly recommend giving this book a full read. You can order it on Amazon with this link.

How Habits Work

The first part of the book discusses how habits are formed, and how the brain uses a system to create them, for better or worse. He describes “The habit loop”, which is essentialy a cue which triggers an action that is followed by a reward. For instance an alarm clock cues someone to wake up and go to shoer, brush their teeth, and have a coffee without butch though which they are then rewarded by feeling ready to start their day. He uses many different examples of habit loops, and how the brain can turn tasks that can be at first complex to the brain, but get turned into habits as the brain gets more accustomed to the loop.

Changing Habits

After educating the reader on how Habits work. Duhigg goes on to demonstrate how people can effectively change habits if they so desire. The main point is that habits can be changed if you keep the cue and reward the same but change the habit. For instance someone who is trying to stop smoking may be cued by seeing someone else light up a cigarette, they then light and smoke one themselves, and are rewarded from the feeling of destressing from smoking. If someone wanted to change that habit instead of smoking a cigarette they could have a few cups of coffee or a piece of nicotine gum. The cue and rewards are the same, but the action is different. Habits are tough to change at first but the more you get your brin accustomed to the new loop, the change becomes possible.

Keystone Habits

The next lawyer, Duhigg introduces is Keystone Habits. These are the important habits that when changed can have a domino effect on other habits. The example he uses is someone that starts an exercising habit can see other habits begin to form as a result. They might start to eat healthier, do drugs less, and so on. When it comes to business, identifying keystone habits within and organization that can have a major ripple effect on other habits the organization has fallen into is how successful CEOs make change.

Takeaways

This book does an excellent job of explaining how habits can be used effectively, by using tremendous examples from both life experiences and real-world business examples including a dysfunctional hospital, the King’s Cross fire of 1987, and how CEO Paul O’Neil transformed the aluminum producing conglomerate, Alcoa.

Don’t panic! While there is strong evidence that says yes, you can die early due to stress on the job, there are very different kinds of job “stress”. The point of this post is to help identify what causes you the most stress at work and understand what type of stress is the most dangerous.

Stop me if you’ve had this conversation before… you’re meeting up with your old college buddy at happy hour and they ask, “so, how’s work?” You scoff, do a little shrug, and robotically respond “It’s work.”

After a brief awkward pause you remember you should probably ask them the same thing so you return the favor, “What about you?” Your friend let’s out an identical scoff to yours and agrees with your assessment, “It’s work.”

You both then stand their awkwardly and sip your $5 beers in the sticky midtown pub.

No? Just me? Well anyways, I’m sure you’ve complained once or twice to your friends and coworkers about your job. Don’t worry, you’re not going to die because your boss wears too much perfume, or because you office is in Dumbo and you thought it was going to be a remote role, but now it’s “hybrid” and you wouldn’t have crammed into the Upper East Side if you had known that.

Most people do not like their job in this country – it’s a fact. According to a 2018 study, conducted by Morning Consult, just 33% of U.S. employees said they were “very satisfied” with their current job. I’ve had jobs I’ve hated, and I’ve had jobs I’ve hated slightly less. As a business owner I have by far the most stressful decisions to make than I did in any of prior roles. I have days where I love it, and I days where I want to throw my computer out the window. Upon reflection I realized my frustration at former jobs all came down to lack of control.

The jobs I had shortly after graduating Syracuse University with a degree in both Finance & Entrepreneurship, I sat in a cubicle and was monitored constantly for 8 hours per day. I was docked pay if I was late, and may have been scorned once or twice for taking too much time on a lunch break. However, the jobs were quite simple. Add up a few numbers in excel. Copy and paste a few paragraphs. File documents into another file. REAL GROUNBREAKING STUFF. But the job itself was not stressful. Nobody was going home hungry if I missed an email.

Today I am faced with many more difficult and stressful decisions than I was in the cubes. Like, whether or not it’s a good use of my time to keep writing this article. As a business owner, a consultant, and an employer, my decisions don’t just affect my paycheck and life, they affect my clients, my team, and if I had kids probably them too. But I am way happier than I was when I lacked control.

This isn’t a pitch to leave corporate America and start your own business. Just because you’re not a CEO or a manager doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have control over how you do your job. As long as your are completing the duties asked of you professionally, you should be treated like the adult you are. On the other hand, if you are a manager you might want to think about how much you tend to micromanage and the damage it can do to your business in the long run, because there has been statistical evidence that one’s degree of control in their job has a correlation with an increase in chances of getting a heart attack, or dying due to other early onset health conditions.

In his book Naked Statistics, Charles Wheelan cites a famous British study known as the Whitehall Studies that followed 17,530 civil servants over the course of 7.5 years. They were able to make a distinction of those with “low job control” by asking questions like “can you decide when to take a break?” or “Do you have a choice in deciding how to do your job?”. After years of research and subsequent studies, they were able to find a strong correlation between having a low degree of control in your job and dying from coronary heart disease.

While the Whitehall studies were conducted more than 50 years ago, the underlying message has been supported by subsequent studies. The bottom line is that while all types of job can be stressful in their own regard what really eats at peoples psyche is not feeling like they have any control or say in how they lived their life.

Therefore, I find it very important whether you are an entry level worker or a CEO, giving people as much flexibility as you can when it comes to getting the job done is how successful companies operate. What do you think?

I often see business blogs that recommend “top banks” and other financial products for small businesses. Having worked at a bank, and now being a a small business owner, I have come to notice that most of these blogs either fail to recognize which factors are most important to small business owners, or they’re simply paid by sponsors. I mean, they can’t possibly believe that Axos is the best bank for small business owners. But not to worry I am here to the rescue! This post is an unbiased, unsponsored account of which factors you should consider when selecting the right bank for your small business. Hopefully you can take some ideas away, make your own decision and not fall victim to targeted ads that don’t actually have your best interests in mind. Also, you don’t have to be limited to just one bank! It is good to utilize multiple banks so that all of your precious eggs are not in one basket.

1. Accessibility

Even in today’s day and age with virtual banking, it is important to do business with a bank that has real people and has plenty of accessible branches and ATMs in the area where you conduct business. For instance, I work in NYC where there is a Chase on every corner. That makes it convenient for me to pop in to see a banker, or utilize an ATM without having to pay a fee. However, there are plenty of states where Chase does not operate in. Of course, even if I am in NYC but I do a lot of business in Pennsylvania where Chase does not operate, it might not be my best option.

2. Fees/Balance Requirements

Many banks will advertise that they don’t charge any “common banking” fees such as monthly service, checks, wires, and so on. However, for most banks these fees ARE free ONLY IF you maintain a certain minimum balance. Be wary of advertisements from banks that claim to not charge any fees, when they might require you to retain a balance that is beyond your capacity and you’ll wind up paying them.

3. Saving Options

Depending on your business’ cash flow you may be sitting on a idle cash for short periods of time that you can’t put into investments, so it just sits in your bank account. Banks offer different interest rates and some are much more competitive. CDs are a thing of the past as I have yet to see one in the last decade to offer a sensible rate worth locking up your money. Today, there are some banks that offer over 1% APY, which is well higher than most big banks offer (usually in the ball park of 0.4%).

4. Borrowing Options

Whether it’s a Credit Card, a Line of Credit, or a Small Business Loan, it’s easier to borrow if you have a relationship and banking history from the lender. For instance if I have a my checking and savings at Local Bank. They will see how much money I bring in over the course of the time I do business with them. If I talk to my bankers there about my business and they get to know how it functions, when it comes time to borrow money, it is easier to articulate and prove why the bank should loan money to my business at a reasonable rate. It would be much more difficult to walk into a bank without any knowledge of me or my business and ask for a sizeable loan. When considering a bank you want to make sure they have multiple products with real people behind them.

A growing concern in America these days is the health of the middle class. The wealth gap has continuously been expanding for over a decade, and has been the main topic of political debates for as long as I can recall. This isn’t a post about which side of the isle is right, who should be taxed what, but rather an explanation of why basic statistics allows for people with more money to grow their wealth faster than those with less money.

A famous, yet concerning statistic is that most Americans would not be able to afford an unexpected $400 bill. That’s very concerning considering unexpected bills come up all the time. Flat tires, floods, a terrible war that causes a tremendous rise in gas prices, a global pandemic that shuts down the entire world, and whatnot. Because so many Americans are just $400 away from bankruptcy, that brings us to my first point of how probability makes the rich richer: insurance.

Insurance companies make billions of dollars by utilizing probability. To make things simple, let’s say that you own a car worth $20,000 and you pay a $400 monthly premium. In exchange for your monthly payments, the insurance company will pay to replace your $20,000.00 should it be lost, stollen, or damaged (yes, I’m ignoring plenty other contingencies for simplicity) (and deductibles). If buy this policy and your car is stolen one month later, the insurance policy was well worth it, and a loss for the insurance company. However, the insurance company has predetermined the likelihood of your car being stolen or damaged to be 4% in any given year. For the insurance company to make money on this policy they want you to make it at least 4 years without needing the $20,000 payout ($20,000/$400/12mos=4.1 years). If there is a 4% chance per year that you will need a payout, there is a 16% chance over a 4 year period; that’s pretty good odds for the insurer. Also, the further into your policy you need to make a claim, the less of a loss the insurance company bears (If you crash one month into the term, you’ve only paid them $400 and they need to cough up $20,000, if it’s one year in than you’ve paid them $4,800). Despite the odds being in insurance company’s favor, they have a risk you will crash and they will lose on your policy. The goo thing for them is that you’re not their only customer. The insurers make sure they will be profitable by providing many policies to many people with similar odds. The collection of all these premiums allows them to pay you in the event you smash that car into a tree. I’m not even going to mention the reinsurance industry. That’s right, there are insurance companies that insure insurance companies.

So why should you be paying a policy that only has a 16% chance of being “worth it?” Well, as I just mentioned, most Americans cannot afford an unexpected $400 bill. So we can safely assume wayyy more Americans cannot afford an unexpected $20,000 bill. The idea here is that you’d rather pay $400 each month to avoid a situation that would completely derail your life. You can’t afford the risk.

Let’s replay this scenario but now pretend you’re Warren Buffet (or any billionaire of your choosing). I highly doubt you’d be buying a $20,000 car, but let’s just pretend you are for some weird reason. $20,000 won’t even make a dent in your bank account, so it would actually make sense for you to forego the car insurance (ignoring the fact that it’s required by law) because there is only a 16% chance that it will be worth it, and even if you do end up having to pay $20,000 to replace the car, it will not derail your life. This principle shows that being rich literally affords you to the ability avoid a monthly payment that those with less money need to make. If both you and Warren Buffet bought the same $20,000 car, you essentially have to pay an additional $19,200 over 4 years than for the same car because you cannot afford the risk.

Risk is another way of describing probability. I know what you’re thinking, rich people aren’t getting richer because they’re avoiding insurance premiums. No, but the same principle applies to investment and generating wealth. A core investing concept is that the riskier an investment is the greater the rate of return needs to be. This is due in large part to the fact that there are such things as risk free investments. I can put a dollar into a savings account that pays 1% interest each year with zero risk. Given that fact, I would never make an investment that pays the same 1% rate but also has a 10% chance of failing, because I can make the same amount of money with no risk. Because there is such thing as risk-free rates, risk needs to be compensated when it is taken on.

Let’s say the 10% risky investment will pay off 25% if it is successful. You have a decision to make now: do you want to make a guaranteed $0.01 on your $1 investment or do you want to risk losing that $1 investment for a 90% chance to walk away with $1.25?

We can use simple math to evaluate this: since the risky investment has a 10% of failing, the law of probability tells us that if you make this investment nine times out of ten you end up with $1.25 nine times and nothing one time. Therefore the expected value of the investment is $1.125 ($1.25 x 90% + $0 x 10%). Based on this principle, it makes sense to take on the risk as you have a greater chance to make more money than the mere penny you get from taking on no risk.

But wait! Think back to the insurance dilemma.

You bought the policy, not because you think its a sound investment, but because you want to avoid the situation that will leave you homeless. You, unlike Warren Buffet, cannot afford the risk of foregoing the insurance. Circling back to the investment scenario you can obviously afford to lose $1.00, if not then you should probably stop reading this and file for unemployment. But let’s say the investment was $100,000 instead of $1.00. The same percentages still apply and it still makes sense to make the risky investment from a math standpoint. The expected value is you’ll end up with is now $112,500 compared to the risk free option where you would walk away with $101,000. There’s only a 10% chance you end up with nothing and a 90% chance you make a $25,000 profit. But if that 10% were to happen would you lose your house? Your car? Your spouse? Probably (pun intended). Would Warren Buffet? He probably wouldn’t even notice.

You decide that you can’t pass up the opportunity. Uh oh! The investment backfires! The dreaded 10% outcome happens and you lose $100,000 quicker than you can say “I should’ve just kept my money under my mattress”. Perhaps you still have some savings left, and you convinced your spouse things will be fine. Life is fine… for now.

But now a new opportunity comes your way. This one requires the same $100,000 investment and has the same 10% risk rate, but the potential earning is a whopping 50%! You can make half your loss back! There’s just one problem: you no longer have $100,000 to invest again. You need it to pay for your $20,000 car loan and the $400 insurance premiums. Not to mention your mortgage, daycare, gas, and all your other bills. Unfortunately, you have to pass up the opportunity, and wouldn’t you know it? It’s a winner. Not only did it go up 50% it went up 200%!! You would have made up your loss and then some!

Now imagine you’re Warren Buffet again, you hardly noticed the loss of the original $100,000 so invest in the winner without much thought. Your investment is now worth $300,000! You’re up $100,000 even after losing out on the first investment.

Do you see what I’m getting at?

Risk is a type of probability. The richer you are the more risk you can afford. Warren Buffet can afford to make millions of these $100,000 investments (literally) because he can afford the risk/probability of losing $100,000 a few times and still be able to continue on with his way of life. By being able to invest in many different opportunities the law of probability tells us that he will indeed continue to keep making money in the long run, as the likelihood that every investment with a 10% risk rate failing gets smaller and smaller the more there are.

Another large factor I haven’t brought up yet is that by having more money you have access to more investment opportunities than those with less money. For example many private investment opportunities are only available for very large minimal investment amounts. Warren Buffet can invest $10 Million into a company that wouldn’t even bother with you even if you were willing to invest your entire life savings, despite the percentages being the same.

There’s an old saying that goes something along the lines of “the first million is the hardest to make”. That’s true, to some degree. Of course, most people do have to work hard to generate their initial wealth, but growing that wealth once it exists is a lot easier than building it from scratch. Wealth generation is like inertia; it takes a lot more energy to get started than it does to keep going. Probability tells us that the more investment opportunities you participate it, the more money you will make in the long run. However, opportunities are costly, and you’re risk tolerance (should be) determined by the amount you can afford to lose without derailing your life. Risk tolerance cost money, and the more money you have the more risk you can afford.

Probability keeps the rich rich, and the poor poor. What do you think?

Brand value describes the worth that a particular brands has based on a variety of factors. It essentially follows the notion that the owner of a well-known brand name can generate more money than another business selling similar products with a lesser known name. It is kind of similar to a common baseball statistic known as “wins-above-replacement” (WAR). WAR describes how many wins a particular player contributes to his team compared, to the wins his team would have if they were to be replaced with the league average player at that particular position.

While a brands numerical value is an estimation of multiple variables, it can be derived by following the International Organization for Standardization’s guidelines which maps out the appropriate process for determining brand value by utilizing six key requirements: transparency, validity, reliability, sufficiency, objectivity and financial, behavioral and legal parameters.

A brand is an intangible asset that identifies one seller’s product from another and is often a corporation’s most valued asset. A strong brand can influence customer choice and create loyalty; attract and retain motivate talent. It can also serve valuable by lowering the cost of financing. A lending institution would be more likely to fund a project for Google than they would for Skyview CFO, at least at the moment. Of course, Brands also play a key role in shaping public perceptions and purchasing behavior.

With all that being said, let’s take a look at which brands are considered the most valuable across the globe as of this year (2022).

10. Verizon – $69.6 Billion

9. Hauwei – $71.23 Billion

8. ICBC $75.1 Billion

7. Facebook $101.2 Billion

6. Samsung – $107.3 Billion

5. Walmart – $111.9 Billion

4. Microsoft – $184.3 Billion

3. Google $263.4 Billion

2. Amazon $350.3 Billion

1. Apple $355.1 Billion

It’s no surprise that Apple, Amazon and Google top the list as they have the most recognizable global brands. But when you look at this closely you can see a significant drop off between Amazon and Apple, followed by Google which has a brand value almost $80 Billion more than #4 Microsoft on the list. $80 Billion is a lot. In fact is more that ICBC’s brand value which ranks number 8 on this list.

Source: https://brandirectory.com/download-report/brand-finance-us-500-2022-preview.pdf

Higher education is very expensive in the United States. Therefore if you are debating whether it’s worth your time and money to further your education with a Master’s degree, being aware of which degrees often lead to the highest paying jobs is crucial in order to make your decision. While each school and program will have huge price discrepancies, determining whether or not the cost and time is worth it depends on a variety of factors.

For instance, I am currently in the process of acquiring my Master’s in Accounting (MSA) from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (Go Heels!), and it wasn’t just the cost of the program that led me to it, but also the length of the program, the prestige of the university, and the flexibility of class scheduling, among others. I could have chosen to pursue an MBA, but an MBA takes twice as long to complete and is typically more expensive, so I concluded that an MSA would be more ideal for my life, time, and career.

When it comes to time, finding schools that will waive test scores and certain classes for you should be another huge consideration. I was quite dismayed when my own alma mater, Syracuse University would not waive a single class for me, let alone offer any scholarship money for their program that cost 3x more than UNC’s and is not ranked on ANY list (UNC’s online accounting is consistently ranked in the top 5). Not only did UNC waive two classes for me, but they gave me a small fellowship grant. Although miniscule, the grant money showed me that they were interested in me and my potential, more so than my alma mater at least.

“You know I took these classes here, right?” I said to the dismissive Syracuse admissions officer.

Anyway, enough about me! If you feel stuck in your current career, and are considering pursuing a master’s degree, lets take a look at some important facts.

Projected 2022 Starting Salaries by Master’s Degree Field of Study

1. Engineering – $85,096
2. Computer Science – $82,384
3. Math & Science – $78,937
4. Business – $71,021

While starting salary is an important stat, it doesn’t tell you the full story. Typically, engineers are paid the highest out of the gate, but it doesn’t have the highest career earning ceiling. You may get a higher salary to start as an engineer but if we take a look at mid-career earnings they paint a different picture.

Top Master’s Degree (by Median Mid-Career* Salary)

1. Finance – $125,208
2. Biomedical Engineering – $117,243
3. Computer Science – $115,730
4. Information Systems – $110,678
5. Statistics – $106,402
6. Physician Assistant – $100,108
7. Civil Engineering – $94,396
8. Nursing – $94,269

*Mid-Level career is approximately 10 years into one’s career. This data is using 2019 statistics.

While business ranked 4th in terms of starting salary, it yields the highest median mid-career salary, followed by a very niche engineering degree, and then Computer and Information Systems not far behind.

Of course, in order to earn a salary there has to be a job available for you in the first place, so something to consider is which degrees are currently in high demand.

Top Master’s Degree (by Demand)

1. MBA
2. Computer Science
3. Accounting
4. Human Resources
5. Mechanical Engineering
6. Software Engineering
7. Finance

While there are plenty of other factors that go into making a selection, from these numbers we can conclude that since both MBA/Business/Finance and Computer Science degrees are at the top of all three lists, they are the most valuable. Because there are so many different types of engineering degrees, it’s hard to just blanketly say that all engineering degrees are great, I mean they are but each one is very different. For example, Mechanical and Software engineering are in the highest demand right now, but Civil Engineering has had better mid-career salaries.

You should absolutely NOT pursue a Master’s Degree just because you think it will make you the most money. Going back to school takes up a lot of time, and if you are not interested in the subject or can see a future job you would enjoy after graduating I would implore you to reconsider your thought process. This list is intended to simply point out some variables that can help you decipher what you can possibly earn after earning a certain degree.

Nonetheless, I present to you…

Skyview CFO’s Top 3 Master’s Degrees of 2022:

1. Computer Science – There’s no doubt, if you’re able to understand computer, you’ll be a valuable asset so long as the internet is and it doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. As technology continues to grow, being credentialed in the science of computers will lead to plenty of job opportunities with very high earning opportunities.
2. MBA – Finance – If you’re looking to make money, studying it is a good start. While starting salaries may not be as high as engineering or computer science, Finance graduates have the highest pay ceilings on average. So long as there’s a market, companies are created, merged and the likes, finance careers will have tremendous opportunity. Most MBA programs allow you to focus on one specific business area (marketing, supply chain, finance, accounting, etc.) of those specializations, Finance will yield the most opportunities, although an MBA in any subject does not hurt to have.
3. Software Engineering – I didn’t want to just say “Engineering”. Truth is any engineering degree is a valuable asset, regardless if you even wind up being an actual engineer. Hiring managers tend to like the way engineers problem solve, and all I know is while I was sleeping through my business classes, my engineering friends were in the library all the time. Software engineering, specifically, creates the highest potential at this point in time, again because the world is getting more and more digital and the demand for Software engineers continues to climb year over year.

Sources: Statista.com, NACE Winter 2022

The other day I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and noticed a post from an “investor-influencer” account. It read, “Hustling my way up the corporate ladder made me my first $100K, working in tech was my first $1M, building a real estate portfolio made me my first $10M, investing in crypto will get me to $100M, don’t doubt what hard work and consistency do.”

There’s a lot to unpack here. While there was probably no malicious intent, the ripple effect this “influence” could have, may lead to serious repercussions for the young audience consuming it down the road.

The post was made by Richard Garcia, an influencer with more than 315,000 followers on Instagram. He appears to be a successful business man and investor. According to his website, Garcia began his career working in finance, then moved to tech where he worked for notable companies like Google and Tesla. He also claims to have a real-estate portfolio of $8M (just 20% off from what he said on his Instagram post). Richard, if you’re reading this I believe you worked very hard to make it as far as you and I mean no disrespect, but I do caution against posts like these, because they can be very easy to misinterpret the actual hard work you put in to arrive at your success.

What jumped out to me immediately, as I’m sure it did for most of you, is that the post appeared to start off as a realistic tale of personal and wealth growth, but then it suddenly takes a sharp turn down a road built on the hopeful need of perpetual rising crypto prices. Taking $10M and turning it into $100M is quite the return on investment (ROI), and it accounts for 90% of the wealth created by Richard’s “hard work and consistency” theory.

While it’s plausible for certain cryptocurrencies to eventually be worth 10x their current prices, that ROI requires the least amount of effort compared to all of the other activities Richard listed. In fact, making an investment in crypto (with no research) doesn’t require any work, just money. Therefore, someone reading this post could say, ‘well if I can just skip to the investing part and I can get a 10x ROI, I can just skip the hard parts of Richard’s journey and still make a lot of money.’ However, those steps were important for Richard’s development, as they provided him with the capital to invest, as well as his business/investing knowledge and experience.

This is not an anti-crypto post. As a matter of fact, I do believe that cryptocurrencies (in one form or another ) will indeed be the future of monetary transactions across the globe. However, it is impossible for anyone right now to be sure as to what that one form (or another) will be. Maybe it’s Bitcoin or Ethereum that eventually become a universal dollar, or maybe it’s something that hasn’t even been invented yet. The upside for investing in the potential future of the global economy has brilliantly high ceiling, however, unlike investing in a blue-chip stock, it comes with a pitiless downside risk. The dangerous “Crypto-is-the-future-no-ifs-ands-or-buts” attitude can lead to something very similar to what most Gen-Zers are too young to remember: the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

Richard is not a Gen-Zer, he’s a millennial like me, but I’m sure a large portion of his following are younger. If you are younger than me or Richard, or you want a good old reminder of what happened, I’ll give you a very brief history of what caused the The Global Financial Crisis of 2008:

In the early to mid-2000’s, following the economic resurgence from the dot com bubble (we’ll talk about that another time), house prices were rising exponentially year after year. If you bought a house in 2002 for $300,000, you could have sold it in 2005 for $700,000 (these aren’t actual numbers or percentages but it’s about the concept). Even if you didn’t have $300,000 or any potential to make that, a bank would happily lend it to you (even if you had terrible credit). Millions of people took out these loans known as adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) with the notion that, although they wouldn’t be able to pay it back if they kept the house forever, they could sell the house within a few years and stand to make a substantial ROI. And they did… until they didn’t.

In order to sell that house for $700,000 there must be a buyer who believes that the price of that same house will continue to rise and be worth $1 million in another few years. But what happened when that sentiment died down and suddenly the buying market wasn’t as bountiful? The person who took out the $300,000 loan got stuck with a house they couldn’t afford, and a bank who wanted their money back. So what happens to banks when most of their customers can’t pay them back? They can’t lend out anymore money. This further accelerated the dwindling amount of home buyers. What a lot of consumers start going bankrupt? They liquidate their other investments (stocks). That’s when the market crashes. While I skipped over a few major details, this brief history lesson is a description of a familiar market phenomenon known as a bubble. Once the vast majority of people were stuck with homes they both couldn’t afford nor sell, the growing bubble of housing prices burst and created a tsunami over the global economy.

Now let’s think back to our friend Richard’s post. Although he may not have meant to say this, his words can be interpreted by a young audience, naïve to bubbles, as ‘hey put your savings into a crypto investment and then one day you’ll be able to sell it for a lot more money and be rich like me (but also work hard)’. This could be true for a certain time period, but what happens when an entire generation too young to remember the effects of the housing bubble all have the same bullish sentiment that they can buy crypto and eventually sell it to someone else for a steep profit in the future? A bubble grows. And what happens to bubbles that grow and grow? They burst. And what happens when bubbles burst? Yup, the tsunami thing.

So let’s take our average Gen-Z investor who sees Richard’s advice and says to themself, “well if I can make 10x on my crypto investment, why would I even subject myself to the struggle of climbing a corporate ladder when I can generate way more wealth by not even working?” Maybe that person passes up on a $100K job opportunity which Richard worked so hard to achieve. Instead, to make that $100k, they take all $10K of their savings from their summer internships and jobs from college and invest in crypto. This act alone has multiple ripple effects on the economy. For starters, it becomes harder for a company like Google or Tesla to hire talented young minds like Richard, because all of a sudden it isn’t worth it for them to take the job. Eventually those company’s begin to incur larger labor costs in order to entice skilled workers to come work for them. Suddenly it becomes way more expensive for Google and Tesla to keep innovating at the same level of profitability, and technological advancements in general begin to slow down. Not only that, but as these major company’s bottom lines begin to fall so do their stock prices. What happens to the older investors in those blue-chip stocks (like ya boi)? Their wealth begins to dwindle as well.

With a declining market, it becomes harder for people even younger than our hypothetical Gen-Z investor to generate that initial $10K of savings. There are fewer stocks for them to invested in, and there are fewer jobs for them to get (because the company has to pay more for the experienced workers, they have less money to pay entry-level positions). Not only that, but the local restaurant owner doesn’t have enough money to offer that kid a waitering job for the summer. All of a sudden when Gen-Z-investor-person looks to sell their crypto assets for $100K, there aren’t any of the buyers that Richard said there would be. No cap. As a result, this investor lost out on creating self-value by passing up on working for an innovative company out of college, AND has lost all of their savings. Now imagine a whole generation of people like this: broke and jobless. What happens to the economy then? Tsunami.

I hope I’m wrong; some of my exes would probably agree that I often am. While I understand the general concept of cryptocurrencies, I am far from an expert. I am also not an economist either (I just read a lot of their books). What I DO have are two eyes and history to refer back to. As I look at these patterns of the past and see posts like Richard’s, I worry that the unleashed Crypto bullish investors of Generation Zed can unknowingly be led down a path to creating a bubble that can burst one day and send the global economy back under water.

Allow me to reiterate that I definitely can be wrong (and so can Richard). That’s why I’m invested in crypto myself. Before you start laughing, let me tell you that it only accounts for roughly 5% of my total investments. If Richard is right and it 10xs, I’ll be pretty happy (and will probably be called a dumb millennial by Gen-Zers (at least I’m no boomer though right?!)). On the contrary, if the whole tsunami thing happens I’m more diversified than the poor Gen-Z kid who sunk all of their savings into it. Who’s laughing then, huh?

The point being: I don’t want to dissuade you from taking risks, but when it comes to investing in new/unpredictable advancements in technology, take any advice (including this) with a massive grain of salt and do your own research before you put your entire financial stability on the line.