Zero background in Finance: which book?

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I had a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and I’m currently looking to change career into Finance, maybe with the help of passing a CFA level 1 exam, I have only taken an intro microeconomics class in college, which series of books is best for someone in my situation? Thanks a lot!
 
im sure you are intelligent. but I got a degree in finance and then spent 400 hours studying for this test and still don’t feel i passed. this will take a lot of time for you without a finance backround.
 
From Mech Eng to Finance? Why do you want finance/CFA? Whats your motivation man??
 
maxhiggins Wrote:
——————————————————-
> im sure you are intelligent. but I got a degree in
> finance and then spent 400 hours studying for this
> test and still don’t feel i passed. this will take
> a lot of time for you without a finance backround.
Im curious, did you study mostly from the CFAI or Schwser materials?
how would you prepare for the exam differently next time (assuming you didnt pass)
 
Kjarro Wrote:
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> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Principles-Corporate-Finan
> ce-Pt-E/dp/0071284915/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=ga
> teway&qid=1200990743&sr=8-1
>
> Brealey and Myers - Principles of corporate
> finance. Explains all essentials on every
> important area of finance.
This is a great book, and there are many good corp finance overviews, but I would recommend you start with a basic financial accounting text. Most good accounting texts will include a solid section on time value of money, which is the basis of finance texts. I don’t recommend you start cold with the CFAI books.
 
I don’t have a finance background either but used stalla as the main study material. I didn’t think a lot of the questions in those stalla books were as difficult as the real exam. If I find out that I’ve failed tomorrow then I would spend far more time just doing questions (and probably use Schweser).
 
If you did engineering (and did well) then this should be a cake walk for you
 
It should be a cake walk but it will take a while to walk over it because the material is quite broad.
 
engineering is a totally differnet field, why do you say cake walk. the material is very large. It is not like cal I or II. It will take grand understanding in a large since. Remember he has no undergrad business classes either including basic acounting. Its is like starting over your junior year. You need a good understanding in all business subjects not just finance. Most of the people here take them for granted because they cant remember what their first accounting class was like and all the time it took jsut for that subject or maybe how hard the first managerial finance class was with no concepts of TVM. you sill have to learn all these basics.
 
When I went to college, I wanted a very marketable degree, something highly quantitative and marketable. However, by the end of my third year, all my interest in engineering was gone. and I realized kids from my school (top 20 school) majoring in business and economics had similarly well paying jobs. I like the glamour, the fact that most of finance jobs are in big cities, and that if you are good at it, you can make lots of money, and it’s also very flexible, compared to engineering.
 
I also did not have any finance background. btw55555 is right. A lot of finance people take for granted their grasp of basic accounting, which I did not even have. Studying for Dec 07 with someone who had an undergrad finance education, I felt light years behind him. But just try.
When I first picked up the CFAI book on FSA, I was clueless. It is assumed you have some understanding. But it’s also definitely do-able if you don’t know anything. It will just take more time.
As for the first book to start with, I started with Corporate finance and found that the concepts weren’t difficult. I also think Quant shouldn’t be a problem for you.
 
I have no Finance educational background . Don’t know how much time I spent, but certainly over 250 hours. With your engineering background, I assume you are good at quantitative stuff. I passed CSC before I took CFA level 1, that might help a little bit. I managed to pass CFA Level 1 last Dec (with only Derivatives less than 50%, all else greater than 70%). I am sure you will pass too. If you are certain, this is something you want to pursuit.
 
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