There are many reasons to become a CFA charterholder. You will find near-universal agreement that holding the CFA designation improves your job prospects across the globe, adds significantly to your human capital, and grows your professional prestige and personal brand.

Benjamin Graham made the call for a special professional rating for security analysts in a now-famous piece written in January 1945. The purpose of such a designation was to reassure investors that those giving advice regarding security transactions were qualified, knowledgeable professionals with high ethical standards.

The one subject that really stuck with me long after having passed the CFA® Level III exam was that of behavioral finance. Thanks to CFA Institute for introducing me to this new—perhaps lifelong—buddy. When I started preparing for the behavioral finance section, it didn’t come across as very interesting and didn't hold my focus for long.

Anyone who starts working toward the CFA charter has heard stories of people with a PhD in finance or even professors who fail the Level I exam. There are multiple reasons for this, in my opinion.

As an investor, I’ve always fancied myself as a contrarian who goes against the crowd, someone who can detect patterns and notice minutiae where others can’t. Perhaps that’s why at the age of 27, while my friends and peers were content with gifting one of their two monthly paychecks to their landlord, I became a first-time homebuyer.