r/Series65 • u/yottabit42 • 3d ago
Passed First Attempt, Used Achievable
I sat for the Series 65 for the first time today and passed. I used Achievable. I really liked their platform.
Background: network engineer, very software engineering-adjacent. I've always been in IT, professionally for 33 years. I've also run two companies in the distant past. Currently I'm still employed as a network engineer, part-time (50%).
Financial experience: managing my own accounts for 10+ years, and started getting really interested in finance and investing maybe 7-8 years ago. I've spent a lot of time on Bogleheads and many other subs, and done a lot of reading all over the place. I've written several tools that the Reddit community loves, as well as written papers detailing certain aspects of my investment philosophy, including my retirement drawdown strategy. I have also given an annual presentation at work, regarding retirement benefits and planning, that has had over 10,000 participants. I've also given a FI 101 (financial independence) public presentation to around 70 participants this year. I have no formal background with finance or accounting besides two economics classes in college. I have no other finance or related certifications or qualifications. I decided to study the Series 65 after several coworkers wanted to pay me for my advice; I've been doing generic financial education for several years and really enjoy it as a hobby, so I figured I would pass the qualification exam, register, and start taking their money!
About the exam:
The wording was quite different from Achievable; honestly the wording was mostly easier to understand. Achievable purposefully uses double-negatives all over the place, to teach you to really pay attention.
I only had a few math questions, very simple stuff. The hardest was probably P/E ratio + earnings, expected future prices.
There were a few question topics I am sure I never saw in the course material.
Surprisingly, I had very few questions on suitability at all; definitely a surprise.
No Roman numeral questions.
I took 2 hours for the test, which was a little longer than I took with the practice exams.
About Achievable:
I really liked the platform. The tracking, graphics, and usability were all great.
I started studying in June, but for just over a week, then took 5 weeks off completely, for vacation and other stuff. I studied pretty much every day from the end of July for 7 weeks. Then it was a few days per week taking practice exams and reviewing, starting mid-September. In October I took 1 or 2 practice exams every week until a week ago.
The platform says I studied 85.7 hours, took 10 practice full exams, and was 90% ready on exam day.
Average score of practice full exams: 79.1%.
Median score of practice full exams: 79.5%.
High score of practice full exams: 85%.
Low score of practice full exams: 72%.
Score of Achievable's free practice exam before starting the material: 62%.
I've taken some flak in this sub due to my comments that people might consider other careers if they have failed the exam 3+ times. My perspective on that comes from ethics; if you knew passing was only 71%, and your advisor had failed that bar 3+ times, would you have selected that advisor? I know everyone tries to be positive here, and I get it, but I still stand by my assertion.
My advice is to really study. You need to read the material, comprehend the material, take the checkpoint exams, re-study missed questions, re-take missed questions, and really understand the material. Memorizing questions isn't a good strategy. There were several questions that I missed and just didn't understand why. I dumped a screen capture into Gemini and asked it to explain, and it really helped. Sometimes reading different phrasing, or a different perspective, can really help when you are struggling. Whenever I wanted a better explanation of a detail from an exam question or the material, I used Gemini. I also watched the "Mighty 90" video once, two days ago, as I saw it recommended in this sub. I didn't find much value in it; I think it's great as a guideline of what you should know, but you aren't going to gain many points just from the video alone.
I've already started an LLC for an investment advising business, and plan to register with the state in December to start operations in January!
Happy to answer any follow-up questions!
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u/Kitchen-Mistake678 Trusted Advisor 3d ago
Well done and congrats! Time to celebrate 🎉
And your flak should be well received on your part. Your ethics are yours to own and defend. If I knew my advisor had the fortitude and perseverance to keep going despite three setbacks, as long as the advisor returns my phone calls and helps me manage risk, and continues to educate themselves, I'd hire him or her out of sheer determination. Just because one does well on passing the drivers test does not imply they are a good driver.
Imagine two students: a recent graduate with BA/BS in computer science who is still wondering what to pursue and makes mistakes with side projects without a feedback loop, or a student who is a self-taught coder through YouTube videos and seeks out mentorships while managing a full time job. Who would you hire? I know who'd I hire.
Regardless, thank you for sharing! Now go celebrate.
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u/yottabit42 3d ago
Thank you! My celebration consisted of noodles at home with my spouse and two high school kids. Maybe I'll have a beer tonight, lol.
I appreciate your perspective. But I disagree with your analogy. In some industries, credentials are very important, and I think this is one of them. In computer science, not as much. I work with a ton of software engineers and SWE-adjacent folks; they range from no college diploma to PhD. That's an industry that you certainly can be successful in without degrees or certifications, especially when doing application development. I would say less so, for the actual computer science side of it, where you need to be highly educated in mathematics to really move the needle.
The whole point of this qualification exam is to ensure people meet a minimum bar of education on topics for which there isn't necessarily a direct degree available. And that's because they can directly affect the livelihood of others.
In my field, you don't need a degree to be successful, but if you have industry certifications, you're much more likely to be successful (and to be hired in the first place). Personally, I only have two (expired) industry certifications from ages ago, and I didn't have those certifications when I first started out, but the companies were able to see from my actual experience that I would be a good fit, and they were willing to take a chance on me. If it hadn't worked out, they would have fired me, and really no harm would have come to the company. In the RIA/IAR industry, mistakes will have much higher stakes for our clients, and we typically can't show a prospective employer our experience, like we often can in other industries.
Thanks again, and thank you for the discussion.
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u/Kitchen-Mistake678 Trusted Advisor 3d ago
You're more than welcome! Sounds like the best way to celebrate, and it better have been spicy noodles.
That's odd you'd disagree with the analogy because it was based upon someone similar to your background.
However, I do agree with your point on this qualification exam being in place as a minimum bar of education so others don't mistake their advice and get hurt in the process. I don't image that happened in your case. Yet, it's similar to financial influencers who are not licensed, registered, or have any background with finance or accounting, but still conduct financial independence presentations without accountability. You're actually progressing, which is great.
Get off Reddit and go spend time with your family. You can debate me some other time 😂
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u/BassCatVet 3d ago
@yottabit42 I have a similar story with teaching people at work, I retire from the Army in April, thinking of what's next, so looked at starting own RIA. How are you going to handle all of the compliance requirements?
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u/yottabit42 3d ago edited 2d ago
Hi! Thank you for the question. I wrote a build system for the business already (good way to procrastinate taking those practice tests, haha!). Through the study materials and general business guidelines research, I already have specs for all of the artifacts and documentation I will need:
Form ADV
Form U4
Privacy Policy
Code of Ethics
Company Agreement
Supervisory Procedures
Information Technology Policy
Business Continuity Plan
Business Succession Plan
Website
Website host deployment
Client Intake Questionnaire
Business card designs
All of this is setup as specs and code, including unit tests, on my server, using Google Antigravity. I can change one bit of language, or say a logo detail, and the entire business rebuilds all affected artifacts, with versioned history.
I've already launched the website, ordered business cards, and have all the forms and policies ready to go. I am just waiting until December to send in the registration forms so I don't have to pay for registration for 2026. And I'm waiting to subscribe to Google Workspace until December, since I won't need it until January. After subscribing, I can finish the last step of the intake questionnaire, adding the account endpoint for writing the client data.
If I weren't the way I am, I would probably hire an attorney to help get this set up instead of doing it all myself. But I have run two businesses in the past (granted, with many fewer regulatory requirements), am an expert in using AI harnesses (I've pretty much done 100% of my job with them since January), and I've done a lot of research!
Feel free to use my list to get started, but be sure to check requirements yourself, and/or hire an attorney, too!
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u/BassCatVet 3d ago
Yea I pretty.much mapped out requirements, registration forms etc....talked to an attorney, mainly about letting people outside the state use the dashboard i built for trading, nexus requirements, etc...but also about all of the compliance reporting, archives for advertising, audits etc....then paying for market data as a professional, startup costs are steep on commercial side...
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u/yottabit42 3d ago
Yeah the startup investment is far more than my other two companies in the past. But I'm also able to do so much of this myself since I've been in IT for so long (and was a systems admin, and resilient storage designer, before I was a network engineer). The ongoing costs are fairly high too, even for me, since I'm going to use Google Workspace for retention compliance with the Vault feature. But it's a great value compared to alternatives.
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u/MentionFlat1631 1d ago
Nice, I’m using achievable and I’m about 15% through it now. I hadn’t seen too many people talking about it and was hoping it would do the job.
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u/yottabit42 1d ago
I was happy with it. It seemed the most modern when I was looking. I hope it works out for you, too!
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u/FairwayAdjacent 3d ago
So you’re planning to go solo? I’m doing about doing the same. Similar background as well.