Accounting: It's Taxing but Worth the Effort

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Hollywood glamorizes doctors and cops, but the lowly accountant is typically cast as a pasty-faced weasel wearing thick glasses. Accountants don't laugh, have no creativity and enjoy spending hours hunched over numbers.

But they are the heroes during tax season, as many a panicked taxpayer can attest.

A number of my friends worship accountants, thinking nothing of paying them to do tax returns that are not terribly complicated. They view the cost for such services as akin to paying a mechanic for car repairs they have neither the skill nor interest in doing.

Considering the complexity of modern auto repairs, it probably is not worth learning how to do them. But understanding basic accounting is well worth the study time. Not only can it help organize a household budget, it also …