Many candidates discover this too late, but you can save a lot of money if you enroll early for the CFA® exams.
The difference between early bird and last minute fees is $630 for each level (based on June 2016 fees). In other words if you leave it late for all 3 levels you are wasting nearly $2,000. If $2,000 doesn’t sound like a significant amount of money to you, I don’t know what you are doing studying for the CFA® exams? You should be busy spending your money somewhere sunny..
The main reason why a lot of candidates miss the deadline, is that it is nearly 9 months ahead of the test. This is why I want to flag it to you now, in case you are planning to sit the June 2016 test. The difference between registering early (before September 23, 2015) and registering late (past February 17, 2016) for level 1 is $630. More than enough to pay for the self study course from Wiley CFA Exam Review Products. Even without the 10% FEA discount code. (If you want to know why we recommend Wiley have a read of this).
If you are not planning to get any further study aids you can spend your saving on a hand bag, an iPhone or (as of COB July 27, 2015) 5 Apple stocks (this is not an investment recommendation!)
if you don’t like iPhones and handbags you can obviously just wait around for the deadline to lapse and pay the money to the CFA institute in return for nothing, or give them to me 🙂 As you can tell I have got plenty of ideas on what to spend them on.
I guess what I am trying to say is, don’t loose $630 each year because you procrastinated filling in the sign-up form. Get it done early!!
Even if you are one of the lucky few that have your company pay your fees, a saving is still a saving. And while you may not be crowned a hero, you might get a few brownie points from your boss for saving $630 out of the relevant budget.
I realize some of you have been waiting for CFA level 1 results to come out before deciding if you need to resit level 1 in December 2015. If this is you, there are still savings to be made if you sign up before 19 August 2015, you will be saving $385 compared to the late-fees paid thereafter.
Apart from the cash savings it is also worth mentioning that it takes a while for the curriculum books to show up in the post, even after you have signed up. So signing up early will ensure that you are able to start familiarizing yourself with the material and start studying when you feel like it.
I realize signing up for the CFA program is a daunting decisions that can easily cause procrastination. We recommend a 21 week study program to prepare for the level 1 exam. If you sign up at the last minute, chances are that you have postponed your decision to start studying as well. As a result you are not only overpaying for your fees, you are also running a much higher risk of failing the test and having to fork out again to resit the exam.
Here is a breakdown of the current deadlines and fee levels for each level as of writing this post (You can find more information at the CFA Institute’s website):
CFA Level 1 enrollment deadlines and fees
Program enrollment fees:
One-off program enrollment fee (payable in addition to the registration fee when you first sign up for level 1): $450
Early registration fee (deadline passed)
Standard registration fee (before Aug 19, 2015): US$ 825
Late registration fee (before Sep 16, 2015): US$ 1,210
June 2016 registration fees:
Early registration fee (before Sep 23, 2015): US$ 650
Standard registration fee (before Feb 17, 2016): US$ 860
Late registration fee (before Mar 16, 2016): US$ 1,280
Becoming a CFA charterholder requires a tremendous amount of time and effort, so I would not take it as a given that it is really worth it for you to even embark on this journey. I don’t mean to discourage you, but you need to have a strong enough reason why you are doing it, to pull you through the tough times.
If you are ready to commit. I would invite you to join FEA Elite. A community of highly committed CFA candidates, willing to work harder and smarter than the average candidate to obtain our desired results.