Hi Danny,

These are very difficult questions to answer as they require your own personal vesting in the decision making process.

I will share with you how I thought about these choices when I got an MBA. The opportunity costs involved with getting an MBA are very, very large...two years of your life and with no assurance of your dream job on the other side. I got my MBA because I had no guarantee of landing work in my preferred field: investment management. I felt an MBA was a general business education that would serve me forever. And it has. When I exited retirement to take my current position at CFA Institute having an MBA was a requirement for the position.

An MBA and CFA have a lot of overlap. But having general business knowledge - that an MBA provides - actually helped make me a better investment manager because I could understand the business issues better, as well as the organizational behavior and marketing issues that very business confronts. Your CFA charter will not help you evaluate the marketing plans of a business, or its relationship with its employees.

RE: don't get your MBA unless it is with one of the top two schools. I am not sure who is offering that piece of advice, but I have found my MBA at least as valuable as a CFA charter. Almost everyone I know professionally has their MBA and from a variety of institutions. Each of them is very glad to have their MBA.

But at all of this is up to you, of course.

Best wishes for success!

Jason

PS - Thanks for purchasing The Intuitive Investor.