I'm a mom who studied accounting at BYU and now works part-time only during tax season. I help supplement our income so we can go on awesome trips and save for expenses like cars/weddings/missions/college. I worked full-time for a lot of years but never had a passion for accounting or having a career and wanted to be home with the kids. Luckily this works for us and our situation. I have so many female friends who know how/why I work and have told me they wish they could do something similar. This includes women who are nurses, lawyers, teachers, PhDs, etc. I work basically 3 months of the year when and where I want - it's extremely flexible. It's a crazy 3 months but then April 15 comes and it's over and I have my regular life back. And for all of you doing taxes full-time, I salute you!

When I was at BYU I just wanted to study something challenging that I knew could lead to a good career. I was good at math, not good at science, and great at English but didn't know what kind of job that could lead to, thus accounting seemed the obvious choice. I had no idea how useful getting an accounting degree, CPA, plus some work experience could be. It's been extremely useful for our family and I tell every female college student I can to major in accounting. I have even had a few friends go back to school and restart their careers in accounting. If you have something specific you're passionate about, or have a personality and don't want to sit at a desk, or want a full-time career, then this advice is probably not for you. But if you don't really know what you want to do, enjoy numbers, and want to stay home with kids but be able to supplement your income, I can't think of a better plan than doing taxes and studying accounting.