Hi Levils, thank you for replying!

Firstly, I understand and appreciate that you want to keep the community together, however my concern is that people are not moving to squabbles and/or will not look at it whenever shit actually hits the fan at Reddit. That's mainly why I created the community here, Lemmy is fast growing and under consideration by the various 3rd party apps currently focused on Reddit as a platform to switch to. Hence a large influx of users is expected. Either way, I take your point that we should provide guidance in a central way to maximize our chances of keeping the community together and won't advertize elsewhere.

Secondly, the community and its most dedicated members ought to think twice about posting to Reddit if the platform is changing in the way it is currently. I have left Reddit out of principle and will not return unless all changes are reverted. I can imagine there a quite a few people like me, particularly those that post content. Offering people a home on the most popular alternative is therefore also a key goal here. I don't believe this fragments our community it just gives us more places to discuss.

Lastly regarding piracy, I was in a hurry yesterday and hence did not give credit. Copyright lies with Reddit by the way, so it depends on how you feel about piracy/whether you consider this piracy. In terms of credit, I take your point and have removed the posts and comments for now. Whenever I have the time I will repost them with proper attribution/paraphrasing.

Most subreddits permanently leaving Reddit are also removing all their content, hence why making a backup elsewhere can also be positive. Not saying this will happen, but would be a shame to lose the knowledge base we have developed over the years.

Thank you for offering the mod position. I do not have a lot of time on my hands right now but happy to help out where I can. I believe my handle is tkon99 in all platforms.

Thanks again and please let me know if there's any other changes you'd like to see here.

Arixcel is the best value and I use it every day. Macabacus is also very useful although they got rid of the modeller license which means you have to buy the full package now. I also use numeritas which is free and great for finding links, errors etc.

Arixcel and Macabacus here

@Risk for Monte Carlo simulations

Frontline Solvers for various analytic and modeling issues

CAPIQ, OAK are the two biggest ones. Need them for model development

we used docmo.co to help up pull SAP accounting info, saves so much time relative to whatever arcane method would be used otherwise

think-cell is wonderful.

Macabacus - good for hot keys

Some people just don't have a good aptitude for it, or aren't interested enough to get good. If you're in one of those camps and have the luxury of not needing to, them maybe don't? Some people do rise through the ranks in roles that traditionally have a significant modelling focus without ever getting decent at modeling.

There is a couple key concept that will not change regardless. Focus on those items, for example CFADS, Debt Sculpting, DSRA (Cash or LC), MMRA, DSCR, Cash Distribution, IRR Unlevered, IRR Levered, Income tax. It may seems a lot but try to master and understand every one individually.

The model is the last piece of the puzzle, the majority of work in financial modeling is talking to different business partners to understand the nuances of how your business runs. The model is then just plugging info into excel. Focus more on what is driving the decisions for the "specific details" then you will understand and it won't be about remembering, it will just be about applying the most logical solution in your model. Make sure to ask tones of questions until you understand things and then dive into the model.

Also, it is important to remember that no model is perfect. There are rules that must be followed but a lot of financial modeling is trying to predict the future so yeah there will be assumptions and there will be uncertainty in the model.

There is no "standard" financial model, so everyone will look at things differently and that's OK. The model is just a tool, and a tool that will need to be adjusted for the purposes it serves and to have it run the analysis you require.

I've worked in a Big Four modelling team, at a boutique IB and now at a debt fund and have built various models at all of them. A model you use for one purpose is not the same as that for another. As an example, at one place the models all focused on sculpting a debt repayment profile with a target DSCR, in another they hadn't even of such a concept.

Just know the basic principles of modelling (formula consistency, separation of Inputs>Calculations>Outputs, clearly formatting your inputs) and apply them to different situations.

In terms of books:

Beninga's Financial Modelling is a very good book. Shows you all the basics and principles, and some advanced excel tips and tricks.

Pearl and Rosenbaum's Investment Banking has a very good and simple chapter on FM. Concise and straight to the point.

Damodaran's valuation covers all fundamentals.

If you go through these three, read about best practices on how to make your spreadsheets readable and audit-ble, you should do just fine.

Reposting from an earlier post 4 months ago:

There are plenty of resources out there. To start this journey:

I have two of my books on financial modeling freely available at https://financialmodelingplus.com/ There are many other resources including ones by

http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/ (a great blog and NYU site with data) AND online courses on itunes, youtube, etc....

https://macabacus.com/ has a free 30 day trial currently.

The established but paid players include

https://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/homepage/

https://trainingthestreet.com/

https://www.wallstreetprep.com/

https://macabacus.com/

https://www.asimplemodel.com/

Hope these help.

Put in some hard work and hours and you will definitely learn financial modeling! Good luck!

https://www.udemy.com/share/103ChSAEAfcltSRnQD/

this is a good course for financial modeling for startups - so If you’re interested in VC it’s a great option. Much more granular - different type of modeling and you build totally from scratch.