The CFA Institute and the CFP Board of Standards provide professional certifications in the field of finance. In this paper, I provide my experience with the CFA and CFP programs in order to give other professors some insight into the process of attaining the designations. I hope to provide answers to some of the questions that other faculty members may have about attaining these professional designations and that my experiences will assist others in determining which, if either, of these designations to seek. This information may also be valuable to business school and economics professors who may be counseling students about these programs.