Do you like to keep track of things? Like how many Game of Thrones characters bit the dust in a season finale?  Or how much sauce was used in the world's largest bowl of pasta?

 

This. It's a this. (Source)

How are you with money? Do you enjoy counting it, both coming and going? Can you balance a checkbook? Do you know what a checkbook is? 

Bookkeeping is all about keeping score. And no, it is not about marking who turned in their books late. That's a different sort of keeper of books. You record every purchase a business makes as well as how much money it takes in. You're ruthless with your accuracy. The Hannibal Lecter of accounting...well, minus the ickier side of his, ahem, complicated personality. For these services, you make a modest salary of around $35,000 (source), which makes for a decent, if humble, life.

However, you don't have to spend big bucks on college as long as you're content with not moving up past bookkeeper within a company. Accountants typically have college degrees and some even go the extra couple of years to get their CPA degree, allowing them to charge much more money and get corporate positions that offer better health packages with dental and vision included.

Salary aside, the upsides to being a bookkeeper are that there's plenty of work, you can get a job with a high school diploma, and it's not really so taxing on the old noodle. As long as you're proficient with accounting software like Quicken or QuickBooks and good with numbers, a bookkeeping position adds up to be a fine job.

 

Bookkeeping can be a sweet job. (Source)

A great part of this field is that you can work in a huge range of different environments. On the small end you could be working independently as the bookkeeper for any sort of small business. At the other end of the spectrum, you could be a worker bee for the collective hive while the queen CPA-bees run the process. Come tax time, you can be a huge help at sifting through shoe boxes full of scribbled notes and receipts; especially for a company in the middle of an audit.

Given that much of the job is data entry, all you really need is a high school diploma. However, if you go to college and get a bachelor's degree in business or accounting, you can ask for more money and provide more in-depth services. You might also find your place on staff at a large company that will give you better pay and benefits. You gotta spend money to make money—an old adage you will learn to live by (and convince others of).

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