Josh Ramsey Took a 25 Percent Pay Cut to Start Over at the Bottom and Did It With Four Kids and a Mortgage

The Inspired Stories Podcast · Oct 29, 2026 · 1h 8m

Josh Ramsey, CPA and Managing Director at Cherry Bekaert, taught himself Excel in a casino count room in 2000 because nobody else would, got promoted off the back of a spreadsheet nobody asked him to build, and spent the next decade earning a degree at 34 with four kids, a mortgage, and his father’s passing three weeks before his first day at Cal State Long Beach. The career pivot that followed — a 25 percent pay cut to start over as a staff accountant at a public accounting firm — paid off across nearly 12 years of fractional CFO work, MA advisory, and deals ranging from Friday cash crises…