yodacaia

I’m probably not the best person to ask about economics (even though I’m pretty sure I passed in June I still struggled with that area).
Fixed Income, however, is something I do feel I can advise you on. A lot of Fixed Income overlaps with Quantitative methods (discounting cashflows in particular). If you can get a strong grasp of Quant first then Fixed Income shouldn’t be too difficult.
On top of this you will only have to learn a few more equations and theory. It’s worth 12% of the exam and is easily one of the best sections to gain easy marks in considering how little material you need to learn for that 12% (same goes for Quant actually!).
How long will it take to learn from scratch? This ultimately depends on the individual. Read through the material and the examples in your study guide and you’ll get a rough idea on how long you will need to spend practicing questions to learn it.
FIxed Income is one of the easier sections of CFA Level 1. Don’t worry yourself too much about it and just get on with it.