Have You Been Here? Need Your Wisdom

Quote from Pondering Man:

This is my first post obviously. I need your help and wisdom. I am a small business owner and am in the process of selling my company. I’m in my mid 40’s with a beautiful wife and 2 beautiful kids.

Here’s the issue: the proceeds from the sale are not enough to retire comfortably and I’m left with no single avenue to support the family after the sale. I have an undergrad in Finance and an MBA and good industry (non-investment field related) experience but I detest the very idea of re-entering the corporate world. My wife is highly desirious of me working for The Man and I can see her point, as it provides a safety net. And so herein lies the conundrum.

So what I’m really getting at is: have any of you been in a similar situation (ie, midlife with retirement savings in progress but not quite there yet and needing to find a source of income)? I have been reading ET for a while as well as reading books on trading but am not a trader nor have I ever traded. I know all the failure statistics yet see myself as having most of the core competencies of a trader: analytical, passionate, hardworking, willing to put in the time/effort, realizing this is a business and not a hobby, etc, etc. Have any of you made the switch to trading mid career and are successful in relative terms? My family and I could live off the monies from the sale for a year or so easily while I continue to prepare myself for trading.

Oh, and a big point: my wife would want at least some degree of assurance that trading could bring in incremental income over and above what I could obtain merely by investing.

If not trading, is there any other type of investing you would recommend if you were in my shoes? Swing trading? Anything else?

Thanks so much for your constructive feedback.
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That's not the skill set of a successful trader IMO. Main skills are:

i) great pattern recognition
ii) able to separate emotions from money and risk-taking
iii) obsessively interested in markets

I see a couple of problems with you. First, you don't seem interested enough in markets, more of a dabbler. Second, you're an entrepreneur - skills are very different to trading, most likely you are more of a people-person and 'do-er' of concrete things, whereas trading is more conceptual and abstract. Third, and most damaging, you have not enough money to retire, and a wife who is going to be pressuring you and demanding you bring in a steady income - and even if you are the next George Soros, trading won't provide a steady income in all likelihood.

The other problem is you risk blowing up or losing a lot because of inexperience. Even many who succeed big, blow up once or more before they make it.

My advice is read up on passive diversified index investing (stocks, bonds, gold, cash mix via ETFs or low cost mutual funds like Vanguard), and put your nest egg into that.

For income, get a job like most have to. If you are really passionate about trading, get a job in the financial markets - that way you get paid to learn, instead of blowing your retirement to learn. If you can't get a finance job, you probably don't have sufficient drive or passion to make it as a lone trader anyway.

So I'd say, definitely DON'T become a lone trader, trying to make money by yourself.
 
This thread is crying...screaming.....out for help....

I’m in my mid 40’s with a beautiful wife and 2 beautiful kids.

My wife is highly desirious of me working for The Man and I can see her point, as it provides a safety net.

my wife would want at least some degree of assurance that trading could bring in incremental income over and above what I could obtain merely by investing
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Ghost make some good points. However, I'm not sure that getting a job in finance is all that important and it might even be a negative -- if it prevent you from trading. Very few people in finance know how to trade: most of the field of finance is about sales or some other business.

I think the main thing is you need to:

1. Get a secondary/safe income. This could be from a job or support from your wife.
2. Get support from your wife.
3. Identify what aspect of trading you can be great at, what make sense to you.
4. Get the training and experience
5. Use the capital.

This is is likely about a 2 year minimum to 7 year process. Gary Smith reported that he didn't quit his day job until he had about 300k-500k to trade with. So, even if you have say 50k or 100k from sale of your business then it may not be enough to make a great living trading within your risk appetite.

You need a SYSTEM in place for success: that means capital, cash flow, internal strength, and training/skill. If you miss any piece of the puzzle then you can't trade. It just like a business with a great sales team but no product or imagine a business with a great product but poor sales ability. Neither business likely to be a success.
 
Quote from Pondering Man:

My wife is highly desirious of me working for The Man and I can see her point, as it provides a safety net.

Oh, and a big point: my wife would want at least some degree of assurance that trading could bring in incremental income over and above what I could obtain merely by investing.

If not trading, is there any other type of investing you would recommend if you were in my shoes? Swing trading? Anything else?

Thanks so much for your constructive feedback.
More...


I think your wife is going to be the primary reason why you will not succeed.

She will be the ominous cloud hanging over your head and in the back of your mind. You can't trade in this situation.
 
Quote from oldtime:

honey, I posted a question on the internet, come here and read all the replies and tell me what you think...
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Wife: "I told you so."



And there goes the trading venture. Out the window. Shot down. Snuffed out. I hate it when this happens.
 
Quote from SteveNYC:

Wife: "I told you so."
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It would appear that his wife is the only rational person in his household or on this message forum. Don't blame her - she is simply stating the obvious.
 
I've reconsidered.

There are hundreds of winning traders here on ET. Probably thousands that just come here to read the brilliant commentary.

Once in a while, someone will confess to losing.

I estimate from this large sample that your chance of success is 97.5%.
 
Pondering Man, put that money in an interest bearing account and munch along off it until you know what you are dealing with when it comes to any type of trading or investing.
Watch a couple of stock charts in real time and see if you can pick profitable entry points intraday. That's what intraday trading comes down to, where to get in, where to get out. Sounds simple, right.
But, if you can do it you'll know you have it.
This monkey isn't for everyone.
 
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