Quote from Pabst:
Lobster,
I genuinely think of you as a smart poster but you missed the mark here. Many wage slaves these days have jobs that pay six figures per year. If I knew quitting a high income job would perhaps permanently lock me out of a no risk, good earnings bracket, I would be hesitant, no matter how good I was trading. Besides the obvious fact that we're all only as good as our last trade, in this low interest rate environment, it takes a lot of savings too equal 100k or 200k a year. In other words it takes mucho dinero to be set.
An ironic story I often tell my younger trading friends is this one. Back in the mid eighties when I was in my early twenties one of my best friends went to work as a paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department. He was making around 22k a year. At that time I was on a roll and making about 22k a week. Needless to say I felt that humanistic combination of guilt and superiority over my life saving, public servant friend. If at age 24 I were to imagine each of our lives at this juncture I would have guessed me to be retired by now with a few million, and my buddy to still be scrapping dead bodies off of expressway on ramps. However after a series of bad trades, bad investments, and a couple of decades of fun, hard living, I'm still hacking in it out, trying to rub two dimes together in this POS index chop, while my friend, the noble paramedic is about to retire at the ripe age of 43 on a pension of 55k a year. I would need the interest on a couple of million to equal his income stream. So my advice, if you have a knack for trading, by all means pursue it. But don't quit that boring yet maybe once in a lifetime job, selling software, or managing a development company, or even being a municipal employee, until you've really salted away enough that you can become untouchable.
How this for sad turnouts.
In 1923, nine of the world's most successful financiers met at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel. Financially, they literally "held the world by the tail" -- anything that money could buy was within their grasp -- they were rich -- rich -- rich! Hear their names and the high position each held:
1. Charles Schwab, the president of the largest steel company.
2. Samuel Insull, the president of the largest electric utility company.
3. Howard Hopson, the president of the largest gas company.
4. Arthur Cutten, the great wheat speculator.
5. Richard Whitney, the president of the New York Stock Exchange.
6. Albert Fall, the Secretary of Interior in President Harding's Cabinet.
7. Jesse Livermore, the greatest "bear" on Wall Street.
8. Ivar Kreuger, head of the world's greatest monopoly.
9. Leon Fraser, president of the Bank of International Settlements.
A tremendously impressive group -- right? Would you like to change positions with one of them? Before you decide, let's look at the picture 25 years later -- in 1948:
1. Charles Schwab was forced into bankruptcy and lived the last five years before his death on borrowed money.
2. Samuel Insull not only died in a foreign land, a fugitive from justice, but was penniless.
3. Howard Hopson was insane.
4. Arthur Cutten became insolvent and had died abroad.
5. Richard Whitney had just been released from Sing Sing prison.
6. Albert Fall had been pardoned from prison so he could die at home--broke.
7. Jesse Livermore had died a suicide.
8. Ivar Kreuger took his own life.
9. Leon Fraser also committed suicide.