Quote from Billybob543:
The decision to trade will be the worst decision you ever made in your life......mark my words if you go ahead. You will lose BOTH your MONEY and more importantly your TIME.
99.9% of the traders on this site are losing.
My advice would be to think very carefully about some type of "real" business or franchise that maybe requires a minimum investment to start up.
If you ignore this advice, I at least want you to remember the advice I gave you because in a few years you'll be saying I should've listened to that anonymous guy on elitetrader a few years back......
+5. This is about what I was going to say. Your chances of succeeding enough to make significant sums "safely" are less than 1%. And you will have the same chance of failure to fail as the other 99% no matter how clever or different you might think you are.
Don't risk money. Get to the point first where you make regular money on PAPER/sim. Planning to lose up to $50K is insane when neither of you are working and racking up costs/debt. When you go 6 months making serious coin on paper, adjusting for all trading costs (slippage, commissions, errors) THEN think about risking $5K by trading VERY SMALL. If you are then making serious coin trading tiny, (well, you get the idea).
Unless I missed something in the thread/OP, there seems to be a serious disconnect about what med school costs. And when she gets out, besides having huge debt, you two may not have enough to start her own med practice, and the world is changing rapidly. In 4 years, even DOCTORS might not be getting jobs...
Here is a thought, do you two have LIFE insurance on each other ($500K+)? Disability insurance on both? Is your car insurance at the minimums, or at the recommended levels (100/300, eg). You would be amazed at the number of nasty things that can destroy your happy plans forever. You would be a lot smarter getting a grad degree in a highly employeable field - for example a 2nd bachelor's in computer science/accounting at a good school. Get a 2nd degree in something that will allow you to work with her in her eventual practice - PT/OT/massage/managing her practice, whatever
Much better investment than blowing it on an almost guaranteed failure. You can trade on the side.
Coupling a woman who is about to go perhaps $250K in debt with a man who is unemployed and 99% likely to blow $50K (or perhaps more), in a potentially even more rotten economy is not a happy way to start your eventual new life.