He opened 12 new threads in a few days and then disappeared. More than 6 weeks already since his last posting. Not a usual ET poster. That lead me to my conclusion.
Learn anything from Social Media sites, about trading successfully, yea right! All you constantly see left and right and north and south are a bunch of car salesmen and realtor types....with their bright, smiling, laughing, fake personalities. Hungry for subscribers, views, content, ad revenue, money, power, course sales. I asked all social media traders/gurus...if they are millionaires, or are successful from actually trading themselves....and they all blocked me! Those crooks and charlatans only want Positive, Cheerleader, comments on their pages.
SimpleMeLike....YOU KNOW IT~, Humanity, everywhere, is generally ugly, impure and evil. They are all greedy and intolerant towards others. You give someone the opportunity for money, power, advancement...and observe just how ugly, unruly, and ruthless they can instantly turn and become. The Human condition is on full display across social media sites. But you have to view it through the lens of a psychologist and detective, and historian and philosopher. You have no friends on social media. You just have people who use other people for their own gain and advancement, enrichment and agenda, cause.
This is an interesting thread. I have a friend who retired to Steamboat several years ago at the age of 43. He was an analyst for a large mutual fund company in Denver. No kids. Probably had $3-5 million liquid when he retired. He continues to manage his portfolio as his primary income-producing vehicle. So you could certainly say that he "trades for a living". But he would be content to beat "the market" with lower volatility and to minimize big drawdowns. I would consider anyone who regularly beats a brain dead 60% SPY/40% bond portfolio to have an "edge". Hell, they are beating the vast majority of professional fund managers! But beating the "index" by 2% doesn't move the needle on a $100K static portfolio. You need to make the pile bigger. The OP said that it seemed impossible to get a bigger pile, but here's an easy way to become a millionaire in 17 years without trading at all. Max out your 401(K) every year. Find an employer that gives a 6% 401(K) match. Get 8% returns on your invested funds. (I assumed 3% annual increases in salary) If you have a spouse who does the same, you can hit 7 figures in 8.5 years! Sure, you can't easily touch the money until you're 65, but if you are 50 years old with a $2 MM account, there's nothing stopping you from quitting your 9-5 job, moving somewhere nice and taking a job that just pays the bills...while you wait to retire in style. Good stuff!
I like it! But a $200k annual family income puts you in the top 10%, and most would agree that financial life isn't so complicated at that point. After 17 years, that annual income grows to $330k, now putting you in the top 5%, and $1M in retirement is inadequate to make ends meet. That simple. Let's look at the assumptions: to start out with 100k annual salary means college, graduate school and an entry job in specific sectors of the economy. To follow that route usually means your family has a similar background and the $500k total cost of education is mostly absorbed by the parents. Not unusual when you're in the top 5%. That steady 17 year job with a 3% annual growth is rather uncommon, with the vagaries of life and all, but the road to it is made less difficult with the background already painted. My point, a retirement plan based on middle (upper middle?) class assumptions isn't particularly difficult if the end goal is $1M. To more accurately build your scenario the end result should be $10M, or the income expectations cut in half. Still achievable, just more difficult.
VicBee, good points, all of them. In the words of Billie Holliday, "them that gots shall get. them that's not shall lose." To answer the OP's original question, though, if it's a matter of choosing between building a normal career versus trying to trade full-time to grow $100K into $1MM in a few years...I'd take the easier path to $1MM - a career. (Funny you mention $10MM - I have a friend who runs a successful software company. I asked him how much he thinks he needs to retire, and he says $15MM! Applying the 4% rule, apparently he intends to spend $600K/year in his dotage! I think he really is a workaholic who has no intention of stopping. Somehow, I'll have to content myself with a more modest retirement! )
Enjoy what you do for money and you will not want to retire....that is the situation I find myself in....very grateful for that.
A good friend of mine 8 years from retirement was planning on a simple social security check and about 1M savings. Except he bought 2000 shares of Tesla at sub $50 3 years or so ago... he moved up retirement by 7 years and now can't see how he can retire with less than $5M... Life is funny that way.