Regardless of the general consensus, I believe that it generally pays to be somewhat a "jack of all trades". Really hard to starve if you're willing and that full of knowledge. If you threw me out on the street naked and broke, I have no doubt that I'd produce income within a matter of days.
Savings dont last long if you have a family to feed and mortgage to pay but have zero income. Actually trading is worse, you dont only risk zero income like most people when they are having job problems, in trading you can get negative income. I have had years where i lost 50K trading and also paid another 50K in living expenses. Do that for several years in a row and your life savings will get wiped out. A single bloke can downsize living standards easily to reduce expenses, but when you got a family it is a lot harder.
Sorry to hear about your situation. If you have not already done so, perhaps you should read Alexander Elder's book: The New Trading for a Living. He talked about how some trade to ruin and how to deal with that. Or join Losers Anonymous and seek some help there. Good luck to you and hope you can bounce back.
It was in Elder's book. I have no idea if such an organization existed or not. He said his trading started to turn around after he attended an Alcohol Anon meeting and got this idea from AA.
This is from his book, 'Come into my trading room': "Years ago, when I began my recovery from losing, each morning I held what I called a Losers Anonymous meeting for one. I’d come into the office, turn on my quote screen, and while it was warming up I’d say, “Good morning, my name is Alex, and I am a loser. I have it in me to do serious damage to my account. I’ve done it before. My only goal for today is to go home without a loss.” When the screen was up, I’d begin trading, following the plan written down the night before while the markets were closed. I can immediately hear an objection—what do you mean, go home without a loss? It is impossible to make money every day. What happens if you buy something, and it goes straight down—in other words, you’ve bought the top tick of the day? What if you sell something short and it immediately rallies? We must draw a clear line between a loss and a businessman’s risk. A businessman’s risk is a small dip in equity. A loss goes through that limit. As a trader, I am in the business of trading and must take normal business risks, but I cannot afford losses"