dazed, let me just say congratulations on your career choice and I think you will find 30 years from now that you will not have a single regret about your decision. I've known people who started on the path toward medicine in college, but then veered off and did something else, and now have major regrets 20 years later. You can always continue to educate yourself about investing, and of course being so young you have the advantage of time on your side. Using a few sound investment practices such as diversification and dollar cost averaging you should have a very healthy portfolio by the time you retire, in addition to the satisfacion of knowing you made a real and tangible difference for countless people through your life's work. Good fortune to you.
+1 U.S. college allow you to decide after two years. Money alone will not motivate you day in and day out. You need find out what you are good at and enjoy doing it.
Your biggest mistake when you attempted to trade was the excessive use of leverage. It is designed to separate you from your money. You won't have that issue anymore with US brokers. Research some well know brokers and start small sizes and learn the product. You won't get that grand slam that all these flashy brokers tease the retail trader with but it gives you a better chance to build your account slowly and give you hopefully a flatter equity curve. BTW, it took me over 5 years before I became consistently profitable trading fx. Trying to succeed while carrying the load of a medical career/studies is just hard IMO .
Very well said. And i agree 100%, i have to hear my ex tell me how much in debt she is with her law school loans. Adapt or be killed
I'm mostly right. Doctors are smart, accomplished, and therefore think they can "handle anything", including investments... not realizing that to do investing well requires specialized knowledge and experience.... in a way, similar to what they've learned in their profession... without the prerequisites of (1) formal schooling and (2) OTJ training they've experienced as residents and fellows.
Ehh, you assume too much. Medicine is not the cash cow it once was, unless you are being hooked up into an established practice. It's whole different world nowadays. If he actually likes Med school and is not financing it through loans, he should be OK. Otherwise, he will be doubting his choice upon graduation.
Agree. Unless the doctors own private practices and not work in hospital settings, their salaries are comparable to nurses' salaries with overtime nowadays. Many doctors in their 40's and 50's are having trouble paying their student loans .
Alright, I concede you are right about accomplished investors needing a 1) good foundation and 2) OTJ training. I also realized that after reviewing what happened to my investing forays earlier in college. What's really nice about this day and age is that one can easily find online the syllabus for most if not all of the classes that some top business schools offer at their schools. For example, Wharton has all of their undergrad and MBA classes' syllabi online. This is nice because I went through most of their relevant books over the last year and half. While it isn't a substitute for formal education and the concomitant teacher/peer discussions, it's not a bad way to get a decent foundation either. After doing that, my perception of the markets changed drastically. I can now understand why different pieces of the capital structure are not priced in the same way. Because various classes of securities lay claim to different parts of a business, they are 1) looked at by people with different investment objectives, and 2) fluctuate in distinct ways to the same new info. This is very useful knowledge in thinking about how to construct a non-correlated portfolio. In the end of the day, a lot of successful investing also comes down to patience, strictness in safety, and waiting for that oh-so fat pitch. I still have much to learn. Anyways, I just thought how lucky this doctor wife of yours is to have a person of sound judgment in the family. Medicine is fun too, while it requires a lot of sacrifice, I'm pleasantly surprised by what I've learned from my standardized patients. Hopefully, I will get to enjoy the fruits of my labor from both worlds one day. Best wishes.