when i was 18, i didn't have squat. playing a sport, going to school, theres no time to work more than 20 hrs a week. on min wage, i'm spending that money buying booze, getting a new shirt, and filling up my car, whose insurance i didn't have to pay. do you have any idea how much of a loser you'd had to of been to actually have 5k saved up at 18? i mean what a fucking grind for no reason, a waste of your youth, it would be so very sad. i could say this all day. trading has almost nothing to do with your 'effort'. if you have the means, you take your shot; ability wise, you have it or you don't, and it just isn't going to take much time to figure that out, absolutely no more than 1 1/3 years. the earlier, the better. every tennis player was a mental midget at one point in life. but you certainly aren't going to wait till you're nice and old to give it a whirl because you'd be more 'mature'. trading isn't any different. the best traders i know are guess what, the guys that started the earliest and have been at it for a long time. one of them actually brought in his 14 year old cousin, and is getting him started on it now. he obviously has the right genes for it being related, but if he survives, the leg up he has, he'll be a monster, absolute monster. (the amount of mental toughness this kid will have endured by age 21, its ridiculous. as an example, i've played good 30 yr old tennis players that never played juniors. but they have the mental toughness of a midget/i make a bad call on them, they get upset, sun in the way/wind, i mean anything and these guys are visibly pissed and its just poison for their game. at a competitive level in college, everyone takes it because they've been through it all before when they were young. its no different. if you have the means, you take your shot. only reason we don't have 8 year scalping like monkeys is because thats just a more expensive activity/its not realistic for most.
Thanks for the advice and replies everyone! One of the houses (The run down one) is about to go on the market. Having an estate sale to sell off some of the furniture and other valuables next weekend. Gotta go up to the apartment and fix a clogged drain, and kick a tenant out. She's paid once in the last 5 months and the whole situation is starting to become stressfull. I really HATE having tenants. The tenants have ZERO respect for me now, and no I havent done anything stupid that would warrent this lack of respect. They just really do not like having an 18 year old landlord. Collecting money is beginning to get more difficult. Every other weekend I am up at that GOD D*mn place fixing something or trimming a hedge or doing some other tedious activity that they could do themselves but won't now. Its an hour and a half drive too, btw, which is getting annoying. This has been going on for a while but it is starting to frustrate me now. This is not what I want to do for the rest of my life, I hate it. They dont respect an 18 year old (imagine that!) and I just do not like it. I am learning more and more about stocks and have been talking with a financial advisor a lot. I am going to go to college but I think my future is some sort of investor. Why do I need to work for someone? I will work for myself. Obviously this will take time and I have a lot to learn still. I will put almost all of my money in some sort of interest bearing, govt insured financial vehicle until I get out of college. I am still going to put some of that 55k into a trading account. Worst case scenario, I blow it up and its a 5 or 10 thousand dollar tuition courtesy of the markets. I can afford it if it will give me experience. Keep the advice coming though I really do appreciate it!
Oh yeah, btw I am thinking about doing a journal once I get access to some of the 55k. That way Ya'll can see all the trades (and all the mistakes) I make during this. I dont know what I'll entitle it yet.
I just found this thread and I am amazed at the amount of bad advice you have gotten. Especially the one about seeking a financial adviser. Welcome to the world of landlords. It's not the cakewalk it's made out on TV and this forum with its RE experts. Your story is too common to my ears, I hear it all the time. Often, the property owners are actually just trying to convince themselves when bragging about this & that. Owning & managing property is a full-time job or else you're paying someone else to do it. In the current day in the wonderful lawyer & bureaucrat ridden USA, owning property is partly a liability. The good thing is that you have no mortgage to worry about (I assume) so you're in a better situation than most. Be objective. You're an 18 year old kid who inherited a bunch of property & some mutual fund assets. How would you view yourself? Why should they have any respect for you? Have you even provided one clue that you know what you're doing? Obviously not, as you do not even know what to do with your wealth. This is just the reality. In general, tenants have a certain dislike for landlords, especially if the tenants are having money problems & have jealousy issues. In your situation, the tenants are testing you for weakness. And you have shown it. Depending on how clever your problem tenants are, you may get taken to the cleaners. Very Big mistake. You're assuming way too much about your future. You were blessed with a good size inheritance and you're kinda clueless. You're on a public message board asking for advice, getting plenty of garbage advice, then listening to it and even going to a financial adviser. An investor does not do that, an investor first educates himself and makes his own decisions. You're already at a stage where most people would think "I'm made, I work for myself" and you're still not sure. Why? It pays you significantly less than inflation. And what happens when the dollar get a serious devaluation? You'll go from rich to poor. You're not ready to trade, you need to first manage your assets properly, get an income stream going and then play around with trading. You're in a unique situation where you have capital & options. And there are many opportunities right now. Your best bet is to learn about what you have.
if you're for real, which I kind of doubt, don't spend a dime of that $ and don't sell the houses. go to college, and probably go get a job. treat your inheritance respectfully...don't blow it trading.
Why not? Why risk money when you can actually practice and know if this is the right profession you should be in. The op has just read about trading, he has no real time experience with it. As for 2 years of simulation ya maybe that is over doing it, but at least 6 months of sim trading is necessary if you don't want to blow your whole account. You aren't even considered a consistent profitable trader until after a few years. Call me a scared cunt, but I rather protect my capital than basically gambling it away. And also, ya its true prop shops don't do it, but whats the success rate? there is another thread in the career section that shows barely around 10% are successful
Congratulations, Hester you have spun this fantasy for 15 pages. Your story does not pass the mustard test. Some very smart people , and there are some on ET, have provided you with some guidance and ,yet , you come back for more "replies' to your dilemma. Simple question: What college(s) did you apply to this year?
If you actually read this thread and some of my replies instead of just bashing me maybe you would find the answer, troll.
Your response does not surprise me.... As everybody will atest I am no troll, but it does seem that I have hit a nerve.... Now then, answer my simple question....