I have a better idea. Give up the marriage and kids idea instead, get a real job and party it up while your young. http://www.nomarriage.com You gotta be stupid to get married these days
It isn't glamorous and takes the right kind of individual to tolerate the drudgery, buy there aren't enough CPAs and the need is predicted to rise down the line. You already have the background, go partner with a firm for a few years then break off on your own. You can work for yourself, see your kids when you want, and provide a really good quality of life. From what I hear you work real hard for about 3 months out of the year then sit back. Pulling the plug on trading was the hardest/best thing I ever did. If it's not working it isn't working, move on and make a living and be grateful you found out at 28. Best of luck to you and to all those still making it happen.
Roofers are very well paid but it's a dangerous and very unpleasant job. You have very little work in winter months because of weather, and in summer you're up on a roof when it's 95 degrees outside which means the roof is about 120 degeres. Even the most brave guys I know couldn't stand on a 40-degree incline without being scared sh*tless. The crew will do most of the work but you still have to get up there to supervise them, and you have to be a roofer first in order to do that.
Well I did the opposite of the OP. I gave up a 190k/yr office job to trade full time and haven't looked back. As a trader, the pay is better, plus there's the freedom, 1-minute commute time, less hours, and no office politics and bullshit and deadlines. When I had my office job, I looked forward to Fridays. Now, I look forward to Mondays. You lose the social interaction with co-workers, but when you're working only 34 hrs a week there's plenty of time left to socialize.
You read my mind. I did the same thing, transitioning from a sales job where I would have to travel a lot, put up a smile on my face all the time and always be ready to bend over to my boss and follow the orders. My pay wasn't nearly as good as yours, which made it even easier for me to quit a corporate job. There are posters in here who don't think trading gives a good quality of life. I have a couple of questions for them: If you don't think trading improves your quality of life dramatically, why do you trade to begin with? I think quality of life is just too personal and can't be generalized. If you like sitting in traffic for 2hrs a day and enjoy all the crappy politics involved with the corporate world...if that is good quality of life for you, then be it. Thank god there are people who actually enjoy those things.
For your information, I am one of the most social people you could ever meet. I just like to have the option to choose who I want to socialize with instead of being forced to get along with people I could care less about. It sounds like you have problems being by yourself because you are the one to be scared to be at home all alone. I am not scared to deal with other people. Not at all. What I was scared about in my previous job was to waste too much time of life with the WRONG people.
Its just a way to make a living. The quality part is what you make of it. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.