As you say, perspectives differ. But how much would be "enough"? The more money you get, the more you tend to spend, which generates more demand for money. People's needs frequently expand to consume the cash available to them. Where does one draw the line? At some point (in my case, a couple of years ago in my mid-30s) you realise that while making, say, midway between 6 and 7 figures every year is a nice treadmill to be on, it's still a treadmill. Then you might be quite happy to forfeit some income in return for a slower pace of life that allows you to spend more time with your family and friends and on non-career interests instead of putting in 60-hour work weeks. If you have two jobs - engineering AND trading - it's going to be difficult to spend much time doing anything *other* than work! I would guess (while freely admitting that I don't know anything about you) that the issue for you is how long you will continue to work two jobs and at what cost. Will you continue indefinitely? These days the opportunity cost of work is something that I think about a great deal. Still, I must agree that $50k doesn't sound like enough to live comfortably. Suss
$50,000 a year is indeed a starting point, but be clear that im not saying that one cannot live off it, particularly if the house is F&C in Socal on top of the $1m+ asset base. many dont realize that the 5% return on the money is nominal and the real rate may infact be negative; if not now, then at some future point. the risk is stopping work too early and then having to go back. so, your buying power & asset base are eroding at the same time you are aging - not the picture you want in retirement, and then you are forced back into workforce with blue smock and yellow smilry face at WMT. on top of that, if you lose trading, it gets worse. so its better to work a couple extra years for additional buffer, or do as im trying and cut-back on work time each year.... then when trading income is greater than work income for a couple of years, its time to try trading. i think $100k in investment/passive income is enough. the one important thing is to control spending. please realize that many businesses have high liability, stress and huge overhead - just like the market, no one is giving away money is biz world. i'm no longer married and the vaginamony is almost up (she stil ldemands vaginamony even though she is remarried, but im in Cali & id get screwed again if i went to court - who needs it?). not being married releaves a lot of stress and financial liability. if i have a bad day trading, i dont have to listen to wifey that she could have used the dough for a new bedroom set
i'm not married but pretty much there. One thing i learned is never ever ever tell the women about your trading. They don't understand it and think if you have 1 million in your account they should be getting a mercedes and a huge house. They can't compute how things work in the trading world. For all the female members of et you are a rare breed and this message is not for you.
Paul (and Vicki) TerHorst are great people and his book was an eye opener when I read it in the early 90's. It's a big part of what made me decide to leave the corporate world and now trading is my primary income. I recall when Money magazine also did an article on Paul & Vicki in the late 80's. They retired about 20 years ago with $500K total net worth. I remember when someone asked him what he'd do if his money ran out. He said "go back to work". He was then asked "doing what"? He said "who knows".
You're right, wealth building is not denominated in $/yr. One should be stockpiling gold/silver instead, and denominating their wealth in the number of ounces owned.
I started out as a stock broker straight from college as I thought that was a way into trading. I quit when I learned that brokers are respected on a basis equal to used car salesmen. Took 30k my granma gave me for an expensive university education, which I didn't spend (went to a State school). Then lost a good hunk of it! Didn't make consistent money till well into my 2nd yr. Just my story. If you have a mentor, it can be pretty quick. Jay