Living expenses are dramatically different depending on where you live and what your lifestyle is. You could be a hippie who wears flip-flops and grows his own vegetables in some 2nd world country or someone who wouldn't ever travel in economy living in New York or Singapore. 400k is a good number but 120-150k is plenty for most.
How did you set up the fully automated trading. I can sure use that and still work fulltime, where my jobs allows me to be in front of a PC all day,
Making bets with a couple hundred dollars is worlds apart from risking thousands at a time, from a psychological perspective. Trades you took during your trial run may have been different if it was bigger money.
personally i wouldn't quit a job, especially if you can trade at work with no issues. keep trading and buildling your account. then make regular withdrawals. buy real estate, pay off debts, and build savings and 529 for the kids. thats been my plan at least. trading full time is over rated. after trading , what the hell do you do lol. i'm a gamer, and even after 1 hour of good trading i find life extremely boring; especially if your friends are working and you can't do shit during the day with any of them. don't get sucked into the delusional "full time living as a daytrader". most of these lies stem from young and stupid and broke forex traders.
Agree...too many people equate trading full time with watching chart screens for 8 - 10 hours per day. Others call you a lazy ass if you workout (biking, sculling, weightlifting) during the trading day. wrbtrader
I lift too, HIT style workout.. Doesn't take more than an hour... Still got at least 5-6 hours.. Then what?read? Gardening lol.. What s the age group for people here? Just wondering
Even with wife as backup, what if she loses her job, consider having six months times 2 emergency funds saved up first, we live in an ever changing economy. Have you considered doing part time employment, it is like a stress reducer, get out of the house and get with people. I been trading 41 years, last 11 years of bad health I really believe from sitting all those years. And yes, used exercise equipment in my office while I traded, never enough. Automation way to go.
1) Starting and running other businesses 2) Charitable work 3) More time with kids 4) Travelling, both domestically and worldwide. Maybe living overseas for a while. 5) Learning more languages and playing the guitar more...maybe learn other instruments and joining a part-time band 6) Hiking, rafting, skiing (water and snow) 7) Shooting 8) Tennis, BJJ, middle-age soccer league, other sports I'd like to learn and do again 9) Writing a book or starting a blog 10) And about 9,877,891 other things that I'd rather do than sitting in a cubicle all day Sounds like you need more interests than playing video games, Mr. Millenial. That said, and as tempting as the thought is, leaving your day job isn't a good choice without a really solid backup plan.
MK, Accurately and succinctly stated and one of the best pieces of advice given to bluejack in this thread. A rules-based positive expectancy system supported by backtesting performance data is the best path.