Giving up the day job

bongoali

Can I have a show of hands of those who have given up their job to dedicate their time in full time study learning how to invest and are now living off that income?
With redundancy looming I'm sorely tempted to explore the possibility of making investing my job.

SailorSam

If you're a learner in investing, i think you're going to be very lucky to make a living. What do they say, ...... how do you make a small fortune on the Stock Market ? Start off with a big one.
If you're facing redundancy you're better finding another job, any job, just enough to keep the wolf from the door. And then learn investing in your spare time.
And this time next year you could be a millionaire.

Pincher

Read the redundancy T&C carefully.

I had a retraining budget, which was ~£3,500 .

Did an MSc. for £5,500 course fee, 15 years ago. Funky manoeuvre was, I rented out my room in London for £100 a week, and paid £60 a week for the hall of residence.

Just add food, and the year was free!

theGrinch

investing - long term view vs making a living - income are different

Pincher

bongoali wrote: »

dedicate their time in full time study learning how to invest

http://www.stir.ac.uk/postgraduate/programme-information/prospectus/management/investment-analysis/

Alas, it's like going to seminary school, and finding there is no god.

You are supposed to get a job, reading chicken entrails and divining water, and have the good sense to live off other people's money.

JoeCrystal

I can't but help thinking this is a very foolish idea. At least with a job, you do have an income coming and you can invest the money you can afford to lose with that income.

What is your backup plan if you lost heavily with your investing? You might as well get a job, in that case, you can lose heavily, but hey, at least you still got a job.

manuel_ritz

I don't think it's practical to giving up your day job just to learn investing. You can always learn it on the side. Not unless you are very contented with your monthly income and you don't worry about tomorrow.

AnotherJoe

I think you mean "day trading".

Investing isn't a job (unless you work for a fund company or are an IFA or similar)

Its very easy to get a small fortune day trading. You do need to start with a large fortune though.

Broken_Biscuits

It should be fairly simple, if you have 25 to 35 times the amount you need to live off per year then you may be able to "safely" invest and draw down 3 to 4 percent potentially forever without having to draw down capital.

If you have no where near these figures with no fixed regular income then you will need to chase risk each month to feed, clothe and provide a roof over your head. You would have to be very lucky to be able to move your money each year into the best or near best returns, year after year, selling just at the right time on the highs and moving into the next rising lows.

I'm not much of a betting man, but it appears you may be, but I would bet that a system like that would fail.

I have a couple of funds returning near 40%. I could have sold everything, put all into that and could retire now on a 40% return. Can't see that being a thing though over time.

It's hard to give any advise to the OP with no information given to us about personal circumstances.

coyrls

bongoali wrote: »

Can I have a show of hands of those who have given up their job to dedicate their time in full time study learning how to invest and are now living off that income?
With redundancy looming I'm sorely tempted to explore the possibility of making investing my job.

My prediction is you won't see many, if any, hands and my opinion is that any hands that you do see will not be honest ones.

Thrugelmir

Doesn't take long to work out that making a living from gambling is fraught with downsides.