last thing: the only thing you can control, truly, is your attitude and the effort you put forth. If you go all-in on whatever is important to you, great things will happen. Most people don't want to work. If you outwork them, you will meet all your goals.

$30,000 Millionaire said:

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made major financial mistakes and got into debt, worked my way out of it and committed to learning how to manage my own money

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Are you me? (Clearly not!)
I wonder how many of us identify with this statement and think we're better off having been through the experience, rather than having had it easy? I sure do.

This was me. Graduated HS in 2005 with no guidance or plan. Worked for a tow truck company for 3 years in my hometown before I took school serious. Working for $8/hr those years taught me a lot. Went to Blinn in 2008, graduated A&M in 2012. Took a sales job at $30,000 a year (no pun intended) and more student loan debt than I knew what to do with. Fast forward 10 years, no debt other than my dream home and a nice truck. Wife and 2 kids are taken care of so I'm happy.

$30,000 Millionaire said:

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Real talk part 2 and I want you all to take this to heart:

Every one of you can be a successful trader or investor if you suffer the losses (seriously) and put the time in to perfect the craft. There is no one way to trade. What all great traders do is:

• Manage risk
• Don't FOMO
• Take shots when the setup is right, even if it doesn't work out
• Learn from your mistakes
• Continuously reinvent yourself
• Know when not to trade

I am dead serious about the suffering losses part. It is part of the journey and I would argue the real journey is when you come back from soul crushing defeat. I've had losses so big I couldn't look at the market for 3 months. I'm sure there are some traders that didn't go through this. I'm not one of them. My greatest growth came after.

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Definitely ran that trashed account gauntlet last year with all those ****ty stocks we talked about so much here - the EBONs, DPWs, and yes even WWRs of the world.

Off to a healthier start this year but still cutting teeth a bit. Just want to say thanks for sharing so much and showing us the way.


That said, took the day off to get the wife out of the house and missed out on that XSP play dangit. Not bitter at all, lol.

I feel like we need to have one of those panel discussion video things with everyone telling their story about how they became hood rich.

How many here grew up quasi poor with pressure to not leave their small Texas hometown only to go national/global and end up hood rich?

FYI I will be at the M&W game next weekend. Hope I don't see any of you yahoos!

TecRecAg said:

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This was me. Graduated HS in 2005 with no guidance or plan. Worked for a tow truck company for 3 years in my hometown before I took school serious. Working for $8/hr those years taught me a lot. Went to Blinn in 2008, graduated A&M in 2012. Took a sales job at $30,000 a year (no pun intended) and more student loan debt than I knew what to do with. Fast forward 10 years, no debt other than my dream home and a nice truck. Wife and 2 kids are taken care of so I'm happy.

---

We have some surface level similarities.

Graduated HS in 2006, came to A&M and didn't take it seriously until around 3 years in, racking up needless student debt in the process. Got my **** together and finally graduated in 2012, 6 years later and with considerable debt to pay off.

Applied and interviewed for a job for months, only getting close to a job once. I ended up taking a crappy door-to-door sales job in Houston out of desperation, and quit after six weeks.

Finally got a lucky break with a consultant gig (in an actual IT job), and finally got my foot in the door which led to my current career.

Was paid pretty poorly for a while and was living in NY with a HCOL, but was still able to save what I could and chip away at my debt.

Finally became debt-free in 2019, and have been able to focus solely on building a portfolio and saving for retirement since then.

Pretty happy with my progress in the past couple of years. Getting out of debt is like finally being able to fight with both hands rather than having one tied behind your back.

Charismatic Megafauna said:

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I didn't grow up poor, i had everything i needed! I just made myself poor when i got out of the house and thought i could keep that lifestyle!

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Ha!

I got the evil eye scolding if I dare say yes to cheese to my hunger buster for 25c extra when we we "went out to eat" about once a month. Dessert was only acceptable if banana splits were on 99c special, and our family of 4 would "split" one

59 South said:

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I feel like we need to have one of those panel discussion video things with everyone telling their story about how they became hood rich.

How many here grew up quasi poor with pressure to not leave their small Texas hometown only to go national/global and end up hood rich?

---

Let me get through this dang dinner party my wife is throwing tonight and I'll add to this story...MIssed the rocket today but dealing with work issues on trying to get some Lukoil Bonds settled this week and been tough but done.....Great job on this thread........Enjoy the weekend

Will get assigned on ACB and MARA. MARA at cost basis which is cool and ACB above cost basis.

Similar stories. Grew up lower middle class, both parents blue collar workers, no college degrees but taught me to work hard. Like 30K said, you can always out work people no matter how smart or privileged they are. Been working hard since I was 14, now 40 years old. No debt, other than mortgage with ~$800 to $1MM in equity. 5 kids and wife who likes to spend money. Trying to build "generational" wealth for all these kids. Happy Friday, boys.

FTAG 2000 said:

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That said, took the day off to get the wife out of the house and missed out on that XSP play dangit. Not bitter at all, lol.

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Good man, and congrats on the sex. The "rhythm method" doesn't work FYI. I'm confident that BrokeAssAggie will be able to back me up.

Rhythm method doesn't work at all

$30,000 Millionaire said:

---

Real talk part 2 and I want you all to take this to heart:

Every one of you can be a successful trader or investor if you suffer the losses (seriously) and put the time in to perfect the craft. There is no one way to trade. What all great traders do is:

• Manage risk
• Don't FOMO
• Take shots when the setup is right, even if it doesn't work out
• Learn from your mistakes
• Continuously reinvent yourself
• Know when not to trade

I am dead serious about the suffering losses part. It is part of the journey and I would argue the real journey is when you come back from soul crushing defeat. I've had losses so big I couldn't look at the market for 3 months. I'm sure there are some traders that didn't go through this. I'm not one of them. My greatest growth came after.

---

So great to hear this, I haven't been able to trade very seriously lately with the career change work, but it's been predominately loss so far. I appreciate all you do on this thread and hope one day I can buy you a beer or tea or some drink of your choice.

Mornun!

One of my favorite days of catch up on the board.

Great sharing and stories. If you don't want to run through a brick wall to work hard and succeed….I don't know what to tell you.

Mornin fj! You should have taken this week off to trade with us instead of last week. It was exciting! You can still share your personal journey of overcoming adversity from being born a poor black child to having 2 cars that are paid for and a couple hundred dollars in your pocket to spend on expiring otm options every friday