22M been investing since I was 15 honestly have been obsessed with the market for the past 7 years but have never had lots of money. Got into options early made/lost 10k very quickly and learned that options are not to be messed with. So started swing trading and having a high risk portfolio but still well thought out stocks, have entered/won trading challenges throughout college, overall just really into the market but never have had any significant skin in the game because I’ve been a student my entire life. Well my grandpa died and I got 30k in January. Made a portfolio and started trading and now it is sitting at 75k and I’ve withdrawn at least 8k from it so some pretty damn good returns. I’ve told no one except my dad because I don’t want to brag/have people know that I have money. This is now become a scary amount of money to me and my risk tolerance probably should chill out but it’s not. 1-2k swings hardly make me feel anything – 50 bucks was a lot to me in January and now I can stomach a 3k loss day easily. It feels weird idk what this post is really for but I guess I feel like my mind has changed for better or worse. Also I think that my trading has gotten sloppy in this recent bull market. I should probably just put it all in high market caps and forget about it but I literally can’t. I’m not day trading or option trading but I’m swing trading 500m-10b market caps that have attractive dips. I love the game so much I can’t imagine holding etfs but does that mean I have a problem? Am I gambling? I can’t really tell
Advice/talking about something I can’t talk about
byu/Throughspace-48 ininvesting
Posted by Throughspace-48
4 Comments
I have kind of a Bogle outlook for myself, but I do love a trip to Vegas, so I see the appeal of both sides.
A few things to consider:
First, are you budgeting for the short term capital gains taxes you’ll have to pay at the end of the year? Make sure you have a handle on the potential liabilities you’re sitting on…
Next, think about how good it felt to inherit that money. It must have felt like a blessing, and it can give you a level of long term financial security if you can keep it compounding. That $30k can easily be a down payment at some point…
Since you’ve crushed it and more than doubled your money, why not do what I’d do in Vegas: Take your starting principle off the table (so to speak) by investing it all a lower risk ETF. You have an appetite for risk, so feel free to make it QQQ or even PSI or a sector you’re bullish about — and let that ride.
The ~$40k you’ll have left over will still be exciting to play with, but you’ll also have an asset set aside that will be more likely to grow meaningfully over time. And when you start to have some employment income, split any investable savings between the two approaches.
You get to take risks while you’re young, but don’t bet the whole farm!
(Edited a typo or two)
Put 50k into an investment account, continue trading the rest. Make sure to make it a hassle to access the other account. If you really are special, you will turn the rest into 100k or more eventually. If you aren’t (spoiler alert: you probably aren’t) you will still have a healthy investment.
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If you’ve made 45k in a year you need to set aside about 10k of that to be ready to pay taxes on it. Make sure you are either overpaying on your W-2 relative to your job, or paying quarterly estimated taxes if you don’t have a “real” job.
Take about half of the rest of it and put it in a standard 3-fund portfolio or something similar. You do not need to be risking the full amount on your active trading.