It is wonderful you took a leap and found fulfillment. Being a founder is invigorating and challenging at the same time. Key is to feel alive in whatever you do, right?
My sense is international trading (with the right help) should be a very good business especially selling something for your local economy to the world where they don’t normally see or know it!
Exactly! Doing something that you enjoy is priceless.
I have the feeling that international trading will be one of the few industries that will be the least affected by AI. Knowledge and digital products will be disrupted, but physical goods will do well.
Congrats and good luck Alejandro. I definitely needed the term lifestyle business and its definition to define how I feel about what I want to do. Definitely inspirational!
Interesting thoughts, thanks for sharing some vulnerability.
I love the idea of a lifestyle business.
You’re right that having a decent income makes you a little less hungry. I think about this often.
I have a full time job I love which was once a side hustle I was very hungry for.
Sometimes I wonder what I would do if that job wasn’t there. It would be difficult to find a similar one, or one that pays as well in the beginning.
I finally decided to start taking my writing a bit more seriously and try to create a side hustle here on Substack. Fortunately the income I have now allows me to move slowly here.
I do think about other ideas too though, and I’ve thought about Amazon FBA. I’m just such a retail trading junky it’s tough to get excited about something that isn’t related to Financial Markets.
Well “trading for a living” is tough. It requires a lot of money.
If you look at the returns from Wall Street Legends they are averaging 20-30% annual returns over decades of time.
Despite popular belief, no one is making 50-100% annual returns in this business consistently. If they were they would have investors throwing Trillions of dollar at them to trade it for them on Wall Street.
They’d have the best track record of all time. Even better than Jim Simmons who was just an absolutely beast and the best to ever do it making 36% annually for his investors over several decades.
So it’s tough to “live off” a 25% annual return. You need $1 Million to make $250k, of which the tax man then takes their cut and leaves you with about $175k for the year.
And if you’re trading $1 Million you should probably have at least another $1 Million so you aren’t trading 100% of your net worth.
And as I’m sure you know it’s tough to accumulate $2 Million dollars of wealth!
So I do trade and invest, but I also work for a Finance community showing them what I do in markets.
Even with $2 Million I would still hold down the job I have now.
It’s somewhat of a “lifestyle business.” It’s very flexible, and I’m free to do what I want. It just so happens I enjoy communicating with other traders and investors watching markets all day.
I do exercise during the day, and I’m free to leave at any time really. But I still have job responsibilities to attend to throughout the weeks!
Hey my friend I find myself in pretty much the same boat. I'd be happy to connect more on strategies. The post resonates with me. I have an increasing amount of fuck you money which is hard to hide in behaviour in the work environment. I am now an unfiltered me. Which is liberating. But the shackles of being treated as an employee burn my soul. I long for more sovreignty and the ability to do more yet struggle with knowledge on how to bridge that gap. I think it's finding a recipe and following it. I did this once before and it 3xd my income. I need to do it again. Find some one doing it and clone the process. I'll let you know how I go about it. My dream is lifestyle design producing value from anywhere in the world. I work hard but only things I value
Glad I’m not alone on this. I think the best strategy is starting and figuring everything out along the way. Otherwise you get stuck in analysis paralysis.
This is awesome Alejandro and I completely understand wanting to work for yourself. Congratulations on taking the leap to start and good luck with your Amazon FBA. I’ll be cheering you on!
It is wonderful you took a leap and found fulfillment. Being a founder is invigorating and challenging at the same time. Key is to feel alive in whatever you do, right?
My sense is international trading (with the right help) should be a very good business especially selling something for your local economy to the world where they don’t normally see or know it!
Exactly! Doing something that you enjoy is priceless.
I have the feeling that international trading will be one of the few industries that will be the least affected by AI. Knowledge and digital products will be disrupted, but physical goods will do well.
Good luck!
Thanks a lot Mike!
Congrats and good luck Alejandro. I definitely needed the term lifestyle business and its definition to define how I feel about what I want to do. Definitely inspirational!
Thank you Malik! Keep me posted if you start your own lifestyle business too.
Interesting thoughts, thanks for sharing some vulnerability.
I love the idea of a lifestyle business.
You’re right that having a decent income makes you a little less hungry. I think about this often.
I have a full time job I love which was once a side hustle I was very hungry for.
Sometimes I wonder what I would do if that job wasn’t there. It would be difficult to find a similar one, or one that pays as well in the beginning.
I finally decided to start taking my writing a bit more seriously and try to create a side hustle here on Substack. Fortunately the income I have now allows me to move slowly here.
I do think about other ideas too though, and I’ve thought about Amazon FBA. I’m just such a retail trading junky it’s tough to get excited about something that isn’t related to Financial Markets.
Thanks for sparking some more curiosity in me!
So you trade for a living?
If that’s the case you pretty much have a lifestyle business already
Well “trading for a living” is tough. It requires a lot of money.
If you look at the returns from Wall Street Legends they are averaging 20-30% annual returns over decades of time.
Despite popular belief, no one is making 50-100% annual returns in this business consistently. If they were they would have investors throwing Trillions of dollar at them to trade it for them on Wall Street.
They’d have the best track record of all time. Even better than Jim Simmons who was just an absolutely beast and the best to ever do it making 36% annually for his investors over several decades.
So it’s tough to “live off” a 25% annual return. You need $1 Million to make $250k, of which the tax man then takes their cut and leaves you with about $175k for the year.
And if you’re trading $1 Million you should probably have at least another $1 Million so you aren’t trading 100% of your net worth.
And as I’m sure you know it’s tough to accumulate $2 Million dollars of wealth!
So I do trade and invest, but I also work for a Finance community showing them what I do in markets.
Even with $2 Million I would still hold down the job I have now.
It’s somewhat of a “lifestyle business.” It’s very flexible, and I’m free to do what I want. It just so happens I enjoy communicating with other traders and investors watching markets all day.
I do exercise during the day, and I’m free to leave at any time really. But I still have job responsibilities to attend to throughout the weeks!
Hey my friend I find myself in pretty much the same boat. I'd be happy to connect more on strategies. The post resonates with me. I have an increasing amount of fuck you money which is hard to hide in behaviour in the work environment. I am now an unfiltered me. Which is liberating. But the shackles of being treated as an employee burn my soul. I long for more sovreignty and the ability to do more yet struggle with knowledge on how to bridge that gap. I think it's finding a recipe and following it. I did this once before and it 3xd my income. I need to do it again. Find some one doing it and clone the process. I'll let you know how I go about it. My dream is lifestyle design producing value from anywhere in the world. I work hard but only things I value
Glad I’m not alone on this. I think the best strategy is starting and figuring everything out along the way. Otherwise you get stuck in analysis paralysis.
Yea I totally agree -
I'm rooting for you. Please share your journey. I'd like to do the same for myself.
Like in a video game - re-rolling my character.
I feel that this post aligns with your thoughts. Hopefully it may help!
https://yourlastlife.substack.com/p/directionally-correct
Thanks for sharing. The idea of “directionally correct” resonates with me at the moment.
This is awesome Alejandro and I completely understand wanting to work for yourself. Congratulations on taking the leap to start and good luck with your Amazon FBA. I’ll be cheering you on!
Thanks for the continued support Dylan! It’s a lonely journey, so I appreciate it.