[xsplat]

Like November, I've lost what to me was a lot, but wasn't 100,000. I'm doing well now but to me 100,000 is a big number, and I'm impressed at the larger numbers that are casually tossed around here.

As an entrepreneur I've had a few high swings. Best 5 days ever - Woodstock 2, profit $30,000 in 5 days. In another business a high swing would be $30,000 in a month. But then I'd try to leverage the profits into new untested ventures, and get dragged into a slow spiral of decay. Only to build up again, then lose again, rinse and repeat.

My favorite lesson from it all was not learning how to make money. It was learning how to live on a satisfying life on a stupidly small budget. That's my financial security. I can live on little.

Oh, and I learned to not be overconfident in my time available to manage new projects. There is something to be said for keeping things small and simple.

That, plus now I'm in a high swing again, have savings again, and have a small diversification of businesses. I won't be raiding the coin stash for vodka money again.

[November]

(12-05-2011 09:36 PM)xsplat Wrote:  

My favorite lesson from it all was not learning how to make money. It was learning how to live on a satisfying life on a stupidly small budget. That's my financial security. I can live on little.

Exactly. Cultivate simple pleasures and pursue a lifestyle that doesn't require excessive spending.

Anyone who isn't taking their profits and flipping them right back into business is doing it wrong.

The best thing I learned through my financial losses was to carefully organize my money and set spending limits for myself. Keep your business earnings in one bank account and withdraw a low weekly 'salary' from that. Everything in the business account either goes right back into business or into something of value that can be written off for taxes (books, conferences, etc.)

[Layercake]

Back in April 2007 I earned £129,610 at the end of my tax-year. Now considering back in 2007 the GBP /USD Exchange Rate was almost 2.00 that equated to over $250,000 Per Year. OK tax was £41,000 ($82,000) and the previous 2 years was almost as high.

I used to work for a UK market leader in software & hardware asset finance. My role was as a hardcore Sales Hunter. 70 calls per day to Finance Directors, qualifying their annual IT budgets and closing them of financing instead of using cash-flow. Some months I would receive $70,000 cheques from my M.D in commission payments alone! We even had one sales guy clear $500,000 in the same year! Aaaaah those were the days, when nobody even heard of a "Credit Crunch".

The problem was, we were just brokers and didn't underwrite these huge IT leases with an average lease size of $500,000; the banks did. Now as soon as the banks got jittery, we were the first to lose our credit lines as most IT leases contain more than a 50% of software licences, which are intangible....in other words the banks can't sell them if the client goes bankrupt. We lost 5 or 6 big lenders over night!

Now I didn't gamble all my earnings away, but invested in one big London Waterfront house...the timing of that wasn't great. - but no regrets aye? The rental from it is healthy enough....but the chances of earning $250,000 per year again, I just don't see it...not in this climate.

[BostonBMW]

I am inspired by these stories, not because of losing the net worth, but rather getting up there.

I am building up my investments but definitely not worried about losing it all. If I can make it once, I can definitely do it twice.

[Lemmo]

I'd saved about 500K, lost over half of it in 2008-9, made it all back in 2010-11 +140K in capital gains and then lost 140K in 4Q. It may be obvious to others, but I learned the hard way. The market is unusually volatile now. If you are investing in equities, be diversified, always have a stop orders in place and if you are nearing your stop price, think about closing out your position before the end of the trading day. Don't try to catch the falling knife. If you start losing money, don't just hold in the hopes the price will go up. If you preserve your principal, you can make your money back. Otherwise, the more you lose the higher return you'll need to get back to 0.

[Layercake]

(12-08-2011 11:18 PM)BostonBMW Wrote:  

I am inspired by these stories, not because of losing the net worth, but rather getting up there.

I am building up my investments but definitely not worried about losing it all. If I can make it once, I can definitely do it twice.

Agreed Bro - If we can do it once, we can do it again.

[xmlenigma]

wow! givoanni..

I rose to the top of my consulting career and had opps of 150k /year in 2005 and definite more career growth & chance to do my own gigs. Got distracted, love-woman, backstabbing & trust issues. Taken a sabbatical and living with simpler expenses, bunch of self-introspection, taking care of health (had gained bad weight), lifestyle analysis.. spiritual stuff: yoga, meditation, reading etc.

I'm now looking to get back.. would prefer to be an Entrepreneurial guy long term but I got to re-earn some $$ via the job scene.. and so on..

(08-02-2011 01:50 PM)GiovanniRio Wrote:  

Been there, done that. Started a company some years ago, made it an international player in its market; active in more than 26 countries after just 1,5 years, and lost about all of it because of some knifes in my back when I sold it (they didn't pay me without long lawsuits). Went from an income of more than +30k euro/month to about 500 euro's... trust me, a hard apple to bite. Some years later, I got the money (finally) and successfully running 3 companies, participating in some others (shareholder/investor).

Also something to remember: never let a girl & your love for her kills your business plans or let her take away your time. Been there done that Women are easy to get, easy to fuck and easy to throw away. Remember that while building YOUR future.

So whatever happens, just keep going. If you have it in you, noting can gets you down. Excepts your health (so take care of it!).

Giovanni - I'd love to hear about your company & how you grew it.. the lessons, learnings, the stories etc. Its very inspiring to the budding entrepreneur within me.. If you wouldnt mind talking about it.
I've experienced a lot of the same things you've highlighted (underlined) above.

(12-08-2011 11:33 PM)Lemmo Wrote:  

I'd saved about 500K, lost over half of it in 2008-9, made it all back in 2010-11 +140K in capital gains and then lost 140K in 4Q. It may be obvious to others, but I learned the hard way. The market is unusually volatile now. If you are investing in equities, be diversified, always have a stop orders in place and if you are nearing your stop price, think about closing out your position before the end of the trading day. Don't try to catch the falling knife. If you start losing money, don't just hold in the hopes the price will go up. If you preserve your principal, you can make your money back. Otherwise, the more you lose the higher return you'll need to get back to 0.

I'd sure love to learn how you learnt to invest right.. and where to invest. Something I never had time or attention to do.

[Lemmo]

(12-10-2011 03:20 AM)xmlenigma Wrote:  

wow! givoanni..

I rose to the top of my consulting career and had opps of 150k /year in 2005 and definite more career growth & chance to do my own gigs. Got distracted, love-woman, backstabbing & trust issues. Taken a sabbatical and living with simpler expenses, bunch of self-introspection, taking care of health (had gained bad weight), lifestyle analysis.. spiritual stuff: yoga, meditation, reading etc.

I'm now looking to get back.. would prefer to be an Entrepreneurial guy long term but I got to re-earn some $$ via the job scene.. and so on..

(08-02-2011 01:50 PM)GiovanniRio Wrote:  

Been there, done that. Started a company some years ago, made it an international player in its market; active in more than 26 countries after just 1,5 years, and lost about all of it because of some knifes in my back when I sold it (they didn't pay me without long lawsuits). Went from an income of more than +30k euro/month to about 500 euro's... trust me, a hard apple to bite. Some years later, I got the money (finally) and successfully running 3 companies, participating in some others (shareholder/investor).

Also something to remember: never let a girl & your love for her kills your business plans or let her take away your time. Been there done that Women are easy to get, easy to fuck and easy to throw away. Remember that while building YOUR future.

So whatever happens, just keep going. If you have it in you, noting can gets you down. Excepts your health (so take care of it!).

Giovanni - I'd love to hear about your company & how you grew it.. the lessons, learnings, the stories etc. Its very inspiring to the budding entrepreneur within me.. If you wouldnt mind talking about it.
I've experienced a lot of the same things you've highlighted (underlined) above.

(12-08-2011 11:33 PM)Lemmo Wrote:  

I'd saved about 500K, lost over half of it in 2008-9, made it all back in 2010-11 +140K in capital gains and then lost 140K in 4Q. It may be obvious to others, but I learned the hard way. The market is unusually volatile now. If you are investing in equities, be diversified, always have a stop orders in place and if you are nearing your stop price, think about closing out your position before the end of the trading day. Don't try to catch the falling knife. If you start losing money, don't just hold in the hopes the price will go up. If you preserve your principal, you can make your money back. Otherwise, the more you lose the higher return you'll need to get back to 0.

I'd sure love to learn how you learnt to invest right.. and where to invest. Something I never had time or attention to do.

The little I know about investing I learned by actually investing and reading up on finance (I have a degree in finance but it isn't of much practical use). I've managed to avoid losing my shirt but haven't gotten rich from it. I'd suggest making small, conservative investments for a couple of years and then dedicating a part of your portfolio to riskier investments as you learn more. At this time you need to be particularly careful with equities.

Unfortunately, I had a fair amount of cash saved from working and so was in a position to get hurt when I started investing in 2008. I have a 0% return from 2008-2012. This is significantly better than the markets as a whole and most professionals yet it puts me in a worse position than I would have been in if I had just put my money in a savings account. Investing is stressful too. This year I went from being down 150K to up 225K in about 3 weeks but was up by only 78K about 3 weeks later. I've since scaled back my risk. The markets may go on a run in 2012 but, in general, I'd advise people to focus on their earning power rather than expecting to get rich in the markets.

[Riker]

(12-09-2011 09:58 AM)Layercake Wrote:  

(12-08-2011 11:18 PM)BostonBMW Wrote:  

I am inspired by these stories, not because of losing the net worth, but rather getting up there.

I am building up my investments but definitely not worried about losing it all. If I can make it once, I can definitely do it twice.

Agreed Bro - If we can do it once, we can do it again.

You can also lose it twice.... sorry about being negative but its true! I hope the third time I'm more careful... just when I'm flush with cash I lose my mind and want to start spending it like crazy.

[Lemmo]

(12-10-2011 11:52 AM)Riker Wrote:  

(12-09-2011 09:58 AM)Layercake Wrote:  

(12-08-2011 11:18 PM)BostonBMW Wrote:  

I am inspired by these stories, not because of losing the net worth, but rather getting up there.

I am building up my investments but definitely not worried about losing it all. If I can make it once, I can definitely do it twice.

Agreed Bro - If we can do it once, we can do it again.

You can also lose it twice.... sorry about being negative but its true! I hope the third time I'm more careful... just when I'm flush with cash I lose my mind and want to start spending it like crazy.

I wouldn't feel too bad about spending. At least you are getting something of value for your money, something that you presumably enjoy. It is having the money in your hand and then watching it evaporate through bad investments that will eat you up.

[Riker]

(12-10-2011 01:18 PM)Lemmo Wrote:  

(12-10-2011 11:52 AM)Riker Wrote:  

(12-09-2011 09:58 AM)Layercake Wrote:  

(12-08-2011 11:18 PM)BostonBMW Wrote:  

I am inspired by these stories, not because of losing the net worth, but rather getting up there.

I am building up my investments but definitely not worried about losing it all. If I can make it once, I can definitely do it twice.

Agreed Bro - If we can do it once, we can do it again.

You can also lose it twice.... sorry about being negative but its true! I hope the third time I'm more careful... just when I'm flush with cash I lose my mind and want to start spending it like crazy.

I wouldn't feel too bad about spending. At least you are getting something of value for your money, something that you presumably enjoy. It is having the money in your hand and then watching it evaporate through bad investments that will eat you up.

I spend it on bad investments too

[JoyStick]

hey riker.. how big was your bankroll when you first started playing? and how long did it take you to build it up?

i wanted to try going pro online too but it was too stressful without a big bankroll. i would grind it out for 4-5 hours and lose it back in a couple hands due to bad beats. i give you mad props for being able to do it.

[Riker]

Played for play money from 15 to 17. Started with 40 bucks at 17 and it took me two years to build it up really big. I played as much as I could.

[JoyStick]

impressive man. thanks for answering.

[iknowexactly]

I did it the hard, slow way. 15 years training and work, and now I have a passive income of 1200/mo
with almost no risk. I have no access to the capital, lucky for me lol, it's a pension. I can't fuck up.