The will to become financially independent is why I started learning about trading.

It was the only job I could think off that would allow for unlimited upside potential AND wouldn't be dependent on other people's performances...

I'm not even getting into the logistical nightmares of owning a business with employees and customers...

So, in a nutshell ,

Here are some reasons why YOU want to be a trader:

• You want to be your own boss for the rest of your life without the pressures of owning a complex business with all the associated responsibilities
  
• You realize your retirement funds are completely expose to a market crash and you would like to protect your hard earned cash!
  
• You are tired of struggling to barely beat the market, if at all!
  
• You want to use a small portion of your port folio to try and make bigger returns to buy luxury items.
  
• You are retired already and you suddenly have time to manage your own money.
  
• You have significant amount of money in the market which is managed by a financial advisor but you would like to learn the basics of trading to increase your returns.

• You want to become a trader so that you can become financially independent.

There are many more reasons why one would like to become a trader but the last one I mentioned is the one that gave me the resilience to persevere and eventually reach my goal! The idea that my source of revenue would come from making my money work for me rather then working for money was very exciting to me. The other thing that really got me going was the fact that I would never be limited in terms of how much money I could actually make!

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

Of course nothing of that magnitude comes easy and I realized very quickly into my journey that it would be a tough road to my final destination, i.e. become financially independent.

What does being financially independent mean anyway?

I’ve heard people talk about financial independence in terms of total amount of money they would have in the bank, or, having enough money to buy anything they want or simply not having to work for the rest of their lives…

I guess they are all right but here’s my definition:

You become financially independent once you accumulated enough money to pay for your current lifestyle without having to spend one minute generating extra income, for the rest of your life.

The problem with that is the part that says: "your current lifestyle". But that’s the beauty of this "job". You can continue to trade/invest your money and improve your lifestyle at the same time your total available liquid assets grow. The faster it grows, the better your lifestyle can be!

Now that’s empowerment!

One important note here: Notice the order in which I put improvement of lifestyle Vs. growth of liquid assets? Yes, the latter needs to come first! Otherwise you will need to get a job again…

I am not going to discuss with you what to do with your money except for this free tip: Once you reach a decent amount of liquid assets, I strongly suggest you invest in other vehicles outside of the stock markets. Real Estate is a fine way to diversify your portfolio, especially income generating real estate.

For what it’s worth here’s my goal: I want to reach this financial independence I was telling you about strictly with the passive income coming from my real estate investments or other "hands free" businesses.

Let's do some mathematics:

Let’s Assume I need 25000$/month to be financially independent with the lifestyle I have right now. To reach it I need to make:

- 30%/year on a 1 million dollar portfolio-15% on a 2 million dollar portfolio- 60%/year if you want to achieve that with $500000…

This is actually a fun exercise to plan your goal: Determine how much you need per month to live financially free for the rest of your life if you kept the same lifestyle. Then you can do two things:

- Take the total amount you have to trade/invest and come up with the return you would need to be financially independent right now.

-Calculate the returns you expect to make and based on your current available trading/investing funds figure out when you will reach the amount you will need to be financially independent.

Of course you can play with the numbers and make plans based on the money you expect to need to live the life of your dreams… The bottom line is : Have a plan!

I’m telling you, knowing where you want to be helps a great deal in reaching it…

Just like the famous quote from Yogi Berra: "If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there!" … or was it Robert Frost? Anyways, you get the drift…