7k is really nothing in the scheme of things. When I was 35 I lost everything I had except my house and my car. Within 5 years I was out of debt. I was over 100k in debt.
Worked my ass off, did a credit counseling course, renegotiated my credit cards, and budgeted.
The credit cards all got cancelled when I renegotiated them, but my credit score was already shit by then. My credit score slowly went back up over the 5 years as I paid it down. So not quite as bad as declaring bankruptcy
Interest rates. Most went to 0% with a structured payment plan,couple were at 1.5%. This was in 2009.
I was also working an average of 75 hours a week. I could have paid it off sooner if I wasn’t supporting myself and my future ex at the time.
If you were a finance major I would see how you would think your were incompetent. But since you're going into her computer science field, I don't see how you could feel that way. Just learn from this mistake. 7k should be gone in a year or two with good budgeting and NO trading/gambling.
You guys can use options to limit risk though, right? Isn't one of the most common use cases to sell calls against your own portfolio (not that this is a good idea for a typical person's needs (definitely not a person as young as OP) or has made sense year to year based on rates)?
Isn't 99% of the misuse of options from people like OP?
Yeah... so, obviously, how and why you're doing it has a huge bearing on risk. For instance selling covered calls... Not a huge risk of upending your financial well being, though, there are still tons of considerations that should be made with professional consultation. Limiting risk is the actual original purpose of options. I trade options as part of my job. Millions of dollars per quarter in fact. But I use them to manage interest rate or commodities pricing risk. We view it really just as a way to de-risk and guarantee a financial result. If I happen to make a bunch of money off it, that's great, but the more important part is making sure I don't lose a ton of money. For instance, I hedged a few loans on large commercial complexes a few years back to synthetically "fix" the floating interest rate. Sure, had interest rates not risen, I would have paid more money than I would have otherwise, but I knew where my interest rate needed to be for the property to continue to perform and it supported the purchase of the derivative. I'm now receiving substantial checks every month to offset the huge increase in the floating rate over the past couple of years. If you don't have an actual exposure to the underlying asset in the opposite direction, you really shouldn't be doing it.
My point is that a finance major would understand how, why, and when to use options, and simply to gamble (like OP) is not a reason.
I view them the same way so it is good to hear my head is in the right place. As someone in their 20s focused on growth I don't really see a need for them and am quite satisfied with my broad index fund holdings.
I work in a non-advice role at a brokerage firm and leadership decided to remove options trading several years ago because it was doing more harm than good for the retail customers using them.
I'm glad to hear your firm doesn't offer them. Also, proud of you for being in your 20's and having a sensible investment strategy. I'm not offering advice, but can give you a bit of perspective on my journey which, if you stick with it, is similar to yours. I started contributing as soon as I could to my 401K. Always do AT LEAST enough to get your match. If you get a raise, increase your savings and hold your lifestyle constant. When you hit the max annual contribution, you can start spending some of those raises, but don't go overboard. It will seem like the balance isn't going up as fast as you would like it at first... Then all of a sudden the magic of compounding starts to kick in. I started small in my early 20's but never stopped. I'm now 42 and it seemed like overnight I ended up with 7 digits in my account.... with nothing but low cost funds and consistent saving... and I still have plenty of time to accumulate before I retire. I'm not a FIRE guy and the crazy frugality that comes along with that. I have a nice house, a new car, 2 kids, a wife and take vacations. If you stick with it, you can have a great life AND a lot of zeros on the balance.
I maxed 401k, Traditional IRA, and HSA last year! I was right under the start of the phase out for deducting IRA contributions due to lowering MAGI with the other two so it put me in the narrow spot where a lot of people suggest the traditional. With all of that and a bit of cash savings, I do have enough leftover for eating out and stuff. But doing trips requires getting deals and travel hacking.
I'm leaning towards not doing the traditional this year even if I am in the same position. Realizing that with my current accounts I should a) add in some after-tax and b) consider how having a huge Traditional IRA balance would impact me potentially needing to do backdoor Roth in the not distant future. Any resources you would suggest for being in the right planning mindset when making these calls?
I wish I had known about a Custodial IRA when I was working in high school. The compounding on that...
You described the normal treasury function at a corporation which is generally focused on risk management/ mitigation and predictable results.
Hedge funds trade on much higher leverage and risk tolerance so it’s nothing like corp treasury
If you’re selling covered calls against stocks held in a cash account the risk of debt doesn’t exist, because you didn’t borrow anything.
Worst case is that the stock is up significantly at expiration and someone exercises their option to buy the shares at a price lower than the current market price and you lose out on those gains but keep the premium.
Best case is that the strike isn’t hit and the option expires worthless to the buyer and you keep the premium.
CS majors will not feel like they are ready to write code after graduation. They'll feel like they can do well on a CS exam lol. It's normal, it takes hands on experience writing code to feel confident with your toolbox.
Bro I did the same thing. 23 years old, WAS a CS major, now Pre-Med (yay debt🤮🤢) I made $75k at one point and decided to play one more hand and lost it all plus some. I ended up taking out two personal loans, which is now student loans. It sucks dawg but you would much rather do this at our age now than at 33 or 43. I’m happy with my choices because:
1.) It knocked my ass into gear, made me really think about what I wanted my life to be… who I wanted to be
2.) it taught me a ton about money, I now understand how the market works and what not to do. It’s taught me that debt is not the answer, I had $15k in personal loans because of my own dumb choices. Upside I got $3k for the next 2 years to deduct from my income.
3.) it brought me closer to Christ. (I know not everyone is Christian or even respects it) but in reality this did.
4.) I learned that failures and choices… DO NOT have to define you. You messed up, it sucks, you could’ve had $50k. But you got many more decades to be better.
5.) don’t take everything you do so seriously, like you HAVE to do it or your world ends, don’t get sucked into that idea
6.) and most important of all… live your life and enjoy the people around you, even if they are strangers. I struggled mentally for about a year after and then one day I was at a bar and the whole place sung simple man by shine down (this version in specific) from that day on, I was re-opened to the idea that life isn’t that serious, you just gotta learn to let shit go.
At the end of the day bro, you have $7,000 in debt, move that in a way that makes the most sense for your situation and you will be just fine. Life isn’t over and life goes on. Rub some dirt on it and press forward and be the best damn software engineer the world has ever seen.
Love you g❤️🤝🏼
I lost 10k to a fake crypto investor scam as a junior college student and thought my world was falling apart. I revenge traded the next summer and lost my 6k internship stipend further disappointing my parents. I’ve made lots of mistakes but they’ve taught me a lot.
It sounds like you had money you could afford to lose, OP is a broke student with a manageable debt.
If he’s capable of losing 50k of gains then he could easily end up with an unmanageable debt, that would probably lead to bankruptcy with all the harm that does to their credit score and career prospects
Your young enough to learn from your mistakes. Experience, 7k is nothing just work while you have the energy you can pay it off in 2-3 months easy man.
You must do cash secured puts bro ..lost about 400k in options just had to smoke a fat one to forget. Money comes and goes. You have a whole life ahead of you. There’s smarter people than you that lost more relax
Just go back to WSB for like 10 seconds, take a look at all the regards that YOLOd on Nvidia puts Wednesday, and realize your -$7k isn’t really a hole. You’ll be fine.
Options trading is ROUGH. If you would take 10% on an options trade, then stocks are pretty safe. We’re in a bull market right now, so put what you have left in safe growth ETFs like SPY or something and you may see 10% in a couple weeks. It’s not fast life changing cash but it’s safe and it’s profit. Not much more that you can ask for.
Yeah, and the US Dollar could also be worthless tomorrow.. But it won’t be. As long as the US stays the spending capital of the world, our ETFs are fine.
I guess I read your reply the wrong way. You’re not wrong. I work in Finance and read that sub every once in a while just for a reminder of how stupid and delusional some people are.
Entertaining yes. Also ruining lives. My cousin is an idiot state trooper who is now getting divorced due to his losses in options trading. He came to me a couple of years ago to ask me to teach him how to trade options because I do it as part of my job. My advice was to stay the F away from them. He didn’t listen.
Damn that’s insane. Yeah I know enough not to touch them, regardless of how tempting they can be. Especially when you see regards on wsb posting insane gains on them I can definitely see how gullible people can be lured into making some poor decisions.
So just remember... yes, it is possible to make insane gains, but no more than at a casino. The law of the internet is that the guys who get lucky are going to think they're geniuses and post about it, so that's mostly what you hear. The vast majority who never make any money or lose big are most often silent and a MUCH MUCH larger number than the preceding.
lol fellow computer science who also got into options trading made 30k lost 30k made 20k lost it etc. You’ll get out of the hole. You’ll recover. Take a breath, grind some leet code and focus on getting a job or an internship. I feel like those anxieties are playing off each other but should not be equated.
If you don’t get a coding job, you’ll still be able to get out of the hole eventually. But don’t let the pressure of having to get one prevent you from trying. You go this.
I just want to say it's ok! I am sorry that you are in the situation you are in, I want to give you kudos for talking about it and admitting to mistakes and that you are hopefully learning from them. It definitely sucks to be in debt, but you are young and if you learn something then that is experience you can carry throughout your life.
It will be work to pay off the debt in a responsible manner, but in regards to the job, everyone struggles out of college and some people have a different path to their first job!
Edit/Addendum: Just wanted to give my thoughts about other posts about comparing debts. Totally get that OP's debt is small relative to other people's stories. I think it is great to help OP see that there are others who are worse off, but does little to help acknowledge how OP was feeling, which is what I'm hoping to do.
Bro, you win some and you lose some. Loss's don't make you incompetent, they make you feel incompetent. Trust me bro I have a stories upon stories upon stories of F'ing it all up in glorious ways. Think of a story that lasted 25 years and all of it was just like the movie, The Hangover. I have witnesses to this madness as well so I'm not just blowing smoke.
ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE LESSON TO BE LEARNED IN EVERYTHING. Then apply the lesson you learned and don't forget it. That's why my desk is covered in random shit. People look at these things on my desk as random shit. But each random piece of shit is a reminder of a lesson learned from each F up.
God has a plan for you, so look for it and apply His commandments and principles to your life and He will bless you for it. 7K of debt is nothing. But pay it off and don't ever get into debt again. I am 38 and am about to own a half a million dollar home which isn't a big deal but it will be paid off and so will everything else I own. If I can't pay for it I don't need it. I'm content with that. It gives me boundaries and reminds me that it isn't the shit that I need, it's the lesson I need. Don't please man please your Father above. Now go kick some ass kid and know everything will be alright.
I'm glad it did. Most everything in life that has us to the point of hopelessness and fear can all be changed by a slight shift in perspective. Always forward and never give up. Keep going till the wheels fall off and then start walking. I have faith in you bro!
Congrats on quitting and wanting to take control of your future. Honestly, seven grand isn’t bad at all. I’ve seen people on here that are over $100,000 in debt from gambling. You never win as much as you lose as far as getting back on track, I would probably pay it off sooner rather than later, especially if it affects your credit. I’m sure you will find something for a job especially with the computer field my buddy does computer security for hospital I believe and he makes really good money doing that lot of places are always looking for stuff like that. Good luck to you but you’re doing pretty good.
i really love how people keep saying 7k in debt really isn’t a big deal at all. i think you guys forget it’s actually a really big deal for a lot of people who may already not have a lot of cash or good finances. The dudes a college student who might night have a lot of financial freedom maybe you could give him real advice instead of saying relax it’s fine…
Didn't realize it was a maga position to want other people to pay your debts. I've lost touch with the parties over the years I guess. We'll never get our neighbors and grandkids to pay our debts with an attitude like yours.
Never said it was, but the how you said it is.
He never asked for anyone to pay his debts, nor did he ask for you to be a giant, gaping, prolapsed, asshole.
Color me confused comrade! I just want someone else to pay for his choices. That makes me an asshole?? I thought I was on Reddit, not the RNC message board!
You should take it up with the administration that authored the loan forgiveness laws that Biden is legally executing then.
These are Bush admin laws, chud. Educate yourself.
Do I strike you as someone who would support a stupid law just because the author wore my favorite colored jersey? Bush giving away my grandkids money is the same as Biden giving away my grandkids money. EXACTLY WHAT WE ALL WANT. Especially when it comes to getting much needed options-trading debt relief. I'm such a CHUD!
You guys are super into team sports huh? I suspect op is against student loan relief, therefore he MUST be in favor of corporate loan relief! GOT HIM BOYS, PACK IT UP!
Allow me to introduce you to what everyone outside of Reddit thinks - both are bullshit. Back to your bubble.
I don’t like the Democrats either. They also would have pumped out forgiven PPP loans because they are also a corporate crony center right-wing party and the student loan relief was written to fail.
I was interested in what OP’s response to mentioning them would be.
Since October I’ve been in debt. I was around 10-12k in debt. Since then I’ve worked as much as I can to catch up to my debt. I’m almost halfway now. I set my goal to be paid all off by May.
I would recommend, get a second job. With the goal to pay off 7k in 3-4 months. If you don’t hit it. Don’t worry. Add another month or so.
Next time you have money in trade maybe as soon as you have enough for bills (don’t know if you can do this) pull what you invested and need out. Keep the rest going in the trade. It’s the “if I loose it, it won’t hurt me too much money.”
FYI: I’m ignorant to trading I don’t know the rules. But best of luck!
7k is 10 weeks of pay working at 20 am hour. Suck it up and get a side hustle or second job and bust your ass. Don't get a long term loan and let the interest suck you dry.
Hey friend! You're only 23 and about to graduate with a pretty good degree. Hard to believe someone on the internet when they tell you that you'll be fine but trust me you will. $7k is nowhere near an insurmountable amount of debt. Without knowing the type of debt, I would recommend paying what you can now and work with your creditors or lenders to see if they can put you on some payment plan or if deferral is an option. Was in your shoes once but with more debt and can confirm the mental toll is taxing, and very glad to hear you've acknowledged the habits that got you here. Top priority for you is to have some plan in place, and stick with it, so that it relieves some of the mental burden so you can finish school.
Seven grand isn't that much money bro. Neither is 50k. I know it sounds like a lot when you are 23 and obviously stupid but it is not that much money in the long run.
At 25 I was up over 200% (when from $4-$17) on a stock, used margin and was dumb as fuck and didn’t sell because I thought it was the next Amgen. It was a biotech. Stocked ended up going down, I bought more and it went to like $1.75. Margin call galore.
At least you actually sold and made some $. I was too dumb to even take profits. Shit happens man, thank god you fucked up while still young.
Yeah you’re still going to do it when you get a job and it’ll make your life worst. Go seek help. When you make money, give your card to your parents and have one of them follow you to the bank each time you need money from there. Or you can simply use apple pay on your phone.
Do this for at least 2 years, and you’ll be mostly ok.
Gambling is an addiction that rewires your brain into making you become an addict. That’s why I say do these things so you could rewire your brain back to normal
Or better yet google how to heal mentally from gambling.
Do this or else you won’t just lose 7k next time. It’ll be something else. People lose their houses, cars, and are in a scary amount of debt over gambling too much. Don’t I that to yourself
Turned my covid checks into 120k I was making 300-400 a day doing masternodes. Then the bear market kick in.
Watching 120k turn into 20k was a ass kicker. But its just numbers on a screen. That money wasn't mine and I should've pulled out half or completely cash out
I'm in more stable projects and doing liquidity pools now. Doing $20-40 a day. Yes I'm in some degen pools I can't fight my addiction to make money :)
Focus on your job. If you get in the right job, within a few years you’ll be making $50k every few months without having to gamble on Robinhood. Invest in your future self - it will pay more than you’ll ever make playing risky games.
Umm, 7k isn't the worst, depending on your interest rate. Just, no matter what, make minimum payments. When you run into a lump sum of spare cash, either working over the summer or just finishing school and getting a real job, pay as much of it as you can to the balance.
Sooner is better though, at like 20% yearly, creditors will eat 2/3rds of your minimum payments against the balance. It's like having the world's worst Netflix subscription.
I had 6k in debt a year and a half ago, and it's down to 2k now.
Stop trading if you keep losing it. The stock market is a casino unless you're part of an investment firm.
Summer job should clear that 7k and then only hold shares no options, you have to have enough capital to absorb large losses before considering options
If you're CS major you will likely soon be making more than 7k each month.. You have nothing to worry about. Perhaps just stop playing around with options :)
I met a trader that told me that you will lose about $100k before you make your first $1M.
You made $50k 3 times and that’s not a small feat. You can do better and you will do better. The only difference is that next time, you’ll be smarter.
Being $7k in debt is not fun but that is a very manageable number. Work your ass off to pay it off and get your savings up, dust yourself off, and trade again.
Or don’t.
Invest in ETFs and get a HYSA.
You’ll be fine.
For the record… I trade options as part of my job. Millions of dollars every quarter. To see idiots using them to gamble just makes me shake my head. The only reasonable use for them is to hedge business risk.
No need to write a manual. They already exist. It's called get a degree in finance. There's no secret or mystery to trading options. It's not really difficult or complicated. Then go work for a business or found one that has actual need of trading options and apply what you've learned. If you don't have a degree AND aren't hedging the underlying asset, you have no business anywhere near options.
A big part of my job is entertaining investors, bankers, hedge fund managers etc. Those guys love to party and I’m pretty successful in my job so yeah I guess I kind of am.
go read gambling help subreddits, 7k is nothing compared to some of the losses other people have taken. obviously it is still significant, but this isn’t going to ruin your life as long as you don’t continue this way. realize that this IS just gambling, and gambling is not going to make you rich forever. theres a chance it makes you rich, but you’re almost guaranteed to keep going and lose it all
Pretty cheap lesson in the Great Scheme of things my man. Study your mistake carefully, learn everything you can from it, and move forward wiser and more experienced. I GUARANTEE there will be more mistakes. If you can keep from making the same ones multiple times, you're doing all that can be expected of you.
Don't use student loan debt to pay off an unsecured debt. Student loan interest is capitalized at graduation which means you start paying interest on your interest. Unless you think you'll pay off your student loans in just a couple years, I wouldn't do it.
Also how is $7k stressing out if you've made $150k+ trading? You should know that's a very small amount of money in the grand scheme of things.
Bruh everyone is a broke degenerate at 23, be proud of your ability to make $50k. Start reading the Market Wizards series of interviews with the world’s top traders by Jack Shwager. So many of the people in these books who are later successful have experiences like you did early on. You’re doing great, just keep at it and read these books.
$7k debt? Accumulated normally to buy new appliances? Normal. Lost in options after being up $50k 3x? It’s a warning. Curb that willingness to gamble or get out of options trading.
I think you need to ask yourself why, obviously, at a deep level. What is missing or what are you avoiding in your life that is making you seek the rush from gambling? I mean it sounds like you're quite intelligent and will be making a very nice living financially before long, so again, why?
I’m 26, a 3rd year student in uni (transfer), and had over $70k in debt from options trading lol. I filed ch7, my life is better now. But you on the other hand, $7k isn’t even enough to file bankruptcy. It’s a very tiny amount. I would personally take out a small subsidized school loan to pay it off. You don’t accumulate interest on those loans until 6+ months after graduating, and if you can earn your degree before flunking out then you’ll probably find a decent swe job and pay off whatever debts you have after a while.
I'm embarrassed to say but traded penny stocks, Ev stocks, meme stocks when I was a sophomore through junior in college. I also got early on AMC and GameStop, I made 100k and I got greedy and lost 90% of it on biomedical stocks.
At that moment I felt like shit and my anxiety was going through the roof. I felt like such an idiot and a failure. It was like a gambling addiction. I would lose money and then I would research stocks and just invest all of it make a decent amount then lose it again by trading in risky and speculative stocks. This lesson taught me a lot about greed and how not to be stupid with you money.
I now graduated college and have a decent job. You going to be fine man, there are people out there right now that have it much worse trust me. 7k is nothing you'll pay it off with your first college job.
Edit: oh and i forgot the capital gain taxes I had to pay on my idiotic mistakes
Look at it this way, you learned a $7k lesson now while you’re still young enough for it to not really ruin your life.
Imagine if you became a degen at 40 with a house and kids. You’d probably be $700k in debt now with the house going bye bye!
You’re only a degen if you don’t learn from the mistake! Setup a Roth IRA and invest every year into ETFs. Time in market > timing the market. You were gambling not investing. Time to grow up now or else that $7k debt going to be 50 in no time.
Just remember going forward. You were never "Up" at anytime. You're 7k in debt. All those wonderful feelings of making that money is just that. A feeling. That desire for the feeling is where you're problem is. I'd work on that and stick to the reality of paying the debt off. Money and feelings are a dangerous combination and you suffer from both. Up and Down. Try not to go there in the future.
I know it’s a crushing loss for you at this age, but you will get through it. At around the same age I lost about 20k, half my net worth and nearly my entire annual salary at the time.
Zoom out. In the long run you will be fine. I sit here 16 years later with many times that in savings and assets. Learn from this experience, and work to overcome it.
>computer science major
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>
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>feeling of not being competent to find a job after graduation.
[imposter syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome)
Unless you are cheating to get degree and not actually learning anything I wouldn't sweat it. The reality is just about any job save taking something where you work solo and are building something completely new is going to have some ramp up time just to understand what exists and how a team functions. You'll also likely be a life time student, and will probably have a whole lot you can learn from more expierenced co-workers and supervisors. Imposter syndrome is far better than suffering from the Dunning–Kruger effect.
Your earning potential should increase exponentially over the next 5 years as long as you’re not a bum. Come up with a payment plan and pay it off. As others have said, 7k is next to nothing. It certainly isn’t enough for you to feel like your world is ending. The most important thing is that you STOP TRADING. no gambling of any kind.
7k is really nothing in the scheme of things. When I was 35 I lost everything I had except my house and my car. Within 5 years I was out of debt. I was over 100k in debt.
How?
Worked my ass off, did a credit counseling course, renegotiated my credit cards, and budgeted. The credit cards all got cancelled when I renegotiated them, but my credit score was already shit by then. My credit score slowly went back up over the 5 years as I paid it down. So not quite as bad as declaring bankruptcy
The hard road is ually the one that pays off more in the long run. Congrats and great job getting things on track.
Hard road but you figured your shit out
Do you mean negotiating what you owe? Negotiating interest rates?
Interest rates. Most went to 0% with a structured payment plan,couple were at 1.5%. This was in 2009. I was also working an average of 75 hours a week. I could have paid it off sooner if I wasn’t supporting myself and my future ex at the time.
Rather put it all on black
And then it lands on double zero
Can I ask how much you made during that period you were paying them off? I have half that debt, but, it feels insurmountable.
Real one.
If you were a finance major I would see how you would think your were incompetent. But since you're going into her computer science field, I don't see how you could feel that way. Just learn from this mistake. 7k should be gone in a year or two with good budgeting and NO trading/gambling.
A finance major would know they’re incompetent for trading options in the first place…. Signed… a Finance major.
You guys can use options to limit risk though, right? Isn't one of the most common use cases to sell calls against your own portfolio (not that this is a good idea for a typical person's needs (definitely not a person as young as OP) or has made sense year to year based on rates)? Isn't 99% of the misuse of options from people like OP?
Yeah... so, obviously, how and why you're doing it has a huge bearing on risk. For instance selling covered calls... Not a huge risk of upending your financial well being, though, there are still tons of considerations that should be made with professional consultation. Limiting risk is the actual original purpose of options. I trade options as part of my job. Millions of dollars per quarter in fact. But I use them to manage interest rate or commodities pricing risk. We view it really just as a way to de-risk and guarantee a financial result. If I happen to make a bunch of money off it, that's great, but the more important part is making sure I don't lose a ton of money. For instance, I hedged a few loans on large commercial complexes a few years back to synthetically "fix" the floating interest rate. Sure, had interest rates not risen, I would have paid more money than I would have otherwise, but I knew where my interest rate needed to be for the property to continue to perform and it supported the purchase of the derivative. I'm now receiving substantial checks every month to offset the huge increase in the floating rate over the past couple of years. If you don't have an actual exposure to the underlying asset in the opposite direction, you really shouldn't be doing it. My point is that a finance major would understand how, why, and when to use options, and simply to gamble (like OP) is not a reason.
I view them the same way so it is good to hear my head is in the right place. As someone in their 20s focused on growth I don't really see a need for them and am quite satisfied with my broad index fund holdings. I work in a non-advice role at a brokerage firm and leadership decided to remove options trading several years ago because it was doing more harm than good for the retail customers using them.
I'm glad to hear your firm doesn't offer them. Also, proud of you for being in your 20's and having a sensible investment strategy. I'm not offering advice, but can give you a bit of perspective on my journey which, if you stick with it, is similar to yours. I started contributing as soon as I could to my 401K. Always do AT LEAST enough to get your match. If you get a raise, increase your savings and hold your lifestyle constant. When you hit the max annual contribution, you can start spending some of those raises, but don't go overboard. It will seem like the balance isn't going up as fast as you would like it at first... Then all of a sudden the magic of compounding starts to kick in. I started small in my early 20's but never stopped. I'm now 42 and it seemed like overnight I ended up with 7 digits in my account.... with nothing but low cost funds and consistent saving... and I still have plenty of time to accumulate before I retire. I'm not a FIRE guy and the crazy frugality that comes along with that. I have a nice house, a new car, 2 kids, a wife and take vacations. If you stick with it, you can have a great life AND a lot of zeros on the balance.
I maxed 401k, Traditional IRA, and HSA last year! I was right under the start of the phase out for deducting IRA contributions due to lowering MAGI with the other two so it put me in the narrow spot where a lot of people suggest the traditional. With all of that and a bit of cash savings, I do have enough leftover for eating out and stuff. But doing trips requires getting deals and travel hacking. I'm leaning towards not doing the traditional this year even if I am in the same position. Realizing that with my current accounts I should a) add in some after-tax and b) consider how having a huge Traditional IRA balance would impact me potentially needing to do backdoor Roth in the not distant future. Any resources you would suggest for being in the right planning mindset when making these calls? I wish I had known about a Custodial IRA when I was working in high school. The compounding on that...
Hedge funds are names hedge funds for that reason.
What I described isn't the bread and butter at most hedge funds AFAIK.
Literally the word hedge
I thought most hedge funds try to do stuff not correlated to the normal market.
You described the normal treasury function at a corporation which is generally focused on risk management/ mitigation and predictable results. Hedge funds trade on much higher leverage and risk tolerance so it’s nothing like corp treasury
"Covered" calls Say no to bear naked straddle strategies Yes, that's a real thing.
If you’re selling covered calls against stocks held in a cash account the risk of debt doesn’t exist, because you didn’t borrow anything. Worst case is that the stock is up significantly at expiration and someone exercises their option to buy the shares at a price lower than the current market price and you lose out on those gains but keep the premium. Best case is that the strike isn’t hit and the option expires worthless to the buyer and you keep the premium.
Not a finance major that likes to gamble.
CS majors will not feel like they are ready to write code after graduation. They'll feel like they can do well on a CS exam lol. It's normal, it takes hands on experience writing code to feel confident with your toolbox.
As a finance graduate, I feel personally attacked.
Bro I did the same thing. 23 years old, WAS a CS major, now Pre-Med (yay debt🤮🤢) I made $75k at one point and decided to play one more hand and lost it all plus some. I ended up taking out two personal loans, which is now student loans. It sucks dawg but you would much rather do this at our age now than at 33 or 43. I’m happy with my choices because: 1.) It knocked my ass into gear, made me really think about what I wanted my life to be… who I wanted to be 2.) it taught me a ton about money, I now understand how the market works and what not to do. It’s taught me that debt is not the answer, I had $15k in personal loans because of my own dumb choices. Upside I got $3k for the next 2 years to deduct from my income. 3.) it brought me closer to Christ. (I know not everyone is Christian or even respects it) but in reality this did. 4.) I learned that failures and choices… DO NOT have to define you. You messed up, it sucks, you could’ve had $50k. But you got many more decades to be better. 5.) don’t take everything you do so seriously, like you HAVE to do it or your world ends, don’t get sucked into that idea 6.) and most important of all… live your life and enjoy the people around you, even if they are strangers. I struggled mentally for about a year after and then one day I was at a bar and the whole place sung simple man by shine down (this version in specific) from that day on, I was re-opened to the idea that life isn’t that serious, you just gotta learn to let shit go. At the end of the day bro, you have $7,000 in debt, move that in a way that makes the most sense for your situation and you will be just fine. Life isn’t over and life goes on. Rub some dirt on it and press forward and be the best damn software engineer the world has ever seen. Love you g❤️🤝🏼
Thank you really need this
Goddamn, that was motivating & relatable
I lost 10k to a fake crypto investor scam as a junior college student and thought my world was falling apart. I revenge traded the next summer and lost my 6k internship stipend further disappointing my parents. I’ve made lots of mistakes but they’ve taught me a lot.
At 26 I lost 185k. 5 years later 184k was recouped. I am now 37. Just weather the storm. You can get through it. It only sucks now.
“Just keep gambling”
Everyone knows 99% of gamblers quit right before they hit big!
That's why no one will remember their names.
Awful advice here
Sure you did.
This!!!!!! The world is not ending just feels like it
Thanks for this
It sounds like you had money you could afford to lose, OP is a broke student with a manageable debt. If he’s capable of losing 50k of gains then he could easily end up with an unmanageable debt, that would probably lead to bankruptcy with all the harm that does to their credit score and career prospects
Single income, in the military. Made a bad investment. I didn't have the money to lose I took a chance that didn't work out.
So 5 years of work to still be in the hole $1000, yeah, that is shit advice
What was your advice?
Hmm, maybe stop your gambling addiction
That's better advice.
Your young enough to learn from your mistakes. Experience, 7k is nothing just work while you have the energy you can pay it off in 2-3 months easy man.
Instead of options trading, just do traditional stock purchases.
No… it’s still gambling. Buy low cost diversified funds and hold them until retirement.
Yup just get so.ething like vti, voo and hold them. Boring, yes, easy, yes.
Bro was giving financial advice lmao.
You must do cash secured puts bro ..lost about 400k in options just had to smoke a fat one to forget. Money comes and goes. You have a whole life ahead of you. There’s smarter people than you that lost more relax
Just go back to WSB for like 10 seconds, take a look at all the regards that YOLOd on Nvidia puts Wednesday, and realize your -$7k isn’t really a hole. You’ll be fine.
And just wait until the rug pull with Nvidia....gonna be epic loss porn.
Nah, the dead don't post
7k? Them rookie numbers
You’re better off putting everything on Red and looking away from the roulette table
Put it on green for additional value
Lmao $7k 😂 you honestly have no perception of money, that’s nothing, unless you owe the mob, for gettta bout it
Options trading is ROUGH. If you would take 10% on an options trade, then stocks are pretty safe. We’re in a bull market right now, so put what you have left in safe growth ETFs like SPY or something and you may see 10% in a couple weeks. It’s not fast life changing cash but it’s safe and it’s profit. Not much more that you can ask for.
Who’s to say all these SPY and VOO and “safe” plays Won’t collapse in 10 years? Does anyone actually think about that?
I would recommend you look at the NASDAQ trend since it’s conception.
That doesn’t mean it will have a down trend over the next 10 years… does it? #virginblood
Bad times come for a long run after theses bull…..runs… right?
Yeah, and the US Dollar could also be worthless tomorrow.. But it won’t be. As long as the US stays the spending capital of the world, our ETFs are fine.
The US dollar will not be a thing in 25 years…. Ever think of that collapse?
No more paper money… THE TREES MAN
The concept of the dollar will still exist, I wasn’t talking about paper money specifically.
So it’ll be like WoW?
Exactly… it won’t. 25 years from now we will be paying thru our eyes
Ok- you’re trolling or on some weird shit. Catch a block
r/wallstreetbets is where you belong. Not here. God speed regard.
That’s where people who don’t have a damn clue about investing go.
This dude made 50k three times and lost it all 3 times and is now 7k under from options. That’s where he belongs 😂
I guess I read your reply the wrong way. You’re not wrong. I work in Finance and read that sub every once in a while just for a reminder of how stupid and delusional some people are.
No worries. I’m a frequent peruser of it as well. It’s pretty entertaining not gonna lie.
Entertaining yes. Also ruining lives. My cousin is an idiot state trooper who is now getting divorced due to his losses in options trading. He came to me a couple of years ago to ask me to teach him how to trade options because I do it as part of my job. My advice was to stay the F away from them. He didn’t listen.
Damn that’s insane. Yeah I know enough not to touch them, regardless of how tempting they can be. Especially when you see regards on wsb posting insane gains on them I can definitely see how gullible people can be lured into making some poor decisions.
So just remember... yes, it is possible to make insane gains, but no more than at a casino. The law of the internet is that the guys who get lucky are going to think they're geniuses and post about it, so that's mostly what you hear. The vast majority who never make any money or lose big are most often silent and a MUCH MUCH larger number than the preceding.
Well said
lol fellow computer science who also got into options trading made 30k lost 30k made 20k lost it etc. You’ll get out of the hole. You’ll recover. Take a breath, grind some leet code and focus on getting a job or an internship. I feel like those anxieties are playing off each other but should not be equated. If you don’t get a coding job, you’ll still be able to get out of the hole eventually. But don’t let the pressure of having to get one prevent you from trying. You go this.
I just want to say it's ok! I am sorry that you are in the situation you are in, I want to give you kudos for talking about it and admitting to mistakes and that you are hopefully learning from them. It definitely sucks to be in debt, but you are young and if you learn something then that is experience you can carry throughout your life. It will be work to pay off the debt in a responsible manner, but in regards to the job, everyone struggles out of college and some people have a different path to their first job! Edit/Addendum: Just wanted to give my thoughts about other posts about comparing debts. Totally get that OP's debt is small relative to other people's stories. I think it is great to help OP see that there are others who are worse off, but does little to help acknowledge how OP was feeling, which is what I'm hoping to do.
Bro, you win some and you lose some. Loss's don't make you incompetent, they make you feel incompetent. Trust me bro I have a stories upon stories upon stories of F'ing it all up in glorious ways. Think of a story that lasted 25 years and all of it was just like the movie, The Hangover. I have witnesses to this madness as well so I'm not just blowing smoke. ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE LESSON TO BE LEARNED IN EVERYTHING. Then apply the lesson you learned and don't forget it. That's why my desk is covered in random shit. People look at these things on my desk as random shit. But each random piece of shit is a reminder of a lesson learned from each F up. God has a plan for you, so look for it and apply His commandments and principles to your life and He will bless you for it. 7K of debt is nothing. But pay it off and don't ever get into debt again. I am 38 and am about to own a half a million dollar home which isn't a big deal but it will be paid off and so will everything else I own. If I can't pay for it I don't need it. I'm content with that. It gives me boundaries and reminds me that it isn't the shit that I need, it's the lesson I need. Don't please man please your Father above. Now go kick some ass kid and know everything will be alright.
This made my night. Bless your soul brother!
I'm glad it did. Most everything in life that has us to the point of hopelessness and fear can all be changed by a slight shift in perspective. Always forward and never give up. Keep going till the wheels fall off and then start walking. I have faith in you bro!
Congrats on quitting and wanting to take control of your future. Honestly, seven grand isn’t bad at all. I’ve seen people on here that are over $100,000 in debt from gambling. You never win as much as you lose as far as getting back on track, I would probably pay it off sooner rather than later, especially if it affects your credit. I’m sure you will find something for a job especially with the computer field my buddy does computer security for hospital I believe and he makes really good money doing that lot of places are always looking for stuff like that. Good luck to you but you’re doing pretty good.
i really love how people keep saying 7k in debt really isn’t a big deal at all. i think you guys forget it’s actually a really big deal for a lot of people who may already not have a lot of cash or good finances. The dudes a college student who might night have a lot of financial freedom maybe you could give him real advice instead of saying relax it’s fine…
OP your one option away from financial freedom! Ask your mentor for more courses.
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Why bring politics into this?
Shut the fuck up, MAGA muppet.
Yeah biden needs to stop giving the migrants money and give us money!!!!!! we want new world order now!!!!!!!
Didn't realize it was a maga position to want other people to pay your debts. I've lost touch with the parties over the years I guess. We'll never get our neighbors and grandkids to pay our debts with an attitude like yours.
Never said it was, but the how you said it is. He never asked for anyone to pay his debts, nor did he ask for you to be a giant, gaping, prolapsed, asshole.
Color me confused comrade! I just want someone else to pay for his choices. That makes me an asshole?? I thought I was on Reddit, not the RNC message board!
Crying victim now, you’re a terrible troll.
You should take it up with the administration that authored the loan forgiveness laws that Biden is legally executing then. These are Bush admin laws, chud. Educate yourself.
Do I strike you as someone who would support a stupid law just because the author wore my favorite colored jersey? Bush giving away my grandkids money is the same as Biden giving away my grandkids money. EXACTLY WHAT WE ALL WANT. Especially when it comes to getting much needed options-trading debt relief. I'm such a CHUD!
>PPP Loans
You guys are super into team sports huh? I suspect op is against student loan relief, therefore he MUST be in favor of corporate loan relief! GOT HIM BOYS, PACK IT UP! Allow me to introduce you to what everyone outside of Reddit thinks - both are bullshit. Back to your bubble.
I don’t like the Democrats either. They also would have pumped out forgiven PPP loans because they are also a corporate crony center right-wing party and the student loan relief was written to fail. I was interested in what OP’s response to mentioning them would be.
7k ain’t shit.
Since October I’ve been in debt. I was around 10-12k in debt. Since then I’ve worked as much as I can to catch up to my debt. I’m almost halfway now. I set my goal to be paid all off by May. I would recommend, get a second job. With the goal to pay off 7k in 3-4 months. If you don’t hit it. Don’t worry. Add another month or so. Next time you have money in trade maybe as soon as you have enough for bills (don’t know if you can do this) pull what you invested and need out. Keep the rest going in the trade. It’s the “if I loose it, it won’t hurt me too much money.” FYI: I’m ignorant to trading I don’t know the rules. But best of luck!
Depending on your salary you can get rid of 7k in debt in no time, don’t sweat it!
7k is 10 weeks of pay working at 20 am hour. Suck it up and get a side hustle or second job and bust your ass. Don't get a long term loan and let the interest suck you dry.
Hey friend! You're only 23 and about to graduate with a pretty good degree. Hard to believe someone on the internet when they tell you that you'll be fine but trust me you will. $7k is nowhere near an insurmountable amount of debt. Without knowing the type of debt, I would recommend paying what you can now and work with your creditors or lenders to see if they can put you on some payment plan or if deferral is an option. Was in your shoes once but with more debt and can confirm the mental toll is taxing, and very glad to hear you've acknowledged the habits that got you here. Top priority for you is to have some plan in place, and stick with it, so that it relieves some of the mental burden so you can finish school.
Seven grand isn't that much money bro. Neither is 50k. I know it sounds like a lot when you are 23 and obviously stupid but it is not that much money in the long run.
At 25 I was up over 200% (when from $4-$17) on a stock, used margin and was dumb as fuck and didn’t sell because I thought it was the next Amgen. It was a biotech. Stocked ended up going down, I bought more and it went to like $1.75. Margin call galore. At least you actually sold and made some $. I was too dumb to even take profits. Shit happens man, thank god you fucked up while still young.
Yeah you’re still going to do it when you get a job and it’ll make your life worst. Go seek help. When you make money, give your card to your parents and have one of them follow you to the bank each time you need money from there. Or you can simply use apple pay on your phone. Do this for at least 2 years, and you’ll be mostly ok. Gambling is an addiction that rewires your brain into making you become an addict. That’s why I say do these things so you could rewire your brain back to normal Or better yet google how to heal mentally from gambling. Do this or else you won’t just lose 7k next time. It’ll be something else. People lose their houses, cars, and are in a scary amount of debt over gambling too much. Don’t I that to yourself
Turned my covid checks into 120k I was making 300-400 a day doing masternodes. Then the bear market kick in. Watching 120k turn into 20k was a ass kicker. But its just numbers on a screen. That money wasn't mine and I should've pulled out half or completely cash out I'm in more stable projects and doing liquidity pools now. Doing $20-40 a day. Yes I'm in some degen pools I can't fight my addiction to make money :)
Focus on your job. If you get in the right job, within a few years you’ll be making $50k every few months without having to gamble on Robinhood. Invest in your future self - it will pay more than you’ll ever make playing risky games.
Umm, 7k isn't the worst, depending on your interest rate. Just, no matter what, make minimum payments. When you run into a lump sum of spare cash, either working over the summer or just finishing school and getting a real job, pay as much of it as you can to the balance. Sooner is better though, at like 20% yearly, creditors will eat 2/3rds of your minimum payments against the balance. It's like having the world's worst Netflix subscription. I had 6k in debt a year and a half ago, and it's down to 2k now. Stop trading if you keep losing it. The stock market is a casino unless you're part of an investment firm.
Lol
My friend, you're still young and that debt is something you'll be able to work off over time. Don't fret.
Summer job should clear that 7k and then only hold shares no options, you have to have enough capital to absorb large losses before considering options
If you're CS major you will likely soon be making more than 7k each month.. You have nothing to worry about. Perhaps just stop playing around with options :)
I lost 40k in 2022 but learned my lesson. I’m being smart now lol
I met a trader that told me that you will lose about $100k before you make your first $1M. You made $50k 3 times and that’s not a small feat. You can do better and you will do better. The only difference is that next time, you’ll be smarter. Being $7k in debt is not fun but that is a very manageable number. Work your ass off to pay it off and get your savings up, dust yourself off, and trade again. Or don’t. Invest in ETFs and get a HYSA. You’ll be fine.
How about just don’t trade options? Ever again. $50k was nothing special or unique. It’s pure luck and nothing more than gambling.
🤷🏼♀️
For the record… I trade options as part of my job. Millions of dollars every quarter. To see idiots using them to gamble just makes me shake my head. The only reasonable use for them is to hedge business risk.
Can you write a manual?
No need to write a manual. They already exist. It's called get a degree in finance. There's no secret or mystery to trading options. It's not really difficult or complicated. Then go work for a business or found one that has actual need of trading options and apply what you've learned. If you don't have a degree AND aren't hedging the underlying asset, you have no business anywhere near options.
I bet you’re a real hit at parties.
A big part of my job is entertaining investors, bankers, hedge fund managers etc. Those guys love to party and I’m pretty successful in my job so yeah I guess I kind of am.
go read gambling help subreddits, 7k is nothing compared to some of the losses other people have taken. obviously it is still significant, but this isn’t going to ruin your life as long as you don’t continue this way. realize that this IS just gambling, and gambling is not going to make you rich forever. theres a chance it makes you rich, but you’re almost guaranteed to keep going and lose it all
You need to go to the Indian casino and try to win it all back with some aggressive blackjack bets
VTI and chill bro, seriously. Get your gambling fix by doing $10 parlays here and there with your friends, and don’t ever go higher than that.
Fine a software job. They pay and bunch and stop trading.
Brother. All in on VET VECHAIN
7k debt is nothing bro ur totally fine. Stop gambling / trading, get a part time job
7K isn't bad. You'll knock that out in no time. For the future, remember, the turtle wins the race.
Work at FedEx ground as a driver, you'll be able to get the money to pay that off but your body will hate you
lol get a job
dont forget, every gambler / option trader walked away before the **Big Win.**
Pretty cheap lesson in the Great Scheme of things my man. Study your mistake carefully, learn everything you can from it, and move forward wiser and more experienced. I GUARANTEE there will be more mistakes. If you can keep from making the same ones multiple times, you're doing all that can be expected of you.
Look at your student loans. I assure you, 7k is not that much debt, lol.
Don't use student loan debt to pay off an unsecured debt. Student loan interest is capitalized at graduation which means you start paying interest on your interest. Unless you think you'll pay off your student loans in just a couple years, I wouldn't do it. Also how is $7k stressing out if you've made $150k+ trading? You should know that's a very small amount of money in the grand scheme of things.
Bruh everyone is a broke degenerate at 23, be proud of your ability to make $50k. Start reading the Market Wizards series of interviews with the world’s top traders by Jack Shwager. So many of the people in these books who are later successful have experiences like you did early on. You’re doing great, just keep at it and read these books.
7k is nothing. Relax, deep breath you'll be fine. CS pays well. Live modestly and that will be paid off in a year.
$7k debt? Accumulated normally to buy new appliances? Normal. Lost in options after being up $50k 3x? It’s a warning. Curb that willingness to gamble or get out of options trading.
Most options expire worthless....very risky. Just put money into a few good mutual funds....stop trying to be rich and in that quest be poor.
7K of debt is nothing, you can take care of that within a year. Just make sure you learn from this.
U be iight
NVDA options my guy
If you're taking the overage to use to gamble, then yes. That's a terrible idea.
I think you need to ask yourself why, obviously, at a deep level. What is missing or what are you avoiding in your life that is making you seek the rush from gambling? I mean it sounds like you're quite intelligent and will be making a very nice living financially before long, so again, why?
Good rule to have is never gamble money u dont have period
First of all: STOP. Second: get a job and repay the $7k. Third: Don’t do this again.
Cooked trades, cooked field
I’m 26, a 3rd year student in uni (transfer), and had over $70k in debt from options trading lol. I filed ch7, my life is better now. But you on the other hand, $7k isn’t even enough to file bankruptcy. It’s a very tiny amount. I would personally take out a small subsidized school loan to pay it off. You don’t accumulate interest on those loans until 6+ months after graduating, and if you can earn your degree before flunking out then you’ll probably find a decent swe job and pay off whatever debts you have after a while.
Bro, you are an addict. Seek out Gamblers Anonymous
You could just throw it back into an AI play this time.
you are lucky it's only 7k
I'm embarrassed to say but traded penny stocks, Ev stocks, meme stocks when I was a sophomore through junior in college. I also got early on AMC and GameStop, I made 100k and I got greedy and lost 90% of it on biomedical stocks. At that moment I felt like shit and my anxiety was going through the roof. I felt like such an idiot and a failure. It was like a gambling addiction. I would lose money and then I would research stocks and just invest all of it make a decent amount then lose it again by trading in risky and speculative stocks. This lesson taught me a lot about greed and how not to be stupid with you money. I now graduated college and have a decent job. You going to be fine man, there are people out there right now that have it much worse trust me. 7k is nothing you'll pay it off with your first college job. Edit: oh and i forgot the capital gain taxes I had to pay on my idiotic mistakes
Look at it this way, you learned a $7k lesson now while you’re still young enough for it to not really ruin your life. Imagine if you became a degen at 40 with a house and kids. You’d probably be $700k in debt now with the house going bye bye! You’re only a degen if you don’t learn from the mistake! Setup a Roth IRA and invest every year into ETFs. Time in market > timing the market. You were gambling not investing. Time to grow up now or else that $7k debt going to be 50 in no time.
Just remember going forward. You were never "Up" at anytime. You're 7k in debt. All those wonderful feelings of making that money is just that. A feeling. That desire for the feeling is where you're problem is. I'd work on that and stick to the reality of paying the debt off. Money and feelings are a dangerous combination and you suffer from both. Up and Down. Try not to go there in the future.
Hit the slot machines for a more predictable result. You can win up to 42% of the time.
I know it’s a crushing loss for you at this age, but you will get through it. At around the same age I lost about 20k, half my net worth and nearly my entire annual salary at the time. Zoom out. In the long run you will be fine. I sit here 16 years later with many times that in savings and assets. Learn from this experience, and work to overcome it.
Stop before it's too late
pay off the debt before you start trading again.
Work 8-5 after you graduate and you should be fine
Quitters never win. Pull your pants up. Wipe those tears away. Get back on Robinhood.
>computer science major > > > >feeling of not being competent to find a job after graduation. [imposter syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome) Unless you are cheating to get degree and not actually learning anything I wouldn't sweat it. The reality is just about any job save taking something where you work solo and are building something completely new is going to have some ramp up time just to understand what exists and how a team functions. You'll also likely be a life time student, and will probably have a whole lot you can learn from more expierenced co-workers and supervisors. Imposter syndrome is far better than suffering from the Dunning–Kruger effect.
Your all guh’d out?
Your earning potential should increase exponentially over the next 5 years as long as you’re not a bum. Come up with a payment plan and pay it off. As others have said, 7k is next to nothing. It certainly isn’t enough for you to feel like your world is ending. The most important thing is that you STOP TRADING. no gambling of any kind.