First, I sense some pretty strong antagonism which I don't particularly appreciate. I am trying to offer some serious ways that people can build wealth for early retirement. Earning 4-6% a year won't even beat inflation soon. However, if you want a serious analysis regarding Day Trading don't take my word for it and read this article I linked below as it very clearly explains in a serious scientific article the realities of Day Trading.
http://www.psychologieenbeleggen.nl/pdfs/profitabilityofdaytraders.pdf
It is very true that roughly 80% fail but 5%, and I count us among them, make substantial profits. I do not put this out there to ruin people or to suggest any get rich quick schemes. I am relating what my wife and I have experienced and if done sensibly can be better than actually working for a living. This site is after all, about retiring early, which if you haven't figured it out yet, isn't free. Take it or leave it and do your home work if you are interested. Greed and Fear are powerful forces and you have to have sufficient experience to get past that. Once you do you can earn money just like the big boys do. We were faced with being in our 50's and both of us after bad divorces pooled our efforts and invested wisely. We took up Day Trading as a method to increase our wealth and overall it has been more successful than we had dreamed. However, there were bumps in the road and the second year was very bad which is typical. It takes time to learn to avoid the pitfalls of emotion. Day Trading is a lot of psychology and an ability to shrug off losses and to not try to wring out that last few pennies of profit. It is more a statistical game of making a lot of trades with relatively small profits. Sometime (roughly 40% of the time) you lose. If you look at the algorithmic traders (totally robotic) they only profit on 1% of trades or less. But, if you can do 10 trades at 0.1% profit it is 1%, if you do that 10 times it is 10% (100 trades) and they do millions of trades a day often microseconds apart. That is what is driving the market today and you have to compete with that. However, if you have a level 1 accountyou can see what is happening real time and by who and jump in. But you have to win more than half of the time and that isn't easy. We also have our IRA accounts which for the most part are buy and hold and also do far better than the mutual funds typically do. But, again, this is a choice we made. Someone is making a lot of profit on people's money so why can't it be you instead of fund managers? Even for buy and hold long term investing this makes better sense to me.
As for being a foreign poster, perhaps those of you who are mired into the thinking that the US is the best place on Earth might actually consider looking elsewhere. I served my country for 40 years with 28 in the Army and another 12 as a civil servant. For many reasons we left the US and haven't regretted it once. If you are serious about early retirement then I suggest that you consider living outside the US as one way to cut down your expenses, while significantly improving your standard of living (just food alone is enough of a reason). We chose Hungary as it is a Westernized country, a member of the EU and NATO, and has a very low cost of living compared to most of Europe and about 1/2 of that in the US. The food is entirely organic (pesticides are very limited and no GMO crops are permitted in the EU) and there is little to no pollution. People's words are binding and friendships are forever.
Interestingly, even though we prepared heavily for retirement (based on the 50 times calculations) and have made a lot investing in both real estate and on the market we don't actually need it. Our respective pensions (my Army of $3200 a month, my civil service of $1100 a month, and her Russian retirement of $600 a month) are more than we can spend. So, using all the standard planning methods for retirement we prepared to have a lot of money for our retirement only to find it was actually unnecessary. We can actually afford to Day Trade and to lose it all. Same with our remaining 2 houses in the US. We haven't even gotten close to using our Social Security (3 more years) which will add another $3k a month. So, for us living overseas made the reality of living in paradise possible. We have a paid off home with a huge garden and swimming pool in a destination resort on the largest lake in Europe. I have a sail boat and we live near a 40 mile wide expanse of National Park land which I go mountain biking in every day. We are 2 hours from the best skiing in the world. We have no property or death taxes and everything (except utilities and gasoline) is less expensive than in the US. We could't possibly live this well in the US on the same income. Plus we are living in Europe and in the exact center of Europe as well. Everything is in driving distance. If not there are many cheap flights for example Vienna (or Budapest) to Barcelona (or London, or Copenhagen, or Athens, etc.) is $40 Euros. So, for Americans this is a once in a lifetime vacation and for us it is a day to day reality. If we want to go to one of the top 5 symphonies or operas in the world it is 3 hours away and a hotel room for the night is only 90 euros. So, please don't diss why a foreign poster might be posting. I am an American and believe my 40 years of service should buy me some credibility.
As for taxes, I'll just say the IRS has a lot of very complicated rules and the interpretation is very subject to who is reading them and then who is reviewing them. We meet all the criteria for overseas earned income so it hasn't been a problem and yes, we have been audited by the IRS (actually every year). We have over 400 pages of stock trades each year so it is always interesting to the IRS. Not to mention business deductions, rental incomes, etc. So far, we have broken no laws even though those are a morass and we have a professional accounting firm in Baltimore managing the tax situation. I do not claim to be an expert on taxes nor do I want to be. Suffice it to say the US has the most complicated taxes in the world and we are probably among the most complicated returns they ever see. Top that out with all the new requirements such as the HIRE Act and it really is complicated. I wish it weren't so but that is the way it is.
Anyway, I will not post any more on this website as clearly it isn't appreciated. Go your own way and make your own decisions which is the best any of us can do. I am only presenting what worked for us. I will be blogging now as the Expat with an Attitude. I won't link to it as I doubt that is allowed. I sincerely wish the best of luck to all of you and that you enjoy your retirement as well as we do.
