Patrick, I will elaborate. I day trade, in between job interviews, with what little I have left in my account. I have a lot of debt that I accumulated trying to get into the market when the bubble peaked. I never set stop losses and margin calls were my wake-up call. They cleaned me out. I was stupid to get into the market without researching charts more. I didn't know anything about TA back in 2000 and I paid the ultimate price for it.
I also have two other very stressful family problems that continue to weigh down on me. I day trade because I want to use the proceeds to take care of at least 75% of my debt. My debt level is 6 times what is in my account. A few times I thought about cashing out and paying off 45% of my debt and working off the rest, but now I've even managed to mess that up. I stupidly didn't put any stop losses on my NVDA purchase in July and lost 50% of my account value. That's right around the time I joined IHUB. Now you have an idea why my posts sounded so annoying. I continue to pay my minimum payments with my unemployment checks, which just ran out. I have enough savings to pay them through December, but I have to find a job soon.
I have also been going to school full time for the last two years. I just received my second associate’s degree. This one is in Computer Information Systems/PC support. I'm still green in that area and I have to take my A+ certification test. Therefore, I'm continuing to keep my job search geared towards Administrative or Executive Assistant, which is what my forte. I have to make a certain salary to fit my budget, but that salary range is hard to come by in this worsening economy. I'm not worried though. If I don't find something by December, I'll just lower my salary request.
I know I probably shouldn't have revealed so much on a public forum, but I don't care. I’m not ashamed of it. My friends and family know and I can't be the only one in financial trouble. I must say that it took quite some time for me to tell my family, though. I guess I wouldn't mind hearing advice from strangers. If I get insulted for it then I'll just take IHUB off of my favorites list. Live and learn.
I will say one thing before anybody suggests. I will never consider bankruptcy protection. I also will not do a debt consolidation, because I heard that it doesn't look as good on my credit as not having it. I was told it's kind of like saying I needed help getting out of trouble. I'm not going to do that. When I do finally get out of debt I'll combine my past debt amount with all of the interest and fees that I paid over the years. I'd like to know how much the stock market bubble actually cost me.
I apologize for posting personal information on this post. It is not my intention to interrupt or clutter this board.
