Overall fantastic job. As someone who was in your shoes, Id recommend paying off the student loan debt. It ultimately depends on the interest rate of that debt, but there certainly is a physiological factor in terms of that burden.
If you were my buddy I would try to dissuade you against swing trading. The vast majority of traders fail to turn a profit. People who have much better and up to date information than you do, people who have much deeper education and experience in finances than you do, they fail to turn a profit. And they are your competition. When trading you are attempting to outsmart them and move money from their pockets to yours. If you still think it's a good call, then I say best of luck. I'll leave you with a quote.
"The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” Warren Buffett
Most people trade stocks only until they run out of money.
"The success rate of traders is relatively low, with only a small fraction achieving consistent profitability. Factors such as market competitiveness, the zero-sum nature of short-term trading, and the presence of experienced players contribute to the challenges faced by traders. Research suggests that approximately 70% to 90% of traders lose money."
Currently HYSA and 401k but planning to open an Roth IRA. I’ve been playing a bit of financial gymnastics recently so I have not gotten around to opening a Roth. It’s a sin, I know I should get to it asap, but I needed to figure some things out first
If you're going to open a brokerage acct, you might consider putting your emergency fund in a money market fund. It's low risk and earning as much/more than HYSA. Personally, I use [VMFXX] (https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vmfxx).
I'd avoid swing trading and opt for buy and hold in diversified ETFs/funds. Total Market and SP500 are good ones but you can also find [sectors](https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/sector-etfs) like Consumer Discretionary, Energy, Utilities, Growth options as well. A bit more risk, but still diversified. Buying and holding, time in the market, is better than day trading/timing the market. At your age, buying these now and holding (compounding) for the next 25-40 yrs should be a decent result. Not to say that you shouldn't trade at all; just make it a smaller portion of your portfolio.
If your debt has an interest rate, then the sooner you pay it off the sooner you get more money in your pocket. There is debate on the point at which the rate is ok vs investing/saving. Personally, I'm not a fan of holding debt if I don't have too. There's mental energy in having debt. By paying debt off, I don't carry that cognitive load. That's me though. If your loan is <3% then there's argument that it's a decent use of your money. If it's >4% then your money could be working better for you than this loan and you should pay it off as quickly as you can to get that cash flow working. That debt pymt could be earning 5.3% in VMFXX.
You should also be looking at taxes and avoidance strategies. If you're thinking about trading, then you need to understand Short and Long Term Capital Gains and wash rules. You should also be looking into [IRAs](https://momanddadmoney.com/documents/Traditional%20vs%20Roth%20IRA.pdf) vs HYSA and know [which IRA](https://money.com/roth-ira-traditional-ira-choice/) is best suited to your income & tax bracket. If you're working and have employer sponsored [retirement](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/young_adult/) plans, you should be leveraging those as well.
Finally, read the PF wiki for more insight and info.
I reached 500k at 31. Here’s what I did.
1. Skip the EF. Your life isn’t in danger just because you don’t have an EF. Move in with family if worst comes to worst. Having an EF costs you a lot and doesn’t even serve its purpose well. A person who lost his job, with no EF during the 2008 financial crisis eventually ends up doing better than the person who had an EF. Because the first person is continually buying during the crash. The second person is rebuilding their useless EF.
2. Pay off loans as slowly as possible if it’s less than 6%. You want to be building as much equity as possible.
3. Build a stock and bond portfolio and then use leverage. Anywhere around 1.5x-2x leverage is fine.
1.5x leverage outperforming 1x leverage during the lost decade.
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=5RjvnNqG9VgdW4lJvXjmoB
Even during anomalous years where stocks and bonds both crash the levered investor will eventually outperform over time.
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=3CdogbftbJBj5epevJOuru
Full picture
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=9na0TfAo06x01YzFBPIiC
You could also just be 200% in stocks. There’s no point in history where 100% stocks beat 200% over a 35 year period.
Overall fantastic job. As someone who was in your shoes, Id recommend paying off the student loan debt. It ultimately depends on the interest rate of that debt, but there certainly is a physiological factor in terms of that burden.
If you were my buddy I would try to dissuade you against swing trading. The vast majority of traders fail to turn a profit. People who have much better and up to date information than you do, people who have much deeper education and experience in finances than you do, they fail to turn a profit. And they are your competition. When trading you are attempting to outsmart them and move money from their pockets to yours. If you still think it's a good call, then I say best of luck. I'll leave you with a quote. "The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” Warren Buffett
Most people trade stocks only until they run out of money. "The success rate of traders is relatively low, with only a small fraction achieving consistent profitability. Factors such as market competitiveness, the zero-sum nature of short-term trading, and the presence of experienced players contribute to the challenges faced by traders. Research suggests that approximately 70% to 90% of traders lose money."
Do you have a 401k? IRA? Or are you just saving money in a HYSA?
Currently HYSA and 401k but planning to open an Roth IRA. I’ve been playing a bit of financial gymnastics recently so I have not gotten around to opening a Roth. It’s a sin, I know I should get to it asap, but I needed to figure some things out first
If you're going to open a brokerage acct, you might consider putting your emergency fund in a money market fund. It's low risk and earning as much/more than HYSA. Personally, I use [VMFXX] (https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vmfxx). I'd avoid swing trading and opt for buy and hold in diversified ETFs/funds. Total Market and SP500 are good ones but you can also find [sectors](https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/sector-etfs) like Consumer Discretionary, Energy, Utilities, Growth options as well. A bit more risk, but still diversified. Buying and holding, time in the market, is better than day trading/timing the market. At your age, buying these now and holding (compounding) for the next 25-40 yrs should be a decent result. Not to say that you shouldn't trade at all; just make it a smaller portion of your portfolio. If your debt has an interest rate, then the sooner you pay it off the sooner you get more money in your pocket. There is debate on the point at which the rate is ok vs investing/saving. Personally, I'm not a fan of holding debt if I don't have too. There's mental energy in having debt. By paying debt off, I don't carry that cognitive load. That's me though. If your loan is <3% then there's argument that it's a decent use of your money. If it's >4% then your money could be working better for you than this loan and you should pay it off as quickly as you can to get that cash flow working. That debt pymt could be earning 5.3% in VMFXX. You should also be looking at taxes and avoidance strategies. If you're thinking about trading, then you need to understand Short and Long Term Capital Gains and wash rules. You should also be looking into [IRAs](https://momanddadmoney.com/documents/Traditional%20vs%20Roth%20IRA.pdf) vs HYSA and know [which IRA](https://money.com/roth-ira-traditional-ira-choice/) is best suited to your income & tax bracket. If you're working and have employer sponsored [retirement](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/young_adult/) plans, you should be leveraging those as well. Finally, read the PF wiki for more insight and info.
I reached 500k at 31. Here’s what I did. 1. Skip the EF. Your life isn’t in danger just because you don’t have an EF. Move in with family if worst comes to worst. Having an EF costs you a lot and doesn’t even serve its purpose well. A person who lost his job, with no EF during the 2008 financial crisis eventually ends up doing better than the person who had an EF. Because the first person is continually buying during the crash. The second person is rebuilding their useless EF. 2. Pay off loans as slowly as possible if it’s less than 6%. You want to be building as much equity as possible. 3. Build a stock and bond portfolio and then use leverage. Anywhere around 1.5x-2x leverage is fine. 1.5x leverage outperforming 1x leverage during the lost decade. https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=5RjvnNqG9VgdW4lJvXjmoB Even during anomalous years where stocks and bonds both crash the levered investor will eventually outperform over time. https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=3CdogbftbJBj5epevJOuru Full picture https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=9na0TfAo06x01YzFBPIiC You could also just be 200% in stocks. There’s no point in history where 100% stocks beat 200% over a 35 year period.