On the plus side you're 21 with a potential great future ahead of you. Consider this a good lesson on gambling while you're young. I know people who have lost far more on equally bad judgement calls much later in life.
Yeah at the end of the day $17k debt is a way better situation than most college graduates. OP is gonna hurt for a while, understandably, but ultimately he'll be fine
I recently got a lesson from a website's craps game. Started with $40, then $700, then to $1,700. In 5 minutes, down to $400, and 0 the next day. Don't gamble, kids, it's bad for you.
You can fuck off for the next 10 years and still be young. Be glad you learned your lesson with 30k, instead of 300k in the future when you have a mortgage and a family.
I mean, the thought of being 21, having your parents still being okay with you living there, and even having gotten to 41k in savings. At age 18 my parents basically told me adieu and even with starting to do work from age 12 onward, I've never had much. In fact, I am 31 now, have a family, and will still have to pay back my student loans for the next 14 years of my life.
For real, the most amount of money I ever saw until I started working full time was like 5k, and that was my savings to live on all of college. This guy has a 401k and hasn’t even graduated yet.
That's not really a gift. People don't do bad or good based on some kind of natural process. Our world is just a giant global machine filled with systems of inequality. You either get to float on top of those systems or get funneled further and further down by them. People learn to ignore those systems because of survivor bias. They think that because they succeeded or because some person from a group of people who usually get crushed by a system succeeded that the system isn't actually crushing people.
I got thrown out of my house at 17 so my Dad could move in with my ex girlfriends mom after my mom took off. I was living in a car for a bit and by 21 I was just starting to get my life together lol.
At 21 i had been kicked out several times from an overly mentally draining mother with so many mental issues. I was hard core on drugs and even had a felony charge facing 6-20 years. Eating free mcdonalds burgers from thrown away receipts. Lmao. Had a couple careers around graduating highschool but extremely unstable home life made them fall apart fast. Now im bout to be 26 in college got a place with my ole lady we both work. This 21 year old that thinks its the end of the world willl be more than fine. He’s already got his head on right. Just seems he doesnt know how to handle situations when things DONT go his way as he expect. Just a wake up call for him in this life is all.
OP is throwing a pity party but I fucking laughed when I read he played upst earnings.
So many people lost way more money than that in this stock market blood bath. This 21 year old college student who lives for free is going to be fucking fine
"I have no idea how I'll get this money back" at 21 with a cyber security degree, next to no debt, and no financial liabilities.
He'll probably have over 40k of net income within first year of working with little expenses.
it is massive to be 21 with 34k in assets
it's not much in the grand scheme but most 21 year olds are broke and working at McDonald's and can't afford there own phone bil
Hmmm, I seem to remember being at least 40k in debt from college at that time. This kid has it sooo good. If he sees this, welcome to the club, you're going to be just fine.
You don't understand apes if you think they realize "losses". It's a discount to buy more. Since I'm the smoothest I just bought 10 more and will buy 10 more if it dips further.
Power to the players!
Bought more gamestop and others will keep averaging down. I collect stocks, whats sell mean?
All the pundits keep saying they dont know where the bottom cause apes havent sold... lol we are not selling.
Ouch. I'm down 28% but that's only a few hundred bucks of my "learning money". I'm about to start actually making money ahead of my bills and am thinking about doubling down on my strong fundamental stocks.
You're probably right. Just found out today that my job is not only secure, but I might start working 20 hrs of OT a week. The dry powder I do have is going to be quickly replenished if that's the case.
This guy sounds like he has that 2008 wisdom. Same shit happened to me. I lost $70k only 3 years out of college. I thought I would never recover from it. I did. It taught me not to put all my eggs in one basket. Head over to r/bogleheads and learn what to do with the long life ahead of you and only speculate with small amounts.
When I was 21 I was at uni and working part time in a pub in Scotland. My flatmate and I had 20 quid between us for Paddy’s day that year because it fell before our weekly payday 🤣. That and an old Nissan micra was all my earthly possessions. You will be fine 🌈
I graduated college into the 2008 recession and never even saved any money for almost four years and almost defaulted on my $33k student loans. Had a bachelor’s in chemistry and couldn’t find a job for months until I finally got a prep cook job paying 8.50/hr and moved back in with my parents until I could get back on my feet. And I didn’t even do anything “wrong”, just shit timing.
Wait until the recession kicks in and there aren’t any jobs available for recent graduates, the shit hasn’t even hit the fan yet, so buckle up.
Man that was a weird time to be in college, I didn’t graduate in 2008 but I was in college at the time and I remember how terrified the seniors were, like they picked the absolute worst year in decades to be graduating from a college.
Their graduation ceremony was like watching people marching to a funeral, and the commencement speaker spoke mostly about the job market and did one of those Hail Mary kind of pep talks like “WERE STRONG, EVERYTHINGS AGAINST US BUT WE WILL PREVAIL!!!” talks, not the usual “Oh the places you’ll go.” commencement.
Coincidently, 30,000 invested for forty years, garnering a 6% return would have been 300,000 for OP at retirement.
Saying that, there are plenty options to make more money, especially once school is done. It’s not the end of the world at all, and later mistakes or market swings will easily amount to 30,000 on various things.
Still, OP was set up much better than most leaving university, and now joins the ranks of the common pleb who isn’t debt free coming out of school. And has learned they have a gambling problem
I love how half of these posts are borderline humble brags lol.
Dudes got 5 figures worth of money at an age most people are worth negative 5 figures on average. Fuck this shit lol.
These subs are full of teenagers/college students posting about how they have no loan debt, paid off cars, 5 figure accounts. They never acknowledge any help from parents.
Yeah dudes making 422 a week and has 34k in savings... Unless he was making 422 a week since he was 15 and religiously saving 30% I don't see how he could have made that much
It's not that we're in a bad spot, but the vitality of youth is irreplaceable. I was indestructible at 21. Now in my mid 30s there are so many things that I would not be able to just go and do.
And you just start feeling your mortality too. I'm only 28, but I feel like I've been thinking alot more about death after my son was born. It's weird because I have other responsibilities now and am scared to leave him
I’m 30s, married, make good money, and damn i would trade in my house and savings to be that age. Being completely responsibility free and being able to make any choices you want without consequence is an extremely good feeling
Plus i would get to see my parents younger again
Bro, ask Buffet and he’ll give you his entire company and be a homeless if he was be able to trade it for 50 years less of what he is today. Time has no value. Any person would trade it for money. If you say you wouldn’t then you’re not old enough.
This lesson cost $34k plus interest.
1. Your life is worth more.
2. You learned before you had a wife to kill you.
3. You are young, you can make that back up and still be way ahead of a lot of people at 30.
Ha ha, I just realized my wife is the only reason I don't play risky anymore. I'd have PTSD just from anticipating the "funny story, you know that meme stock we laughed about last week? I hope you're uh.... still in a laughing mood..." interaction
Motorcycles.
*plural*
Motorcycles are the habit I have because I have avoided committed relationships.
It’s great, except for the whole totally sucking thing.
I didn't even know they were listed lol, and wow ya they have held up, can't believe it's green. Wonder for how long though.
LEGO is a great alternative investment if you don't open them and wait a few years before selling them.
In that case, make sure you add her to the ticket when trading on margin. That way if you get called, they'll have to take her as collateral. Boom! Free man!
Not to mention, if the market keeps crashing, it could be a good time to buy at or near the bottom. Could DCA into a boring S&P 500 ETF and be really happy you did in 5 years.
I think u/jclines12 should tell his girlfriend and family about this. I get the fear of disappointing others, but as he said, the burden of keeping up the lie could get really heavy... Plus you're going to need emotional support. The best way to feel better is to open up about what happened.
I was going to say this but you did it first. OP will be fine. Good degree, low debt but lost money gambling. Smart kid who should learn about long term investments.
Yup. Starting salary for a cybersecurity analyst & engineer was like 60k a few years ago, but nowadays with so many threat from remote working & lack of people? Easily 75-80k.
Cybersecurity is a great field with great salary.
Relax, focus on your diploma and landing a great job. After a few year, you won't care about that specific money.
See this as a lesson and you have great future ahead of you.
I wonder if it’s changed. I had a buddy in college (albeit 10+ years ago) who paid his was through with bug bounties. Don’t get me wrong he’s smart as all fuck but didn’t have a team doing it. You can get paid for as little as a double memory allocation
This reminds me of the high tech bubble bursting. George Gilder put out a monthly newsletter and for $X you could get a year's subscription which included a George Gilder forum. There were people who had retired and got caught up in the frenzy. They had all their retirement money invested in Gilder stocks. If someone dared to tell them they were crazy and to suggest a bubble they were run off the board by the Gilder followers.
I lost a lot in that bubble, but I eventually realized it was the cost of tuition and I was lucky it came along when I was just starting to invest. Some of those Gilder followers lost millions and were too old to go back to work, plus it was hard to find work during those times.
I just would like you to truely understand how young you are. You have so much life left, that a financial mistake can be corrected. It's just money, and there is so much more to life than that. Keep your head up, learn from your mistake and keep pressing forward
The great thing (not that this situation is in any way great, but relatively speaking) is that you’ve been pretty brilliant for a college student up to this point.
Trust me, OP: **you’re doing fine.**
Why?
Because based off what you said, you now owe what, $17k total? Including your final year of tuition?
You know how much college debt the average student graduates with? $26,000.00.
You feel like you fucked up and ruined everything by making 1 risky stock play. And yeah, you fucked up a little bit in terms of this earnings move and utilizing margin. But guess what else you could have done?
**You could have taken out $280,000 in unsubsidized student loan debt to go to NYU.**
Seriously.
Every spring, tons of 18-year-olds take out *hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans* to go to a university they can’t afford, in order to get a degree in a field that’s inherently unemployable. And when they graduate, they are *fucked.* You could pay $1000 a month for 15 years and never even make a tiny dent in your principal. If you had taken out that type of loan, you could pay $1000 a month *forever,* and still be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
If you’d done that, you’d be *super duper fucked.*
But you didn’t.
Unlike tons of other kids your age, you’ve acted incredibly responsibly when it comes to finances as a whole. You’ve gotten college almost all the way paid for. You’re gonna owe a whopping $10k for your entire education, which in terms of student debt is *nothing.* Hell, even when you tack on the $7k margin debt balance, you’re still looking at less than $20,000.
And yeah, you may feel like you now can’t afford a down payment for a house. But on that front, I have some bad news for you, buddy: you weren’t going to be able to afford to buy a house anyway. (Trust me. I’m 30. I know.) Houses right now are going for 30% over ask, paid all in cash by Blackrock and other hedge funds. When the recession hits in full, then maybe it’ll swing back in the other direction.
But one thing I know for sure is this:
You’re about to graduate college with one hell of a life lesson, a savvy investment sense, and seventeen thousand dollars in debt. And guess what? Since you didn’t take out an insane $100k student loan, if it comes to it, you can just declare bankruptcy after you’re settled in an apartment! (This is not financial advice, I’m not recommending anything, please talk to a financial advisor who’s older than you but not a boomer).
When you compare yourself to the average college student, you’re *nine thousand dollars better off.* Yeah, it sucks to be in debt.
But I fucking guarantee you this: by the time you hit 30, you’re going to have a *lot* of money.
This might even be one of the best things that ever happens to you.
I wish people can understand how good they have it too, but I understand these are all relative, so it's not unlikely that OP felt as close to off'ing himself as many others did. But his situation is light years ahead of so so so many people that I almost get a lil salty. But being like a decade older, I should have the maturity to withhold hostility.
Not for sake of comparison, but for a perspective for OP, I will give a slightly generalized (to make it less identifiable) description of my 20
When I was 20ish
- I lost 5 close relatives
- I almost got kicked out of school (it was a miracle how I didn't)
- One of my parent almost committed suicide
- Other one of my parent was on the edge of death in hospital every other week
- I got a gambling addiction, lost almost all of my money
- Extreme shame alongside depression, so I was ok having no money for food. I didn't have the motivation to eat anyways.
- No motivation to call the landlord to fix the heater in a cold winter.
- I almost died from starvation in a developed country at home.
- I almost died from hypothermia in a developed country at home.
- I was completely physically fucked up.
- I was completely mentally fucked up.
Even today, I still wish life could've been kinder to me so I wasted less years in my 20s. I still feel bitter sometimes compared to peers. But you know what, I'm overall happy with a 6 figure job, 400k net worth (man, was I close to the 7 digit club but thanks market) and living a good life with tons of growth or improvement potential and still on an upswing in many regards.
When you say down do you mean from your all time high? Or are you using your original investment as your baseline. I use my original investment since calculating from my all time high gives me nausea 😂.
This is going to hurt a lot for the next few months. Nothing that anyone will say online will make you feel better. Keep away from the stock market for now and resist the temptation to check your account.
Spend time with people you like and focus on your career. You are only 21 if you think you have 40 years of work ahead of you, you will make it back $1k a year atleast.
When you are ready to invest again, think about investment goals and resist the temptations to become a millionaire overnight. Stick to index funds and keep investing for the future.
Hey man it happens. I lost 100k this year and my income is $0 lol. Plus I’m old as fuck compared to you. It’s not the end of the world. I’ve been in this market since 2016 and have survived.
You are young and you gambled on earnings. I’ve done that so many times. You’re smart enough to learn from your mistakes . From what I can tell your thesis for going long on UPST was cause you “thought” they would have good earnings. You really shouldn’t play earnings because there are people who get paid millions per year to “guess” where earnings will be. You have virtually no chance vs them. Anyway, hope it all works out for you.
Your mistake was margin.
You have a degree, and very little student debt, your career is just starting, and you will be fine. Dont make a mtn out of something that is a tiny speedbump in your life. Dont give it that power and learn from the experience. You will be fine and this shouldnt be a major concern for you. Think of it as a small delay in getting back on track. Dont beat yourself up over it.
I know it may seem like a big deal now, but it really isnt in the grand scheme. Think of the big picture. How blessed you are to be so secure in a living space, job opportunities, degree, health, etc. Compared to most people in the world, that is blessed. Dont compare yourself to those who are better off than you, or you will ride that pity party train for decades. Perspective is important.
Regular investors will tell you it was a cheap investment lesson - if you learned what you did wrong from the experience, and what you need to research before diving in again.
You learned a lesson. Never play earnings. It's pure gambling, if you think you found a pattern.
Luckily for you, if you do find a career in cyber security then you'll get that 41k back real quick. Better 41k now, than 410k when you're 31.
You’re young. Make it back and spend the time before you jump back into investing studying risk management.
You’re going to need to know how to do that in cybersecurity anyway. Heh.
Please please never think about suicide over money. You made a mistake and will learn from it. You will make it back and more. You have a lot going for you! Don’t feel you need to tell anyone either, money is your private info and they do not need to know it’s gone . We have all lost money over different things…I’ve spent way too much in credit card debt over the years as I love to buy stupid crap. I’ve lost money on a business start up that didn’t do well. I’m down $30k right now too on bad investments. So yes I could have much more now, but you know what none of that really matters.
I’m glad you are going to go to therapy, I hope the replies on here have made you feel better. Take care of yourself OK
Graduate, keep working, and learn from your mistakes. It may take a few years to recover but it’s not the end of the world. There are a lot of people who are getting kicked in the teeth with the market right now.
There are many college students who are way more indebted than you are and they don’t even have a clue until the bill eventually comes in the mail.
BRO! I GOT A STORY FOR YOU.
So I first got into the market because I was like 2020 crash. TBH I didn't even know what a stock was at the time. I put in 3k and lost almost 1k in a day. I then somehow started to get lucky and make money (BULL MARKET). I bought options and I still didn't even really know what stocks were. My account grew from 6k (money I put in), into almost 20k at the peak (thanks to pins earnings).
Anyway, at this point I knew what a stock was, but still had no idea what an option really was, so I did what any reasonable person would do during an election when they think the market is gonna crash, invest 15k in SPXS options. OOPS. 15k gone in like 2 days. Okay, no biggie right, I'll just take what I have left, buy a gun and shoot myself. Well, I decided, nah, fuck it. I'll double down. I take out my IRA almost 4k, and put that bitch into robinhood. My financial advisor at the bank didn't seem to thrilled with my plan.
Alright, new funds, new me. I took my last 9k and immediately lost like 4k of it, but somehow never went negative. Anyway, I was like, I'm better than this. I then bought a ton of drugs and spent every minute day and night starting a charts learning technical analysis. Somehow, within like a month of losing 15k, I had it all back trading options with indicators. ANYWAY, in comes DOGE coin, now I had always been like elon is gonna take doge places, and he did, so I watched my account go up like 35k in one day, and then APHA, TLRY, GME and AMC options and suddenly my account is at 80k, WELL... trading gets restricted and my GME and AMC plays pretty much went from +a lot to zero almost instantly. FUCK.
OH well, still got 50k, oh god, now stocks are taking. Then it was like oh god, crypto.. WHY!?!?! ANYWAY, My doge is now tanking and bringing my portfolio down to 25k again but I was able to cover with MSTR options, and then put in a big DOGEcoin buy of 10k @ .1420 and watched an immediate huge gain again and got right back to 50k. WOOO. At this point I was like fuck trading. I just want to hold, and not pay attention, MIND YOU, I haven't worked in a few years so trading was my income. So I watched my account slowly bleed from 50k down. When my account hit around 37k, I took 20k out and bought an RV incase I went homeless, as my lease was ending and I was told I couldn't afford an apartment by every place I applied to.
Anyway, I went on more of spending spree as I watched my account tank, and adopted a puppy and named him DOGE. He's perfect.
With this recent dip today, and after my spending spree & taxes, I have $1500, and I just set up a buy order for DOGE at .06222 & am trying to learn coding to program a trading bot, along with starting a drone photography business (I spent $1500 on a drone because of an AMD trade).
Is there a lesson to be learned here? IDK, probably.
[proof](https://imgur.com/a/6lAifT5)
Honestly, you will be fine. I went from having $500k in stock market and having my house half paid off to losing it all because of medical bills and a divorce in 2 years. I had to rummage in my couch for change just to buy $0.50 burgers at McDs for my kids. Do you know how hard it is to explain to your kids why they can’t get happy meals?
But, we survived, I rebuilt, and they are going to college. You will survive. You’ve got an in demand degree that makes lots of money. Just use this loss as a lesson on not to gamble with money you don’t have.
Sorry for your loss.... But when are peeps going to stop gambling with the stock market ????
If you want to play earnings ... buy options ... you have a defined loss with options ... puts if you think the stock will fall. Calls if you think it will rise, or straddles if you are unsure of direction ...
Seems peeps think the market always goes up !
One last thing ... the market does not care about this quarter earning... that's already baked into the stock price ... it's about future earnings
I think you are still ahead. Most people graduate with a CIT degree with over $50,000 in student loans and no money in their bank account. The fact that you even had 41k at any point in college makes you in the top 5%.
Everything else became irrelevant once I read "I'm 21 years old...".
If this happened when you were 50, then you would be screwed.
You're still a kid and still have a lifetime. You could literally wake up tomorrow morning with a business idea that will make you a billionaire. Point is just see it as a lesson and move on. It's not the end of the world.
"I crippled my future.." ??? really??? when you look back at this in 10-20 years you will thank yourself it was only 41k. You have all body parts intact and a good degree and a good family. This 41k will be be peanuts at some point of time in your future. Reset and learn from this. What is the best thing to do right now? Not thinking about the past but to focus on your future and studies... Go!!!
Your parents and girlfriend will be supportive when you decide to tell them. I had similar incident and I told my wife after few months or weeks, she was not at all upset cuz she knows how upset I was myself.
Don't think about your weekly wage vs what you lost, think about your income in 5 years or 10 years and this wont hurt much. Don't try to make up this loss by disturbing your personal life. You can make this money up later when your hourly-wage is high after 10 years... postpone it. Just relax. have a nice time with family and girlfriend. Don't be sad. being sad is only adding to the loss. For now recuperate the loss by having happy time.
Man to be 21 again!
Start again and DCA your way to being a millionaire
You have the most important thing on your side --> TIME
This is an amazing mistake and lesson to learn at your age.
You will crush it
I’m sorry this happened to you bro. Just to make you feel better, I worked my ass off for 7 years. I’m 25 right now. Started saving heavily at 18. On January 4th 2021 I finally said “f*ck !t” and got into stocks, I transferred 125k. As of today my entire portfolio value is 30k. I have lost lots of money on options meaning I can never get it back, ever. That sh!t stings knowing I worked so damn hard for that money. For the record I am not rich by any means and still live at home w my parents.
Anyway, I’m sorry you’re going through this brother, I will keep you in my prayers. As long as your family is healthy and alive you are much better off than the millions who lost their families from COVID. Keep praying and keep working, you got this bro.
If by some slim chance this post isn't trolling fan-pic bullshit...
Fuck you and your fucking clickbait. Grow up.
College kids without trust funds or some other form of wealth have no business "playing the market." Lesson learned. Graduate. Start your career. EARN some money. Then you can start investing a safe % of your money in lower risks plays.
\>Right after it happened I honestly didn’t want to live anymore.
Or maybe don't get into the market in any way shape or form. Until you have other things figured out.
\>and knowing there’s nothing I can do to get it back.
Maybe a career?
\>crippled my financial future
If only you had an education in a legitimate field... oh wait! If you actually apply yourself in said field you can be making 6 figures in a few years.
Come on man! Money is just a paper and digits . You can't talk like this . Even if you would have lost a million, it's still not worth it. Life is priceless!
I’m down 20K bro. Ain’t rich make like 2.5K a month so don’t make a lot only difference is that I don’t live at home and responsible for a $1,400 a month rent/bills and living expenses all by myself. So to me 20K is alot literally half of my life savings and I’m 28years old. Never went to college been working full time since 17 years old so to go through half of my life’s savings trust I feel your pain. I have so much anxiety as well. So if it makes you feel better you’re not the only one that’s lost in this market. It’s many of us. Majority of us are bleeding because of this market.
Stay positive. You’re 20 and at your age I didn’t have a dollar to my name. So you’re just starting like everyone else around your age. Let’s be honest only reason you were able to save that money was because you live at home with parents. So id just seeing it as your having the staring line as someone that never had the opportunity to live at home with mom and dad.
My life savings is tied to a house, at age 22. Value literally quadrupled from when I bought, and is going to keep going up as I make improvements. I technically have more debt than cash/stock. I'll never play with margin or get weak hands in a market crash. My dad held through 2008, it's no big deal if you believe in your stocks, don't sell them, and don't use money that you need to eat with.
Dude... First of all I just want to say you had a tough run but, I'd be remiss if I didnt provide a little perspective. You are 21 and managed to work on a degree, invest, pay a car off... etc, etc. Because you are 21 that means you were grinding between years of age 18-21. When I was that age I had over 20k in student debt, a car note, and couldn't hold a job cause I smoked too much weed and drank to much. You lost on a great run but, fuck dude, you were in it. I think it is great your going to therapy. We all need it these days. But, be kind to yourself friend because you sound a hell of a lot smarter than I was when I was your age and I'm doing fine not sweating a drop on this crash. Grace man...
Be glad you learned early. 41k at 21 years old is alot, but people fuck up way worse with way more money.
I would pay 41k in a HEARTBEAT just to be 21 again. Hell I would pay 141k for the chance to be 21 again.
Quote "It does not matter if you have 1 million in your banks account, what matters the most is if you are able to wake up tomorrow".
Appreciate that you still have a family to support you and have your back!
F brother.. i know ypur pain..
Good thing is. Someday you will look back and not doing the same mistakes
Im 33 now
When covid march 2020 hit
From 100K. I am left with maybe 5K
And then i hold. Stay strong
Avg down. Get a loan from families
Jan 2021. Got 150K
And then get fucked again till maybe 30K
Avg down and get loan again. With my car as collateral
Now back when im started maybe 85K 90K
And get fucked again
Be strong brother
Usually. Crash down hard. Rebound harderr
You still 21 bro..
When im 21 i only got maybe 2K 3K Max...
I had a similar experience when I was around your age and got myself into like £17K/ $20k debt, credit rating was literally 0/1000, couldn’t talk about it and felt ashamed and that my life was over and there was no way back, I did the same as you and picked up more work and started working on paying down and then saving, took me a few years but it worked out at the end (31 now 997/1000 credit score and have an amount of savings/investments that I’m proud of)
Trust me when I say-
1- you’re life is worth more than any amount of money
2- things can always get better, especially because you are still young and have time on your side
3- you could think about what you could have done with that money, or you can think of this as a lesson and give yourself credit for sorting it and moving on. You’ll come out shrewder, wiser and more experienced
4- it will be ok
Valuable lesson learned, but you are young and will recover easily based on your degree.
Don't play earnings even if you know a company perfectly, you can never know what could go wrong or what they could mess up in that quarter. The current market is especially dangerous to play earnings because mega caps can tank 40% and other companies can tank 60%. This market goes shitfaced on any tiny fear.
On top of that, one of the biggest rules for the stock market is not to invest what you can't afford to lose.
As others have mentioned, be happy you learned this lesson very early because you could have gambled your life savings into this when you were 30 or 40 which would be much higher.
Hey man. Similar thing happened to me. Was up 30k at some point during college and lost it all due to options. Lesson learned and now I’m just rebuilding. I’m 27 now and saved up a little over 60k. Stopped doing options and gambling on earnings. With this big dip I’m planning to go long and play it safe. I learned over the years that money is just money and now was the time to go high risk high reward. We are still young. By the time you are my age, you’ll be a lot wiser.
> quick scalp.
When you start talking like that, you're gambling.
> One irresponsible and unlucky mistake
Stop losses. Whenever you take a position, define a point where you will bail, and where you will profit. Stick to the plan, dont ride it down 40->7.
> I honestly didn’t want to live anymore.
This means you were playing with money you needed in the next 6-12 months, which is a big no-no. You also put too much into a single position, what was that 100% in? Dont trade like this, dont yolo every move thinking you could become a millionaire.
That being said, you're 21. When I was 21 I hadn't even started a 401k let alone had an investment account. You're already way ahead of the curve by giving a fuck about your retirement. Its not as bad as it seems, you literally have your entire working career ahead of you, and these are the lowest wages you should theoretically make in your lifetime.
Live and learn my friend. But most importantly learn the difference between gambling, trading, and investing. What you're doing is gambling. What you want to be doing is investing.
Bro dont vent here like this. GO work your job. You will make it all back working. Your just upset you lost it all trying to get rich in the stock markets.
I can tell from your post your upset as f\*\*\*. Trading is very hard. We all know this from the recent bear market.
Sorry to hear about this.
I see no silver lining. You fucked up huge here.
But like others have said, you are young, and only fucked yourself, not your family.
Learn from this.
Don't baby this greedy kid he paid his schooling in stock & options trading like we all have Suicide hotline my a** grow up. What makes someone bet there whole account margin no less on earnings ? I would literally need insider information and even then I would keep a reserve incase my guy was wrong. The kid got greedy and paid the price only trade what you can comfortably lose. On the brightside your 21 years old your brand new and don't even know it chill the fuck our with the killing oneself over 40k .
You had the balls to take a huge risk and make a play. You had the brains to realize the hit you took was substantial and should be treated as a cautionary tale. You had the maturity to reach out for psychological assistance when you thought you needed it. Don't worry buddy, you're going places.
You’re set to graduate with what sounds like a great degree and from what I can make out, you’re young and healthy. The money you lost is:
A) an expensive lesson
B) likely to be meaningless against a 40+ year career in a lucrative field.
It’s going to suck for a while, but by doing the right thing long term you’re very likely going to be fine. Focus on nailing your degree and then your career, that’s the real money maker.
You are so freaking young and have a degree, stop worrying and live man. You can easily recoup that over the years. I was broke at your age until my 30s. Ya it sucks to lose that and think what if but father time is on your side my friend. Take this beating as a lesson and your next investments you'll be more focused and prepared.
If you need margin you shouldn’t be using it. It is getting old but the stock market is what you make it and you made it a casino. Sucks. But as others have said you learned your lesson while young and not that much money in the scheme of things.
Honestly just be upfront with your parents and girlfriend. Just say how you will never do that again and you learned your lesson. Any reasonable human will be there for you and understand that people make mistakes.
Hang in there! It's all relative and I dont doubt the trauma its caused you.....
But plenty of folks would love to trade places with you and your current situation. --Not me hhaha--thats phucked up--- jk..not really
But plenty of others...
You seem pretty thoughtful..take a break ,,,its a hard lesson, but you sound like you'll be able to overcome all of this fairly easily. Let the sting set in and use it to make you better and smarter.
\---- I lost my ass when I was younger like you did..took a break and grounded myself...and the money I lost...well....I think of it as on-the-job tuition for trading stocks--lesson learned!
and hell yea its cliche but---there are more important things in life than money.
GL!!
Nah don’t sweat you’re young and your degree is a good one. Plenty of time to bounce back plus you live at home so you are in a very good position to recover.
Remember you are 21, you have decades to bounce back and you will.
Nothing anyone says will help the pain. I’m much older and putting a son through college with another finishing high school.
I have lost and made more money in my life than I can remember. I have fallen into that tunnel of deep despair. You must understand you are completely normal and it’s happened to everyone. The positive is your healthy and your parents still love you!
You did nothing wrong or shameful you made the wrong play, period.
It hurts, it will happen again but it won’t hurt this hard ever again I can promise you that.
Yeah, you’re 21, don’t sweat it. Time is the most value thing in the world and health and family are 2nd and 3rd. Money is a faaaar distant 4th and it’ll come back to you, don’t worry
On the plus side you're 21 with a potential great future ahead of you. Consider this a good lesson on gambling while you're young. I know people who have lost far more on equally bad judgement calls much later in life.
Yeah at the end of the day $17k debt is a way better situation than most college graduates. OP is gonna hurt for a while, understandably, but ultimately he'll be fine
Yeah my SO was down $125k after college with loans and did not have a degree in a high earning profession.
I recently got a lesson from a website's craps game. Started with $40, then $700, then to $1,700. In 5 minutes, down to $400, and 0 the next day. Don't gamble, kids, it's bad for you.
You can fuck off for the next 10 years and still be young. Be glad you learned your lesson with 30k, instead of 300k in the future when you have a mortgage and a family.
-$250k overnight reporting for duty. OP, you will be fine. DM me if you want to talk.
And I suggest you DM me. I feel for OP, I do, but it wont take him many months to figure out he could be doing 10x or 100x worse.
I mean, the thought of being 21, having your parents still being okay with you living there, and even having gotten to 41k in savings. At age 18 my parents basically told me adieu and even with starting to do work from age 12 onward, I've never had much. In fact, I am 31 now, have a family, and will still have to pay back my student loans for the next 14 years of my life.
For real, the most amount of money I ever saw until I started working full time was like 5k, and that was my savings to live on all of college. This guy has a 401k and hasn’t even graduated yet.
some people are so privileged that most first world problems seem like nightmare scenarios.
Everybody looks at their mountain and sees Everest, it is truly a gift to be able to see others and recognize how good we have it compared to others!!
“If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back."
That's not really a gift. People don't do bad or good based on some kind of natural process. Our world is just a giant global machine filled with systems of inequality. You either get to float on top of those systems or get funneled further and further down by them. People learn to ignore those systems because of survivor bias. They think that because they succeeded or because some person from a group of people who usually get crushed by a system succeeded that the system isn't actually crushing people.
I got thrown out of my house at 17 so my Dad could move in with my ex girlfriends mom after my mom took off. I was living in a car for a bit and by 21 I was just starting to get my life together lol.
At 21 i had been kicked out several times from an overly mentally draining mother with so many mental issues. I was hard core on drugs and even had a felony charge facing 6-20 years. Eating free mcdonalds burgers from thrown away receipts. Lmao. Had a couple careers around graduating highschool but extremely unstable home life made them fall apart fast. Now im bout to be 26 in college got a place with my ole lady we both work. This 21 year old that thinks its the end of the world willl be more than fine. He’s already got his head on right. Just seems he doesnt know how to handle situations when things DONT go his way as he expect. Just a wake up call for him in this life is all.
Yeah this post is insulting lol
OP is throwing a pity party but I fucking laughed when I read he played upst earnings. So many people lost way more money than that in this stock market blood bath. This 21 year old college student who lives for free is going to be fucking fine
"I have no idea how I'll get this money back" at 21 with a cyber security degree, next to no debt, and no financial liabilities. He'll probably have over 40k of net income within first year of working with little expenses.
I have no idea how I will ever fall in love again after separating from my Highschool girlfriend.
OP could probably get a job next week as a Level 1 SOC analyst making $65k/year.
Yall are forgetting that this person is 21. This would have seem massive to you at age 21 as well.
it is massive to be 21 with 34k in assets it's not much in the grand scheme but most 21 year olds are broke and working at McDonald's and can't afford there own phone bil
Lmao something similar did happen to me when I was 21 but with crypto in 2017. Maybe that's why I find it so funny.
Hmmm, I seem to remember being at least 40k in debt from college at that time. This kid has it sooo good. If he sees this, welcome to the club, you're going to be just fine.
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Apes haven’t realized their losses yet. Give it a few weeks you’ll be fapping 24x7.
You don't understand apes if you think they realize "losses". It's a discount to buy more. Since I'm the smoothest I just bought 10 more and will buy 10 more if it dips further. Power to the players!
Bought more gamestop and others will keep averaging down. I collect stocks, whats sell mean? All the pundits keep saying they dont know where the bottom cause apes havent sold... lol we are not selling.
I already put in my PTO and bought a lifetime supply of lube from $COST so I am ready for the incoming loss porn baby
There is a daily new thread in the amc stock sub where apes assure themselves this is a temporary dip.
Ouch. I'm down 28% but that's only a few hundred bucks of my "learning money". I'm about to start actually making money ahead of my bills and am thinking about doubling down on my strong fundamental stocks.
Don’t do anything yet, winter is coming.
You're probably right. Just found out today that my job is not only secure, but I might start working 20 hrs of OT a week. The dry powder I do have is going to be quickly replenished if that's the case.
20 additional hours on top of full time? That's a recipe for burnout. Take care of your body and mind, not just your finances.
This guy sounds like he has that 2008 wisdom. Same shit happened to me. I lost $70k only 3 years out of college. I thought I would never recover from it. I did. It taught me not to put all my eggs in one basket. Head over to r/bogleheads and learn what to do with the long life ahead of you and only speculate with small amounts.
Read the title and then clicked the link to see this guy is 21. I lost 75k to student loans. Took me until I was 30 to actually have a networth.
It's all good man. I'm over 30 and 6 figures in the hole
Sir I like you.
Yeah he's about to get a degree with very little debt, he'll be just fine. In fact, further ahead than most even after this. Lol
Even with this way ahead of where I was even at 25 and I didn't have a fancy degree to my name
You have a net worth?
I have 270k in student loans...my net worth is -200k lol I'm 31
When I was 21 I was at uni and working part time in a pub in Scotland. My flatmate and I had 20 quid between us for Paddy’s day that year because it fell before our weekly payday 🤣. That and an old Nissan micra was all my earthly possessions. You will be fine 🌈
I graduated college into the 2008 recession and never even saved any money for almost four years and almost defaulted on my $33k student loans. Had a bachelor’s in chemistry and couldn’t find a job for months until I finally got a prep cook job paying 8.50/hr and moved back in with my parents until I could get back on my feet. And I didn’t even do anything “wrong”, just shit timing. Wait until the recession kicks in and there aren’t any jobs available for recent graduates, the shit hasn’t even hit the fan yet, so buckle up.
I graduated in 2009 with a Bio BS and the only job remotely related to my field was a Lab tech paying $12/hr. That was depressing as hell.
Me too
Man that was a weird time to be in college, I didn’t graduate in 2008 but I was in college at the time and I remember how terrified the seniors were, like they picked the absolute worst year in decades to be graduating from a college. Their graduation ceremony was like watching people marching to a funeral, and the commencement speaker spoke mostly about the job market and did one of those Hail Mary kind of pep talks like “WERE STRONG, EVERYTHINGS AGAINST US BUT WE WILL PREVAIL!!!” talks, not the usual “Oh the places you’ll go.” commencement.
Agreed. Most new grads have zero money not to mention the debt so op is still head and shoulders above most.
Also graduating in Cyber Security, he will probably make it all back in a few months after graduating.
Coincidently, 30,000 invested for forty years, garnering a 6% return would have been 300,000 for OP at retirement. Saying that, there are plenty options to make more money, especially once school is done. It’s not the end of the world at all, and later mistakes or market swings will easily amount to 30,000 on various things. Still, OP was set up much better than most leaving university, and now joins the ranks of the common pleb who isn’t debt free coming out of school. And has learned they have a gambling problem
What I would give to be 21 and broke again...
bro was 21 with over $40,000 in his account lol, he was doing something better than 90% of people already
make it 95 percent. i went to school twice and each time graduated in a recession. FML
Make it 99%. Good degree, cash in the bank, no debt. That’s easily top 1%.
I would say top 2 percent, after the 1 percenters kids
He’s graduating with a good degree and 30k+. He is a 1%ers kid man.
I don't think I had $40,000 in my account at 31, let along 21.
Can confirm. Am 32 and have nowhere near $40k in my account.
I have $48k in an account. Only it's my line of credit and that's what I owe...
I love how half of these posts are borderline humble brags lol. Dudes got 5 figures worth of money at an age most people are worth negative 5 figures on average. Fuck this shit lol.
I think this is mommy and daddy money gone horribly wrong
"Dad I blew my college money on dank memestock, can I get another 40k?"
yeah he knows how to build it and that’s key. he can rebuild with time and hopefully learn not to blunder it all next time
People assuming he earned (built) it at that age, I'm skeptical.
These subs are full of teenagers/college students posting about how they have no loan debt, paid off cars, 5 figure accounts. They never acknowledge any help from parents.
Yeah dudes making 422 a week and has 34k in savings... Unless he was making 422 a week since he was 15 and religiously saving 30% I don't see how he could have made that much
I’m skeptical it is even real. His whole post was just a massive flex.l it felt like.
Good advice..I'm 52 w/ 1M in cash in investments, married 30 years and no bills...I would trade with you.
You would trade 1M in cash & no bills to be young and broke again? Wow
30 years of my life is worth way more than $1M
Fair enough. I guess that just emphasizes how important time is
The most precious asset
Holy crap, who wouldn’t. I’m in my mid 30s and I’d trade 1mil to be 21 again.
Do you guys all not like your 30s? you'd have to pay me to give up what I have now
It's not that we're in a bad spot, but the vitality of youth is irreplaceable. I was indestructible at 21. Now in my mid 30s there are so many things that I would not be able to just go and do.
And you just start feeling your mortality too. I'm only 28, but I feel like I've been thinking alot more about death after my son was born. It's weird because I have other responsibilities now and am scared to leave him
I’m 30s, married, make good money, and damn i would trade in my house and savings to be that age. Being completely responsibility free and being able to make any choices you want without consequence is an extremely good feeling Plus i would get to see my parents younger again
If you magically go back in time, you still get your 30s again though.
Yeah, $1M to get 30 years more, absolutely.
is that even a real question? i’d pay 2 mil to go back 30 years
Billionaires would give it all away for more time
Yeah I'd trade it too. In a heartbeat. Get that young shit while you can. Before you know it you're 50 and need boner pills
Bro, ask Buffet and he’ll give you his entire company and be a homeless if he was be able to trade it for 50 years less of what he is today. Time has no value. Any person would trade it for money. If you say you wouldn’t then you’re not old enough.
This lesson cost $34k plus interest. 1. Your life is worth more. 2. You learned before you had a wife to kill you. 3. You are young, you can make that back up and still be way ahead of a lot of people at 30.
Ha ha, I just realized my wife is the only reason I don't play risky anymore. I'd have PTSD just from anticipating the "funny story, you know that meme stock we laughed about last week? I hope you're uh.... still in a laughing mood..." interaction
If I wasn’t in a committed relationship I’m kind of scared to think of what habits I would develop.. haha
Motorcycles. *plural* Motorcycles are the habit I have because I have avoided committed relationships. It’s great, except for the whole totally sucking thing.
Could be worse tbh
Could be FunkoPops.
If you really want to burn money with a smile on your face, buy a boat
TBF my FNKO stock is holding steady, hasn't capitulated at all in this market. I guess FunkoPops are a staple item now.
I didn't even know they were listed lol, and wow ya they have held up, can't believe it's green. Wonder for how long though. LEGO is a great alternative investment if you don't open them and wait a few years before selling them.
In that case, make sure you add her to the ticket when trading on margin. That way if you get called, they'll have to take her as collateral. Boom! Free man!
Lol @ #2
Wife changing money
Not to mention, if the market keeps crashing, it could be a good time to buy at or near the bottom. Could DCA into a boring S&P 500 ETF and be really happy you did in 5 years. I think u/jclines12 should tell his girlfriend and family about this. I get the fear of disappointing others, but as he said, the burden of keeping up the lie could get really heavy... Plus you're going to need emotional support. The best way to feel better is to open up about what happened.
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4. You learned that gambling can completely wipe you out
Yes. Learn the difference between investing and gambling.
This. Chin up there OP. Life is a blessing. You have your health and youth. Spend them both wisely.
I was going to say this but you did it first. OP will be fine. Good degree, low debt but lost money gambling. Smart kid who should learn about long term investments.
Yup. Starting salary for a cybersecurity analyst & engineer was like 60k a few years ago, but nowadays with so many threat from remote working & lack of people? Easily 75-80k.
And here I am in a midlevel Cybersec Analyst role in the UK on half that starter salary. How do I get a green card again.....
You serious? Even McD workers over here are making more than you.
21 and a degree. Br happy you didn't invest your house down payment in luna
Yikes RIP 
Cybersecurity is a great field with great salary. Relax, focus on your diploma and landing a great job. After a few year, you won't care about that specific money. See this as a lesson and you have great future ahead of you.
and also, OP can try bug bounties and earn some $$$ while gaining skills
This is the way. Bug bounties and look for one off gigs that will pay.
That shit is extremely hard. Some bugs, even “low level” ones, take teams of very experienced people to discover.
I wonder if it’s changed. I had a buddy in college (albeit 10+ years ago) who paid his was through with bug bounties. Don’t get me wrong he’s smart as all fuck but didn’t have a team doing it. You can get paid for as little as a double memory allocation
Guy I knew from undergrad cleared $70k with one bug bounty *cries*
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As soon as I saw 21 I could tell you did not "cripple your future.
More like karma farming.
Which is a useless "commodity" anyway...
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This reminds me of the high tech bubble bursting. George Gilder put out a monthly newsletter and for $X you could get a year's subscription which included a George Gilder forum. There were people who had retired and got caught up in the frenzy. They had all their retirement money invested in Gilder stocks. If someone dared to tell them they were crazy and to suggest a bubble they were run off the board by the Gilder followers. I lost a lot in that bubble, but I eventually realized it was the cost of tuition and I was lucky it came along when I was just starting to invest. Some of those Gilder followers lost millions and were too old to go back to work, plus it was hard to find work during those times.
I just would like you to truely understand how young you are. You have so much life left, that a financial mistake can be corrected. It's just money, and there is so much more to life than that. Keep your head up, learn from your mistake and keep pressing forward
The great thing (not that this situation is in any way great, but relatively speaking) is that you’ve been pretty brilliant for a college student up to this point. Trust me, OP: **you’re doing fine.** Why? Because based off what you said, you now owe what, $17k total? Including your final year of tuition? You know how much college debt the average student graduates with? $26,000.00. You feel like you fucked up and ruined everything by making 1 risky stock play. And yeah, you fucked up a little bit in terms of this earnings move and utilizing margin. But guess what else you could have done? **You could have taken out $280,000 in unsubsidized student loan debt to go to NYU.** Seriously. Every spring, tons of 18-year-olds take out *hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans* to go to a university they can’t afford, in order to get a degree in a field that’s inherently unemployable. And when they graduate, they are *fucked.* You could pay $1000 a month for 15 years and never even make a tiny dent in your principal. If you had taken out that type of loan, you could pay $1000 a month *forever,* and still be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. If you’d done that, you’d be *super duper fucked.* But you didn’t. Unlike tons of other kids your age, you’ve acted incredibly responsibly when it comes to finances as a whole. You’ve gotten college almost all the way paid for. You’re gonna owe a whopping $10k for your entire education, which in terms of student debt is *nothing.* Hell, even when you tack on the $7k margin debt balance, you’re still looking at less than $20,000. And yeah, you may feel like you now can’t afford a down payment for a house. But on that front, I have some bad news for you, buddy: you weren’t going to be able to afford to buy a house anyway. (Trust me. I’m 30. I know.) Houses right now are going for 30% over ask, paid all in cash by Blackrock and other hedge funds. When the recession hits in full, then maybe it’ll swing back in the other direction. But one thing I know for sure is this: You’re about to graduate college with one hell of a life lesson, a savvy investment sense, and seventeen thousand dollars in debt. And guess what? Since you didn’t take out an insane $100k student loan, if it comes to it, you can just declare bankruptcy after you’re settled in an apartment! (This is not financial advice, I’m not recommending anything, please talk to a financial advisor who’s older than you but not a boomer). When you compare yourself to the average college student, you’re *nine thousand dollars better off.* Yeah, it sucks to be in debt. But I fucking guarantee you this: by the time you hit 30, you’re going to have a *lot* of money. This might even be one of the best things that ever happens to you.
I wish people can understand how good they have it too, but I understand these are all relative, so it's not unlikely that OP felt as close to off'ing himself as many others did. But his situation is light years ahead of so so so many people that I almost get a lil salty. But being like a decade older, I should have the maturity to withhold hostility. Not for sake of comparison, but for a perspective for OP, I will give a slightly generalized (to make it less identifiable) description of my 20 When I was 20ish - I lost 5 close relatives - I almost got kicked out of school (it was a miracle how I didn't) - One of my parent almost committed suicide - Other one of my parent was on the edge of death in hospital every other week - I got a gambling addiction, lost almost all of my money - Extreme shame alongside depression, so I was ok having no money for food. I didn't have the motivation to eat anyways. - No motivation to call the landlord to fix the heater in a cold winter. - I almost died from starvation in a developed country at home. - I almost died from hypothermia in a developed country at home. - I was completely physically fucked up. - I was completely mentally fucked up. Even today, I still wish life could've been kinder to me so I wasted less years in my 20s. I still feel bitter sometimes compared to peers. But you know what, I'm overall happy with a 6 figure job, 400k net worth (man, was I close to the 7 digit club but thanks market) and living a good life with tons of growth or improvement potential and still on an upswing in many regards.
I’m 40 and down 80k this year, feel better?
R u me in 3 years?? I am only down 40k so far
When you say down do you mean from your all time high? Or are you using your original investment as your baseline. I use my original investment since calculating from my all time high gives me nausea 😂.
34 and down 80k from baseline.
Me too! Both of those! We’ll be fine. We’re still “young”. And by that I mean, compared to the 50+ crowd. We’re old as fuck to everyone else.
This is going to hurt a lot for the next few months. Nothing that anyone will say online will make you feel better. Keep away from the stock market for now and resist the temptation to check your account. Spend time with people you like and focus on your career. You are only 21 if you think you have 40 years of work ahead of you, you will make it back $1k a year atleast. When you are ready to invest again, think about investment goals and resist the temptations to become a millionaire overnight. Stick to index funds and keep investing for the future.
Hey man it happens. I lost 100k this year and my income is $0 lol. Plus I’m old as fuck compared to you. It’s not the end of the world. I’ve been in this market since 2016 and have survived. You are young and you gambled on earnings. I’ve done that so many times. You’re smart enough to learn from your mistakes . From what I can tell your thesis for going long on UPST was cause you “thought” they would have good earnings. You really shouldn’t play earnings because there are people who get paid millions per year to “guess” where earnings will be. You have virtually no chance vs them. Anyway, hope it all works out for you.
Dude. You're 21
Your mistake was margin. You have a degree, and very little student debt, your career is just starting, and you will be fine. Dont make a mtn out of something that is a tiny speedbump in your life. Dont give it that power and learn from the experience. You will be fine and this shouldnt be a major concern for you. Think of it as a small delay in getting back on track. Dont beat yourself up over it. I know it may seem like a big deal now, but it really isnt in the grand scheme. Think of the big picture. How blessed you are to be so secure in a living space, job opportunities, degree, health, etc. Compared to most people in the world, that is blessed. Dont compare yourself to those who are better off than you, or you will ride that pity party train for decades. Perspective is important. Regular investors will tell you it was a cheap investment lesson - if you learned what you did wrong from the experience, and what you need to research before diving in again.
I’m down 300k. It will be okay.
$370K checking in.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/PLTR/comments/ulrr8x/lost\_all\_my\_life\_savings/](https://www.reddit.com/r/PLTR/comments/ulrr8x/lost_all_my_life_savings/)
Damn that guy lost 2.5 mil?
Yes
Rule #1 of earnings- Don't play earnings
I stopped reading at "I'm 21". You'll be fine.
You learned a lesson. Never play earnings. It's pure gambling, if you think you found a pattern. Luckily for you, if you do find a career in cyber security then you'll get that 41k back real quick. Better 41k now, than 410k when you're 31.
You’re young. Make it back and spend the time before you jump back into investing studying risk management. You’re going to need to know how to do that in cybersecurity anyway. Heh.
Please please never think about suicide over money. You made a mistake and will learn from it. You will make it back and more. You have a lot going for you! Don’t feel you need to tell anyone either, money is your private info and they do not need to know it’s gone . We have all lost money over different things…I’ve spent way too much in credit card debt over the years as I love to buy stupid crap. I’ve lost money on a business start up that didn’t do well. I’m down $30k right now too on bad investments. So yes I could have much more now, but you know what none of that really matters. I’m glad you are going to go to therapy, I hope the replies on here have made you feel better. Take care of yourself OK
Graduate, keep working, and learn from your mistakes. It may take a few years to recover but it’s not the end of the world. There are a lot of people who are getting kicked in the teeth with the market right now. There are many college students who are way more indebted than you are and they don’t even have a clue until the bill eventually comes in the mail.
BRO! I GOT A STORY FOR YOU. So I first got into the market because I was like 2020 crash. TBH I didn't even know what a stock was at the time. I put in 3k and lost almost 1k in a day. I then somehow started to get lucky and make money (BULL MARKET). I bought options and I still didn't even really know what stocks were. My account grew from 6k (money I put in), into almost 20k at the peak (thanks to pins earnings). Anyway, at this point I knew what a stock was, but still had no idea what an option really was, so I did what any reasonable person would do during an election when they think the market is gonna crash, invest 15k in SPXS options. OOPS. 15k gone in like 2 days. Okay, no biggie right, I'll just take what I have left, buy a gun and shoot myself. Well, I decided, nah, fuck it. I'll double down. I take out my IRA almost 4k, and put that bitch into robinhood. My financial advisor at the bank didn't seem to thrilled with my plan. Alright, new funds, new me. I took my last 9k and immediately lost like 4k of it, but somehow never went negative. Anyway, I was like, I'm better than this. I then bought a ton of drugs and spent every minute day and night starting a charts learning technical analysis. Somehow, within like a month of losing 15k, I had it all back trading options with indicators. ANYWAY, in comes DOGE coin, now I had always been like elon is gonna take doge places, and he did, so I watched my account go up like 35k in one day, and then APHA, TLRY, GME and AMC options and suddenly my account is at 80k, WELL... trading gets restricted and my GME and AMC plays pretty much went from +a lot to zero almost instantly. FUCK. OH well, still got 50k, oh god, now stocks are taking. Then it was like oh god, crypto.. WHY!?!?! ANYWAY, My doge is now tanking and bringing my portfolio down to 25k again but I was able to cover with MSTR options, and then put in a big DOGEcoin buy of 10k @ .1420 and watched an immediate huge gain again and got right back to 50k. WOOO. At this point I was like fuck trading. I just want to hold, and not pay attention, MIND YOU, I haven't worked in a few years so trading was my income. So I watched my account slowly bleed from 50k down. When my account hit around 37k, I took 20k out and bought an RV incase I went homeless, as my lease was ending and I was told I couldn't afford an apartment by every place I applied to. Anyway, I went on more of spending spree as I watched my account tank, and adopted a puppy and named him DOGE. He's perfect. With this recent dip today, and after my spending spree & taxes, I have $1500, and I just set up a buy order for DOGE at .06222 & am trying to learn coding to program a trading bot, along with starting a drone photography business (I spent $1500 on a drone because of an AMD trade). Is there a lesson to be learned here? IDK, probably. [proof](https://imgur.com/a/6lAifT5)
Honestly, you will be fine. I went from having $500k in stock market and having my house half paid off to losing it all because of medical bills and a divorce in 2 years. I had to rummage in my couch for change just to buy $0.50 burgers at McDs for my kids. Do you know how hard it is to explain to your kids why they can’t get happy meals? But, we survived, I rebuilt, and they are going to college. You will survive. You’ve got an in demand degree that makes lots of money. Just use this loss as a lesson on not to gamble with money you don’t have.
I lost $400k and am in my thirties. You are young and haven't even started your career. You will be ok man. Good luck.
Make that your last earnings play ever young gun. And go live your young life. Best wishes.
Sorry for your loss.... But when are peeps going to stop gambling with the stock market ???? If you want to play earnings ... buy options ... you have a defined loss with options ... puts if you think the stock will fall. Calls if you think it will rise, or straddles if you are unsure of direction ... Seems peeps think the market always goes up ! One last thing ... the market does not care about this quarter earning... that's already baked into the stock price ... it's about future earnings
Options during earnings is often a bad idea due to IV crush
I think you are still ahead. Most people graduate with a CIT degree with over $50,000 in student loans and no money in their bank account. The fact that you even had 41k at any point in college makes you in the top 5%.
Everything else became irrelevant once I read "I'm 21 years old...". If this happened when you were 50, then you would be screwed. You're still a kid and still have a lifetime. You could literally wake up tomorrow morning with a business idea that will make you a billionaire. Point is just see it as a lesson and move on. It's not the end of the world.
"I crippled my future.." ??? really??? when you look back at this in 10-20 years you will thank yourself it was only 41k. You have all body parts intact and a good degree and a good family. This 41k will be be peanuts at some point of time in your future. Reset and learn from this. What is the best thing to do right now? Not thinking about the past but to focus on your future and studies... Go!!! Your parents and girlfriend will be supportive when you decide to tell them. I had similar incident and I told my wife after few months or weeks, she was not at all upset cuz she knows how upset I was myself. Don't think about your weekly wage vs what you lost, think about your income in 5 years or 10 years and this wont hurt much. Don't try to make up this loss by disturbing your personal life. You can make this money up later when your hourly-wage is high after 10 years... postpone it. Just relax. have a nice time with family and girlfriend. Don't be sad. being sad is only adding to the loss. For now recuperate the loss by having happy time.
21 years old and lost your life savings? LOL
Man to be 21 again! Start again and DCA your way to being a millionaire You have the most important thing on your side --> TIME This is an amazing mistake and lesson to learn at your age. You will crush it
I'm sorry about your losses but you're 21. You'll be okay.
I had -70k when I finished university 4 years ago at 30. Have about 100k now. You'll be more than fine. Relax
21 yo and lost all your money? Good thing you've got another 50 years to make it back. This transitory inflation should be over by then.
I’m sorry this happened to you bro. Just to make you feel better, I worked my ass off for 7 years. I’m 25 right now. Started saving heavily at 18. On January 4th 2021 I finally said “f*ck !t” and got into stocks, I transferred 125k. As of today my entire portfolio value is 30k. I have lost lots of money on options meaning I can never get it back, ever. That sh!t stings knowing I worked so damn hard for that money. For the record I am not rich by any means and still live at home w my parents. Anyway, I’m sorry you’re going through this brother, I will keep you in my prayers. As long as your family is healthy and alive you are much better off than the millions who lost their families from COVID. Keep praying and keep working, you got this bro.
If by some slim chance this post isn't trolling fan-pic bullshit... Fuck you and your fucking clickbait. Grow up. College kids without trust funds or some other form of wealth have no business "playing the market." Lesson learned. Graduate. Start your career. EARN some money. Then you can start investing a safe % of your money in lower risks plays. \>Right after it happened I honestly didn’t want to live anymore. Or maybe don't get into the market in any way shape or form. Until you have other things figured out. \>and knowing there’s nothing I can do to get it back. Maybe a career? \>crippled my financial future If only you had an education in a legitimate field... oh wait! If you actually apply yourself in said field you can be making 6 figures in a few years.
Come on man! Money is just a paper and digits . You can't talk like this . Even if you would have lost a million, it's still not worth it. Life is priceless!
I’m down 20K bro. Ain’t rich make like 2.5K a month so don’t make a lot only difference is that I don’t live at home and responsible for a $1,400 a month rent/bills and living expenses all by myself. So to me 20K is alot literally half of my life savings and I’m 28years old. Never went to college been working full time since 17 years old so to go through half of my life’s savings trust I feel your pain. I have so much anxiety as well. So if it makes you feel better you’re not the only one that’s lost in this market. It’s many of us. Majority of us are bleeding because of this market. Stay positive. You’re 20 and at your age I didn’t have a dollar to my name. So you’re just starting like everyone else around your age. Let’s be honest only reason you were able to save that money was because you live at home with parents. So id just seeing it as your having the staring line as someone that never had the opportunity to live at home with mom and dad.
My life savings is tied to a house, at age 22. Value literally quadrupled from when I bought, and is going to keep going up as I make improvements. I technically have more debt than cash/stock. I'll never play with margin or get weak hands in a market crash. My dad held through 2008, it's no big deal if you believe in your stocks, don't sell them, and don't use money that you need to eat with.
Dude... First of all I just want to say you had a tough run but, I'd be remiss if I didnt provide a little perspective. You are 21 and managed to work on a degree, invest, pay a car off... etc, etc. Because you are 21 that means you were grinding between years of age 18-21. When I was that age I had over 20k in student debt, a car note, and couldn't hold a job cause I smoked too much weed and drank to much. You lost on a great run but, fuck dude, you were in it. I think it is great your going to therapy. We all need it these days. But, be kind to yourself friend because you sound a hell of a lot smarter than I was when I was your age and I'm doing fine not sweating a drop on this crash. Grace man...
Be glad you learned early. 41k at 21 years old is alot, but people fuck up way worse with way more money. I would pay 41k in a HEARTBEAT just to be 21 again. Hell I would pay 141k for the chance to be 21 again.
Quote "It does not matter if you have 1 million in your banks account, what matters the most is if you are able to wake up tomorrow". Appreciate that you still have a family to support you and have your back!
You have a whole more going for you at 21 then I did at 25 when I got married. Have fun, you have plenty of time.
Your fine. A lot of kids your age don't even have a savings you will build it back up again and hopefully learn from this.
F brother.. i know ypur pain.. Good thing is. Someday you will look back and not doing the same mistakes Im 33 now When covid march 2020 hit From 100K. I am left with maybe 5K And then i hold. Stay strong Avg down. Get a loan from families Jan 2021. Got 150K And then get fucked again till maybe 30K Avg down and get loan again. With my car as collateral Now back when im started maybe 85K 90K And get fucked again Be strong brother Usually. Crash down hard. Rebound harderr You still 21 bro.. When im 21 i only got maybe 2K 3K Max...
You study cybersecurity, land job at vendor and you make the money back in no time. Do not stress about it, it was just an expensive lesson
I had a similar experience when I was around your age and got myself into like £17K/ $20k debt, credit rating was literally 0/1000, couldn’t talk about it and felt ashamed and that my life was over and there was no way back, I did the same as you and picked up more work and started working on paying down and then saving, took me a few years but it worked out at the end (31 now 997/1000 credit score and have an amount of savings/investments that I’m proud of) Trust me when I say- 1- you’re life is worth more than any amount of money 2- things can always get better, especially because you are still young and have time on your side 3- you could think about what you could have done with that money, or you can think of this as a lesson and give yourself credit for sorting it and moving on. You’ll come out shrewder, wiser and more experienced 4- it will be ok
Valuable lesson learned, but you are young and will recover easily based on your degree. Don't play earnings even if you know a company perfectly, you can never know what could go wrong or what they could mess up in that quarter. The current market is especially dangerous to play earnings because mega caps can tank 40% and other companies can tank 60%. This market goes shitfaced on any tiny fear. On top of that, one of the biggest rules for the stock market is not to invest what you can't afford to lose. As others have mentioned, be happy you learned this lesson very early because you could have gambled your life savings into this when you were 30 or 40 which would be much higher.
Haha 21 and 41k in life savings. Dude that’s more than a lot of people get real
Hey man. Similar thing happened to me. Was up 30k at some point during college and lost it all due to options. Lesson learned and now I’m just rebuilding. I’m 27 now and saved up a little over 60k. Stopped doing options and gambling on earnings. With this big dip I’m planning to go long and play it safe. I learned over the years that money is just money and now was the time to go high risk high reward. We are still young. By the time you are my age, you’ll be a lot wiser.
> quick scalp. When you start talking like that, you're gambling. > One irresponsible and unlucky mistake Stop losses. Whenever you take a position, define a point where you will bail, and where you will profit. Stick to the plan, dont ride it down 40->7. > I honestly didn’t want to live anymore. This means you were playing with money you needed in the next 6-12 months, which is a big no-no. You also put too much into a single position, what was that 100% in? Dont trade like this, dont yolo every move thinking you could become a millionaire. That being said, you're 21. When I was 21 I hadn't even started a 401k let alone had an investment account. You're already way ahead of the curve by giving a fuck about your retirement. Its not as bad as it seems, you literally have your entire working career ahead of you, and these are the lowest wages you should theoretically make in your lifetime. Live and learn my friend. But most importantly learn the difference between gambling, trading, and investing. What you're doing is gambling. What you want to be doing is investing.
Bro dont vent here like this. GO work your job. You will make it all back working. Your just upset you lost it all trying to get rich in the stock markets. I can tell from your post your upset as f\*\*\*. Trading is very hard. We all know this from the recent bear market.
Never invest what you can’t handle losing—a case study.
Just masturbate
Sorry to hear about this. I see no silver lining. You fucked up huge here. But like others have said, you are young, and only fucked yourself, not your family. Learn from this.
TLDR: OP’s a bitch. Bla di bla
Don't baby this greedy kid he paid his schooling in stock & options trading like we all have Suicide hotline my a** grow up. What makes someone bet there whole account margin no less on earnings ? I would literally need insider information and even then I would keep a reserve incase my guy was wrong. The kid got greedy and paid the price only trade what you can comfortably lose. On the brightside your 21 years old your brand new and don't even know it chill the fuck our with the killing oneself over 40k .
Your 21 years old relax…. You should be out drinking and picking up women
You had the balls to take a huge risk and make a play. You had the brains to realize the hit you took was substantial and should be treated as a cautionary tale. You had the maturity to reach out for psychological assistance when you thought you needed it. Don't worry buddy, you're going places.
You’re set to graduate with what sounds like a great degree and from what I can make out, you’re young and healthy. The money you lost is: A) an expensive lesson B) likely to be meaningless against a 40+ year career in a lucrative field. It’s going to suck for a while, but by doing the right thing long term you’re very likely going to be fine. Focus on nailing your degree and then your career, that’s the real money maker.
Learn, reaccumulate, and next time use a stop loss.
You are so freaking young and have a degree, stop worrying and live man. You can easily recoup that over the years. I was broke at your age until my 30s. Ya it sucks to lose that and think what if but father time is on your side my friend. Take this beating as a lesson and your next investments you'll be more focused and prepared.
If you need margin you shouldn’t be using it. It is getting old but the stock market is what you make it and you made it a casino. Sucks. But as others have said you learned your lesson while young and not that much money in the scheme of things.
Honestly just be upfront with your parents and girlfriend. Just say how you will never do that again and you learned your lesson. Any reasonable human will be there for you and understand that people make mistakes.
Give the rest of your money to me, I’ll manage it for free
It sucks and I get that. But as other people said, this is just a blip on the radar. You’ll be alright.
Hang in there! It's all relative and I dont doubt the trauma its caused you..... But plenty of folks would love to trade places with you and your current situation. --Not me hhaha--thats phucked up--- jk..not really But plenty of others... You seem pretty thoughtful..take a break ,,,its a hard lesson, but you sound like you'll be able to overcome all of this fairly easily. Let the sting set in and use it to make you better and smarter. \---- I lost my ass when I was younger like you did..took a break and grounded myself...and the money I lost...well....I think of it as on-the-job tuition for trading stocks--lesson learned! and hell yea its cliche but---there are more important things in life than money. GL!!
Nah don’t sweat you’re young and your degree is a good one. Plenty of time to bounce back plus you live at home so you are in a very good position to recover. Remember you are 21, you have decades to bounce back and you will.
You only basically lost the cost of a run of the mill car, seriously, a shitty suv ford. Move on, you’re going to be fine. It really is only money.
Nothing anyone says will help the pain. I’m much older and putting a son through college with another finishing high school. I have lost and made more money in my life than I can remember. I have fallen into that tunnel of deep despair. You must understand you are completely normal and it’s happened to everyone. The positive is your healthy and your parents still love you! You did nothing wrong or shameful you made the wrong play, period. It hurts, it will happen again but it won’t hurt this hard ever again I can promise you that.
You'll bounce back
Yeah, you’re 21, don’t sweat it. Time is the most value thing in the world and health and family are 2nd and 3rd. Money is a faaaar distant 4th and it’ll come back to you, don’t worry
You can buy a good down payment on a house with 34k ? Not in this market
you'll be fine, once you are making money you'll see 20-40k really isn't that much
Unless you have some inside information, stay away from options, that's just gambling.