Hello grinders,

I am a working stiff that is embracing a FIRE(Financial Independence Retire Early) lifestyle, albeit a little late to the party. My goal is to save USD $2,500,000 in retirement savings and home equity to live off of in retirement. I am in my mid 30's, and my salary as a software engineer is $170,000. I live in a major city with a high cost of living. It's a great salary, but I do not enjoy the job. In addition to this income I am also working poker on the weekends. I know a lot of poker players chose to reinvest their winnings into themselves and their game. I think there is definitely merit to that, but putting money into retirement is, imho, even better. I am married, no kids, and hope to achieve this goal by the time I am 55. Before taking this day job I played poker professionally for about 5 years, and averaged 150k/year. For 2023 I am aiming for 18k total gained through poker.

Current savings:
- $60,000 Retirement IRA
- $120,000 Home Equity(240k remains before my half of the mortgage is paid in full. 5% mortgage rate).
- $2,000 poker roll
- $5,000 liquid stock savings that are meant for emergency usage. This number was 15k until earlier this year, when I got hit with some poker back taxes from 2018 and used 10k to pay them off.

I will be grinding my 2k poker roll up to 10k, and not withdrawing from it until that is achieved. Once achieved, I will begin to consider withdrawing from it.
Blog updates will contain poker hh's, bankroll updates, retirement savings updates and allocations and the occasional tangent about something related to financial literacy. Although I only plan to update this blog once a month, I intend on updating it for many years. Anyone else out there got their eyes on the retirement prize?

Hey!

I think the posts about financial literacy will be interesting and very useful, especially for those who have started making big money playing poker.

Good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement! Big agree, financial literacy is super important.

February 2023 Update

Had a light month on the corporate side so was able to play more poker than usual. Got my roll up to 8k, and then down swung all the way back to 3k, where I currently stand. This month my employer matching hit my 401k as well. 401k matching is kinda crazy. It's free money as long as you contribute to the IRA. My current employer matches 4%. That's so much! 170 * .04 = 6.8. Because I take advantage of this perk, my annual corporate income jumps from 170 to 176.8. Some people even max out their 401k early in the year so that even if something happens(employment terminated or something like that), the matching still takes affect and the extra 4% is locked in. I would like to do this in the future, once I have more liquid savings, perhaps next year. If you are unsure here to start with retirement planning, 401k planning(or investment based pensions for the Euros) is probably the place. The inherent tax benefits of these accounts makes a huge difference. Unfortunately I had to sell more stock this month to pay for a vacation. I really need to accumulate more in my liquid savings and poker roll.

My poker goal for March goal is to put in 60 hours(15 hours/week). I'm still set on getting this roll up to 10k before withdrawing. I'll probably average in to the market for a while after that point, but not sure yet. Need to get the roll up first!

This is not financial advice. Do you own due diligence.

Current Savings
- $68,000 Retirement IRA
- $120,700 Home Equity(240k remains before my half of the mortgage is paid in full. 5% mortgage rate).
- $3,000 poker roll
- $2,000 liquid stock savings that are meant for emergency usage.

put your whole 200k liferoll on red.

With where the world is going, I guess "retire early" for someone your age might just be "retire" lol

Best of luck OP. Do you primarily play live or online?

Mix of both

March 2023 Update. This is not financial advice. Do your own due diligence.

It's a remarkably interesting time to be involved in the markets. With all of the quantitative tightening that has been taking affect in the form of Fed rate hikes, the market is bound to break at some point. We saw cracks in the market with multiple banks that hold questionable investment strategies. Specifically, small banks were the beneficiary of eased regulatory requirements in 2018 legislation. This law changed the definition of a big bank(subject to stricter regulation) to a bank that holds > 50 billion dollars all the way up to 250 billion. Silicon Valley bank, the first to collapse, had 208b in assets. The lax regulatory requirements allowed it to take riskier positions on its assets, and when Peter Thiel and the like started to withdraw a run on the bank occurred. This forced SVB to sell its long dated assets, like 10 year treasury bonds, at a loss. In a plot twist, instead of allowing these smaller, regional banks to fail, the Fed temporarily injected money into the bank economy to prevent people from losing their money. While this is not technically quantitative easing, it negated much of the progress the Fed has made over the past few months. The whole reason the Fed is raising rates is because inflation is out of control. It has begun to go down, and now the question is - what will it do next? Typically the Fed rate hikes crash the markets - something we certainly have not yet seen to date. Historically, this happens after the Fed pivots. A Fed pivot is when they change their stance from tightening to easing, or easing to tightening. It's important to note that this is different from pausing(not changing) rates. Many people are predicting the Fed may have 1 more rate hike in them before pausing, and then eventually pivoting and lowering rates. Historically speaking, once the Fed pivots, the market crash ensues. The reason the Fed is pivoting is because they think they have done enough to get a hold on inflation, and want to try to tank the market softly, or less violently. The risk of pivoting too soon is that inflation will pick up, spiral out of control, and be back to where we started again. This happened in the 70's with Volker. This form of consistent inflation, known as stagflation, is the worst case scenario in the long run. From an economic productivity standpoint it is better to tank the market, get a hold on inflation, and let it rise again in a new bull run. While the affects of this in the short term lead to significantly increased unemployment and lowered spending, the long term benefit of getting a handle on inflation makes it worth it. This is because unemployment is inversely correlated to spending. If people are still spending money, they're contributing to inflation. It's like putting wood in the kiln, feeding the fire. When people are unemployed, the spending goes way down, and so does inflation.

So here's what I am doing in the long and short term. Long term - nothing really changes at all. If you're trying to retire like I am you shouldn't be concerned with short term market movements like this. It's more important to average into the market then try to time the top or the bottom. However I am making one change for the short term - and I think the gamblers in here are gonna like it. Instead of waiting to 10k to start withdrawing from the poker roll I am going to do it at 5k. The reason for this is because I want to have extra cash on hand in the near term. If the market does go way down, I want to have cash ready to be able to take advantage of this discount. One could even bet on the market going down in the form of options trading in a put position. This is super risky. I am open to the option, depending on how things unfold over the coming weeks. Perhaps when I post my April update it will include a tiny short position as a hedge. We shall see.


Current Savings
- $69,500 Retirement IRA
- $121,000 Home Equity
- $4,000 poker roll. Didn't get as much volume in this month as I would have liked. I mostly just was too busy at work to play poker. Made it through crunch time on that end, and will have significantly more time this month. Given my lowered 5k roll to start withdrawing, I am hoping to have that 5k roll complete, and a withdraw of at least $500 to start creating this cash position this month. Grind time! Saddle up grinders.
- $2,200 liquid stock savings that are meant for emergency usage.

Total: 196,700. Close to getting to 200k for the first time in my life! What should I do to celebrate this milestone when it happens?

I updated my HSA(Health Savings Account) today. HSA's are savings accounts in the US that are used to pay for medical expenses. I'm not sure if these are especially important in the US because of the extremely high cost of health care/medical expenses or what. They are tax free accounts you can use to pay for medical expenses. Interestingly though, you can invest these tax free accounts. This makes them a great retirement vehicle. Put money into HSA, use HSA to cover medical expenses, save the rest, and let it compound in the market over time! The IRS updated the total annual yearly amount from 3650 to 3850 - nice! An extra 200 in tax free savings. May not sound like much but it's little things like this that get me to retirement! Every bit helps.

I forgot to include this account in my previous estimation. My HSA total is only 4k currently. This will be the first year I am able to afford maxing it out. Awwwww yeahhhh

Even better unless you can't afford to not use the money for your medical expenses, you can just pay for medical expenses normally outside of the HSA and just save and invest 100% of what you put into the HSA. And if you end up needing the money later you always can save a copy of the receipts and you are allowed to pull that money out to reimburse yourself at any time down the line if needed.

Good luck bro, wish you the best!

Wow this is interesting. I never thought of this as an option - thanks for sharing! Going to think on it a bit but will probably follow your advice

Do not ever trade options, you clearly don't understand how they work. Buying a put because you think the market will go down is like betting on the Celtics because you think they are gonna win. (If you don't understand why that is a dumb idea then you're beyond help).

Keeping extra cash to buy market dips is a decent plan though. What kind of stakes/volume did you play to make 150k a year for 5 years?

Agree extra cash is a better approach. I played 1/2 - 10/20 during that time.

May Update:


Had to travel for work this past month and wasn't able to play much poker. This seems to be a recurring trend(not having enough time to play poker) so I am going to see if I can't do something about it. Would love to post some HH's here.

Current Savings
- $70,500 Retirement IRA
- $121,350 Home Equity
- $5,000 poker roll. I reached my 5k goal with limited volume by getting lucky in a live session where I ran a $200 stack up to 2k at 2/5 NL.
- $2,200 liquid stock savings that are meant for emergency usage.
- $4,000 HSA

Next month I am going to deep dive into liquid stock savings account, and show my process for this portfolio.

I eclipsed 200k for the first time last month! Next milestone, 250 - here I come.

Edit - I am also accumulating a cash position at 4.4% APY. That currently has $900.

6/15 Update

Market decided to front run AI innovations as the spark of ChatGPT, large language models, and hardware associated with processing large amounts of information ran wild. NVDA gapped higher as pictured below. With the Fed deciding to temporarily pause hiking interest rates with the intent of hiking two more rates in the future. I am continuing to grind poker at night as a second job, and funneling that profit straight into savings. Although it is modest($900 in May), these are the type of deposits that really add up over time. Also, I noticed the value of my home has increased online at least. Time will tell if this holds, as is the housing and commercial real estate market are seemingly on thin ice.

Current positions:

Current Savings
- $80,500 Retirement IRA
- $123,350 Home Equity
- $5,000 poker roll. I have started withdrawing, and once I get to 5k in withdrawls, I hopt to up this roll to 10k, and then consider withdrawing again
- $2,200 liquid stock savings that are meant for emergency usage.
- $4,500 HSA

Here's a better picture with a view of the Y axis

Could you recommend materials or resources for new investors?

There is a lot of different information on the network, and it is easy for a novice investor to stumble upon a scam.

Retiring early is retiring at 55 now, I hope i wake up soon from this bad dream

Not sure I get why you would just invest your poker winnings into your IRA if you're not at your ceiling for earning potential. which you wouldn't be unless you aren't good enough to beat 10nl online, given how soft 2/5 live games are. If you're even reasonably competent at poker, 2/5 shouldn't yield your highest earning potential unless those are literally the highest stakes offered in your area

Strap in brother, it only gets worse from here

Yeah - 55 is not early. I'm not claiming to retire early, more to embrace the principles of FIRE(Financial Independence Retire Early), so I can catch up after not having saved enough in my 20's.

Absolutely! Lot's of great financial literacy materials out there. For new investors I would recommend The Little Book of Common Sense Investing. It's concise, easy to digest and does a great job of dispelling a lot of the common biases new investors have. For example it nails down the math behind why trying to perfectly time a top or bottom of a market is nearly impossible, and averaging into the market steadily is instead a MUCH better approach.

Thanks for this suggestion slyless - I'll be sure to include more financial literacy learning resources in future posts.

In my next post I'm going to start a new portfolio. It'll be super basic, so if you are also interested in saving and averaging into the market - this will show you how I am approaching it(not financial advice). The portfolio will be designed to capture 5-9% annual returns over a 15 year time horizon. It'll mostly just be etf's with low expense fees, and the occasional stock that I am bullish on for some reason. There's a definite privilege to playing poker professionally. Keeping things in perspective helps me to eat my humble pie and save save save instead of trying to run it up. Perhaps one day my net worth can make it into the top 1.1% worldwide.



Image source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/dis...-wealth-chart/

You already in the 1% with a salary of 170k , you should know this.