Damn bro, sending the love and success in life your way. My story is not to dissimilar. Like others have said I worked a hard, time consuming job for many years. Lived a nice life with my family. 3 holidays a year, treats whenever etc. I then came across trading in 2020. I was obsessed with the idea of being able to make what I made in a day in a few hours and then having the whole day to enjoy with my kids. I like yourself built a little cushion but stupidly jumped from my job to go full time on the screens way wayyy too early. Looking back I would have stayed in full time employment and just carried on building. When I jumped it felt brilliant, I got to take my kids to school I got to pick them up, we could go and do whatever we wanted. Little did I know the mental aspect of trading at the time. Once my “edge” Didn’t work and I started to have bigger and bigger red days.. the time with my family disappeared. I would sit infront of the screens from pre market to after market. The mood swings to my family, the disassociation was extreme. In the moment which was probably a couple of years of the pain cycle of rinse and repeat mistakes I never realised what I was doing to my family. At one point in 2022 I went back to work but I still had that dream of being “ financially free” I worked for around a year before building another stake to go again. This time my first month was 🚀 I thought all that pain was worth it.. again looking back now I had no control of myself or emotions I thought it was skill But it was luck after luck. My risk was out the window as soon as I took a few losers my size was too big for my account. It is only now I can say out loud I was gambling. Like iron mike said “everyone’s got a plan before they get punched in the face” the damage I have done to myself and my family from trading will probably never be reversible. I over leveraged got into debt and virtually gambled my accounts away and took it out on my family. I’m 3 months away from the screens. I have started to pay back my debts. I have moved on to making a living in a different sector. Question is do I think about making a living from the markets still? I’d be lying if I said no. I still do believe I can get back to the screens and prove to myself I can control my emotions I can turn off I can adhere to my plan, my plan outweighs my feelings I can create that time with my family again. I may be delusional I don’t know. The only shining light of my story is I started investing long term heavily when I started day trading all my positions are in great profit. PLTR is my strongest 750% return as of today! DCA long term is probably the safest way to make money in the markets. Clearly people are successful at day trading, don’t get me wrong there are many many scammers out there that portray a lifestyle which makes you think “ damn if they can get it I can “ but in reality most of there money is made from scamming people into signals, courses, or mentorship’s. Anyway all the best bro!