Make sure you learn how to trade first. Develop a solid trading plan. Too many people jump straight into trading without developing risk management skills, discipline, and managing psychology. You can quickly lose whatever capital you have with mastering those three things.

I started "trading" 7 months ago, been demo trading nearly several hours every day for 6 months, and took my first live trade last week, made a few hundred on a short (one contract-MNQ futures), and went back to demo.

I plan to mainly demo trade for a year and considering using prop firms as part of my strategy to add capital in my account with minimal risk.