Trading full time for a year any tips?

[Crazyskier]

I've said this before, but by going the sole trader route (free Starling business and personal accounts, BTW) and paying yourself by withdrawing profits to Paypal then Paypal to business account and then business account to personal account, there is no almost zero negative impact on one's credit score, other than 'employed' being considered safer than 'self employed' for lending purposes.

The worst that happens with any credit application is the lenders do an 'open banking' check of income into personal, or you can usually provide 3 months' worth of business banking statements which simply show Paypal as the legitimate method of income.

The level of income declared to HMRC and therefore tax liabilities are your own concern, however this route as suggested does allow you to continue with the old NI contributions, which can be very important as one approaches retirement.

CS

[LeTiss]

Not having any financial pressures is a huge bonus. This is where I was lucky early doors.....my redundancy cheque covered my expenses for 6 months. When you're dipping into your trading bank to cover lifestyle or household bills, you're dead in the water.

Don't be blinded or influenced by other people's green screens
A) Some of them will be lies anyway, doctored
B) You're running your own race, not theirs....cutting corners is a recipe for disaster, because that leads to a lack of discipline with staking, and that invariably leads to blown banks

Try to separate your trading from normal living, but also don't let it rule your life and impede upon your social life and relationships
That's the biggest mistake I made, and I still struggle to get the balance right 13 years later

[Diginet]

Thanks for the replies. Some interesting thoughts, I'm deffo gonna go for it next year I could now if I wanted but racing will be pretty dead I guess for the next few months. I may post some results in a few months.

Cheers

[Kai]

Thanks for the replies. Some interesting thoughts, I'm deffo gonna go for it next year I could now if I wanted but racing will be pretty dead I guess for the next few months. I may post some results in a few months.

Some of the replies make it sound like it's all doom and gloom, but obviously many positives to take as well. This time of year could be an opportunity to explore other markets, never hurts to widen your horizons, football's going to be packed etc.

Anyway, there's plenty of full-time advice around, if you do a basic search there are 24 threads with "full-time" in the title : search.php?keywords=full-time&terms=all ... mit=Search

You can always ask if you need feedback on something specific, there are still many experienced trading minds lurking around. The people in a trading community like this are probably the closest thing you can have as "co-workers", it can sometimes alleviate the boredom in-between markets, since the normie outsiders don't really understand the highs & lows of trading

Best of luck

[jamesedwards]

Thanks for the replies. Some interesting thoughts, I'm deffo gonna go for it next year I could now if I wanted but racing will be pretty dead I guess for the next few months. I may post some results in a few months.

Cheers

Just thought of something else, although it's a bit shady. Consider asking Betfair to set a decent deposit limit now if you are confident you can still claim existing employment and still have last 3 months payslips and bank statements to show them. It's a bit of a gamble in case you fail an affordability check now, but if they decide to check your affordability in the medium future and you have no demonstrable income you might well find yourself frozen out. Especially if you are a losing account while you trial and learn about trading. The whole thing is a minefield especially for new full-time traders.

[Westerner]

Take into account what Premium Charges will do to your overall P&L. Consider how that will change both your income and your psychological makeup.

If you are trading and consistently profitable you will run into them sooner or later.

[footysystems]

It's great being 55 paid all my stamp the world is my oyster

[PDC]

It's great being 55 paid all my stamp the world is my oyster

By stamp I am guessing you mean National Insurance Contributions.

If so, and if you have the option my advice to others would not be to be paying your NI contributions until you really need to. Once you have the correct number of qualifying years you still have to pay NI if say in regular employment but you don't get anything more for it, you are chucking money away. You want to try and optimise it so you pay just enough years but not a year more.

So at 55 you could end up paying 20+ years of NI for no benefit at all to yourself.

Though if you are able to pay self employed contributions you need to factor that into your calculations as those rates are a lot lower than paying voluntary contributions later.

But you need to consider the opportunity cost of that money you pay now, could it be better utilised else where.

And of course if you don't make it to State Pension age you will have paid a lot of money for nothing.

Something else I would add is pay into a SIPP even if you aren't earning/paying tax as you can pay in £2,880 each year as a non earner from the day you are born and the government will top it up with another £720 of tax relief (free money). You can have contributions up to 100% of your gross income up to £40,000 each year.

[footysystems]

Yes worked and paid my NI since I was 16. Job done along with a good pension from work. It's a case now when I retire and pressure off. Trading ft you I would be bored stiff

[ShaunWhite]

How about a little trading ambition here eh, I'm sincerely hoping that a poxy £120/wk pension from the govt will be pocket change by the time I'm entitled to it. A good run of six figure years and no income tax?...the govt won't even know where to send my pension because I'll be so far away. And to avoid the Care Home costs I'm dying in a hail of gunfire in a Colombian bar, too high and happy to know it's even happened.

[Realrocknrolla]

How about a little trading ambition here eh, I'm sincerely hoping that a poxy £120/wk pension from the govt will be pocket change by the time I'm entitled to it. A good run of six figure years and no income tax?...the govt won't even know where to send my pension because I'll be so far away. And to avoid the Care Home costs I'm dying in a hail of gunfire in a Colombian bar, too high and happy to know it's even happened.

Hell Yeah I am there with you!

Or Bolivia

[prestburydreams]

happy xmas have u gone bust last post the start of dec