I had a friend Dan and we both worked on the same team at Google. He figured out this idea where he sold SPY puts each month to generate enough income to live.

I had a friend Dan and we both worked on the same team at Google. He figured out this idea where he sold SPY puts each month to generate enough income to live. Covid tanked the market temporarily as this story touches on and he lost everything. Turns out he was leveraged as well and got margin called. I think he was playing with around $300k in real capital. He filed for bankruptcy last year. Its tempting to think we can outsmart the market there are so many of these stories. The funny thing is I also quit Google shortly after Dan did and independently had been trading stocks to live as well. Fortunately I started as a result of the pandemic dropping the market. Once I started raking in money, I left the job. I know of Dans story bc I went to him for advice. I thought he was still in it. His story was a reality check and made me somewhat more cautious. But really only in the back of my mind sitting next to another question: “when is it my time? When will I need to back to work bc I have nothing?”