Leveraging your 9 to 5  Whether you're a real estate agent, a barista at Starbucks, or an employee at the ice cream factory. You may consider leveraging your earned income. Living off the money earned from your job and the invested money made from it. Note! If you're the comfortable type who is happy with your job, getting paid regularly, with health, dental, and vision benefits. You may not want to entertain the thought of investing, trading, or starting a business. Nothing is wrong with this option, sometimes playing it safe may be the best option. Furthermore, you may have a nice place, being paid just enough to afford rent/ mortgage, a few cars, and a few property upgrades. Life is good! It's safe, scripted, and comfortable. You don’t need to take a risk, everything just works, living out the same routine. You have hobbies but no purpose. Your goals are forgotten, your dreams are slipping by. And every day you become older with your life revolving around your job. However, my approach is one of leveraging my remaining earned income. Method 1 When doing this it's important to outline your expenses perfectly. We need to understand where the money goes perfectly. For instance, let's say we take in $3,000 monthly after taxes. You have rent or mortgage do which is $1,050. That leads us to $1,950, if you have a car payment then let's subtract maybe $300 monthly. We have $1,650 maybe another $500 in bills, $1,150 is what we're left with. Let’s take out another $150 for food leaving $1,000. This will look different for everyone maybe you're left with more maybe less. Nonetheless, let’s figure out what to do with the remaining $1,000. Whether you have Fidelity, eTrade, Chase, etc. I choose to do my direct finances in investment accounts. Any money I choose not to move is left in to gain interest and used to be held in bonds and reliable blue-chip stocks like Tesla. Over a thousand will be split and sent to various accounts like TD Ameritrade Webull and eTrade for swing trading. This process will be detailed in another article. But I usually prefer to swing trade in accounts under $25,000 and I have two accounts over $30k I use for day trading.  Method 2 Extremely similar to method 1. The main difference is to have a base of at least $3,000 in your spending and bill account at all times. When trading makes sure to take profits from your trading accounts to refill your spending and bill account. So you’ll always have money for bills and expenses. The caveat to this is that your account needs to be large and stable to make enough profits to refill that account. Any leftover profits can be used at your discretion. For me. I use it for reinvesting and growing my trading accounts larger. The larger the accounts, theoretically more money can be made. More money means larger trades and higher yields. It takes practice to perfect trading. Take it slow research swing trading to grow your accounts large enough to day trade. When things are well you can average anywhere from an extra $100 to $5,000+ a month. Take it slow. Grow it little by little until you feel comfortable to withdraw from them. It’s easier for this to happen in larger accounts. In the beginning, continue to divide portions from the remaining expenses in your earned income. Grow these accounts large enough to make a decent profit after each trade. Reinvesting in your business  Since I’m able to live on my (leveraged) job income, every penny of business income gets to be reinvested. In the beginning, I used portions of the leveraged profits to start and fund my business after it stabilized. I live by keeping my business money and earned income separate. I’ve never used money made from businesses for myself. Not even living expenses. Thus I don’t have any immediate intentions of giving up my day job. While others are favoring their jobs, moving up the ladder. I use a job as a tool so that I may grow in business, and live worry-free. I’m at a job for a check, not make friends or fit in. I won’t go into much detail on the business, but I’ll briefly explain the process. There’s an online sales, reselling, and drop shipping bushiness existing with their domains including various consumer-to-consumer platforms such as eBay, Amazon, and Etsy… When the product is sold I can buy more products at larger bulks, larger crates, and more frequently. My goal is to match the demand with more surplus and offer more variety through the various stores. Revenue will rapidly increase at a multiplied rate since I can reinvest 100% of its income. I soon plan to buy a warehouse to house even larger quantities, and order by the truckloads. I’ll hire more help when rapidly expanding to help the demand, marketing and shipping speeds, etc. I'll still be at my day job long after so I may continue to follow my 100% reinvestment plan. I’ll quit my job at some point but it’s in no nearby plan at the moment. However, I will leave the more physically laboring job I care very little for. For a more related one such as all-in on YouTube, freelance, and even personal training. All of which will cover my living just as well. Conclusion Live your life however you see fit, where all different with varying goals in life. Some people choose to live safely in their view of the “American Dream”. Others choose to maximize the full benefits of capitalism, living life more as a producer rather than the consuming masses. Earned income is good when society is functioning properly ie pre “2008 crash” and post COVID-19. Being safe and dependent relying on your employer may not be for the smarter risk-taking man. Leverage your money, create a business or just have a little more set aside for however you see fit. Safe hasn't been safe since the 60’s wake up, learn to make your income.

Have you ever had the feeling that everything may just be a simulation? Now hold on a sec! Hear me out. I’ll back my claims with proof and statistics, just bear with me. Think back to grade school, high school & college. Have you ever noticed the strong push for getting a good job or a high-salary-paying career? It was spoken gospel as if it was the only path for survival. Working 40+ years, retiring on a 401k, etc., possibly retire a “millionaire” in your 60’s. Then spend the rest of your life retired on an island... That is the message they drill in kids well into teen and adulthood. The education system was designed in elementary school to teach us all to be followers. Those who sit still, behave, do what is told, and be obedient workers at a job. Some of whom will take their education seriously. Aiming to become one of the top earners at a reputable career. Or perhaps starting their own business a dropout. Or graduate to become an outlier; To become overly obsessional at their craft, business, etc. Since the early 18th to 19th century during the industrial revolution; Capitalism and industry became the primary focus for education in countries such as England and America. Pushing the need for obedient (technical knowledgeable) workers to man the machines and manage the facilities. This meant throughout k-12, there has been a strong focus to prepare you for just the right amount of knowledge and education to survive the basics throughout life.  So why you may ask; What does this have to do with being programmed to be poor? Everything. There is no push for financial education. Ironically there are many books on how to grow your money. How to invest, trade. How to recondition what you were taught, and learn to think for growth and improvement. You name it there are books, blogs, research, etc. on the topics. There are so many ways to make money, however, none of them is taught to you. The information is there for those who actively and relentlessly seek it.  Conclusion Whether you are aware of it or not, your life and journey have essentially been determined for you. It’s up to you to choose who you want to be. There’s nothing wrong with being like everyone else if that's your desire. Being good at your job, doing what you told, moving up the ladder, and retiring at 59+ years old on your 401k.  Optimally it's not your fault if you have this mentality. This work till you retire, is the same old shit that’s been happening for decades. Almost anyone who’s been embedded into the work culture has the same conditioned dream. To fucking survive, not get fired and hope for the best. Oh! And floss on the other employees while you're at it. (Blue Pill Society) We’ve been all programmed to not go outside the box and to fear those who have. Or you can live an exciting life with winding roads. Putting it all on the line for your dreams for whatever that may be. Anything outside what you have been trained for. Become your own employee. TAKE RISK!!! Sign your own checks, take long breaks, go and work on vacation. Whatever. Starting a business, becoming a professional athlete, a freelancer, independent contractor... You are the boss of your own life you decide. Not some guy who’s your boss that also has a boss, that has a boss... Or become a hybrid work for someone and work for yourself, it’s your life.  Develop a solid game plan and escape the simulation. Sometimes working at a place you despise is necessary to put food on your table for you and your family. But it shouldn’t be the only thing going for you. If you lose your job you're more than likely to suffer. Take small steps to plant seeds and spread your eggs out in multiple baskets. This platform will get you well on your way to financial freedom if that’s what you choose to do.

If you're a long-term reader of kodoninja you know investing and trading is a big part of what we do here. So where do you start if you want to begin your investment journey? I have a few options for you. But first, lets address the elephant in the room. We all start the race in different places, some may have a few dollars, a few hundred, or thousands. Regardless of where you're starting the race, these apps will help you get started. Depending on how much money you're starting your accounts with; or where you are located this will limit what you can do, like day-trading or shorting stocks. We are focusing on investing, however, if you wanted to day trade, you’d need an account minimum of $25,000. That’s 25k minimum after each trade. No worries if you wanted to day-trade there is an overseas-based platform that goes around the Pattern Day Trader rule… However, if you like most who cannot get started with $25,000. We can easily grow your accounts with swing trading. Next to day trading, this is my second favorite form of trading. It doesn’t matter how much you start your account with, there aren’t any limitations regarding swing trading, as long as you exit the trade a day or two later. Alright, so you have your seed money now which apps are good for beginners? I’ve listed some of my favorite go-to apps that I use regularly. But before you even get started I hope you’ve at least watched a few YouTube videos, and maybe a book or two on investing and swing trading. The risk can be multiplied if you go in uneducated on investing. Beginner 1. Webull Webull is my favorite out of everything I’ve tried. This platform is loaded with all kinds of analytical charting and measurements to help you make the best trades possible. The stock screener, in my opinion, is one of the best and closely relates to StocksToTrade my go-to stock screener for years. 2. Moomoo Moomoo is new to me but so far this app seems to be amazing. Very similar to Webull this app comes loaded with all kinds of charting software to ensure you make the best trades possible. May I also mention like Webull, Moomoo also has an amazing desktop and app platform. 3. E-Trade E-Trade has been around for quite some time… It offers everything you’ll need in a trading platform. It’s even a bank I have a checking and debit card from e-trade, along with a Robo-advisory account, and a few more accounts I use for trading and investing. 4. M1 This one is a bit more unique out of the ones mentioned on the list. There is no desktop version but there is a powerful mobile app that allows you to see and manage your investments at a glance on a pie chart. The pie chart from M1 Finance makes it so much easier to manage just how many shares you have invested in any given stock. They offer fractional shares which allows you to stretch your money so much further. 5. Robinhood Despite the mainstream controversy with GameStop, this is a pretty amazing app. Like e-trade and M1 Finance. You have an option to have a debit card linked to a checking. This is such an amazing feature because If you like me and love to spend money made from your trades. You can sell full shares of your stocks or fractional shares. Then spend that money on your card. Conclusion Alright, so I gave you a few options you’ll want to choose to get started with your investment journey… I have everything mentioned in the list above. Of the accounts mentioned above, I only have thousands invested in these mainstream platforms. One thing I love to do is start new accounts within the same platform, no more than a few hundred, then grow them. All my accounts started from a few hundred and have grown to what they are now. If you follow me closely you know I don’t like to own anything and am working towards starting my own holding company to hold my assets beyond my monthly expenses. Since I started all my accounts under $25,000 I couldn’t do day-trading in the beginning so I relied on swing trading and lots of it. Once those accounts exceeded 25k then I could day-trade freely. Although many use these platforms for day-trading. I only use the mainstream apps for supplemental investing. The approach I took was different on each account. But I diversified in some shape or form. We’ll get more into trading methods in a guide. But for now, I recommend you research swing trading, & blue chips.