wolfpack 

They, like me, are using the APEX accounts to allow them to use OPM without putting a lot of theirs at risk while learning the process. I have a system that trades 10-25 contracts for small 2-5 tick gains and then out. Rinse and repeat over and over again each hour of the day. Our middle daughter was able to pass the eval on their 50k account within the first month and has had 2 months of taking $3k+ out each month... Doing great. Oldest just passed her first eval last week.

That is pretty impressive to earn $3K per month after only 3 months. Is it actual exchange trading with this group or is it sim trading?

+1 for OPM
One of the most useful (imo) tools in today’s trading world is the rise of the “prop firm” opportunity.
While many may disagree with the definition, as it’s unclear in many cases when the trades are really in the market, I would respectfully submit that it doesn’t matter as long as the trader gets paid.
I mention this on this thread as it’s a very low risk way to prove and hone your business model with little risk to the family reserves, yet offers real income potential.
I believe that if you can’t make it work in this environment, consistently getting payouts and not blowing accounts, then risking family cash reserves with the added pressures will increase the likelihood of failure, and absolutely be more harmful financially than the fees/costs of the prop service.
Yes there are fees, and one could argue that there is a predatory aspect of the model where failure fees pay the winners and provide company profits. For some that are really gamblers this may be so.
However, if one is truly interested in and committed to building a professional trading career/ business, this is a bridge that can make that possible by limiting the financial damage the inevitable failures could create.
It will likely still take months if not years, just like any business, to be consistently profitable. It’s not a shortcut, but rather a risk management tool.
Once consistency is achieved one can always start trading in other non-prop accounts of course, and there may be good reasons to do so (taxation differences etc.), but that’s a mature business decision that must only be heavily weighted *after* the business has proven it has a right to exist at all based on data driven results that will only be available after consistency has been proven over some period of time.
I am not affiliated with or promoting any particular prop firm, and they differ in costs, structure, etc. and one should compare carefully and get input from traders that have *successfully* used the platform as described above if possible.

I think that this strategy of limited risk, while still providing upside potential, can be easily explained to family, fix costs to an agreed upon level, and provide milestones for assessing progress just like any business must have to understand where it is on the map to stated goals. This reduces stress and promotes a business vs gambler perception of the endeavor.
Obviously (I hope) this isn’t addressing the need for a written trading plan, stat tracking, and other trading success measures.

Just my thoughts, YMMV, don’t believe a word, you do you, happy trails, good luck, tip your servers, don’t kick the cat or run with scissors. 🖖

Little update, since there has been an addition to the family in Aug 2023.

My wife has been very supportive of me doing what I do, my observation is there was a combination of multiple factors here;
1. Her family has few people who trade on the side or are involved in financial markets. I was not aware of this before marriage.
2. As marriage was still relatively new, she was probably also not trying to be antagonizing till at least it became some sort of problem.
3. Our financial needs were met and overall there was no burden on our family life, except my screen time. (I think Big mike was right when he asked me about this in 2021 in this thread). Surprisingly enough, It's not actually money, but my time allocation was a little bit of a problem.

We established ground rules to deal with that, for example, if she is home, my responsibility is to prioritize family. (This was workable as she earlier tried to do clothing business and later joined an educational institution as an accountant of purchase department). I felt it was a fair enough demand as I could utilize day time as per my liking.

As mentioned earlier in first line, things have now changed due to a new addition, we have had a baby girl and now there are extra responsibilities.

We are also in the process of building a farmhouse at our native place, which has hogged significant resources and my time. In this time, her side of family has become our support system as her mother takes care of our baby and my wife quite a bit. (My mother passed away when I was young, so this has fallen on her shoulders).

What is interesting to note is now my wife prioritizes our baby's future over everything else, including her, she has completely changed her spending habits, same is expected of me. She expects us to start saving funds and other valuables/assets for the future of our daughter from now on. Which is understandable, but this has directly cut my fun money pool. I'm not fully happy with this, but at the same time don't disagree with it.

I guess fatherhood is the time when a boy really starts becoming a man. In this 3 years of marriage we have seen a lot of good and bad, including loss of her father to liver cancer in a very first year of marriage, so we have also developed our relationship as a couple beyond early honeymoon period and I feel it wouldn't be fair of me to be headstrong about things which may affect our child in any negative way.

So as a result, my way of handling trading business has changed, now I'm more of a bystander than an active trader tbh. At least for a few more months, this is likely to continue. This doesn't mean I've stopped trading, I do it just rarely, and I might not even open the terminal every single trading session.

Nice update AllSeeker

AllSeeker 

now my wife prioritizes our baby's future over everything else

as it should be. As you hinted, life with children changes everything and I mean everything. The children's priorities become the parents' top priorities.

Hope to see you around still posting and contributing to the Funny Pics thread!