When given the opportunity to join Tim's Challenge in August 2020, after giving it some thought I decided to give it a go.  I knew deep down I could be successful with a lot of hard work and a long time to learn.  I came into this starting at 50 years old. I've worked for 26 years in software engineering and government contracting.  I enjoy what I do, but trading has always intrigued me.  I've been in the stock market trading for 30 years, but mostly hold and wait and sell eventually after months or years depending on the blue-chip stock. Never having been involved in trading volatile penny and sub-penny stocks until I joined the challenge!

But I want more, I want the freedom to travel and donate and give back and enjoy life without working in a cubicle for the next 15 years.  I joined, have been learning, and as dedicated as possible.  Working a full-time day job at home for much of the past year-plus has given me the opportunity to watch live webinars and ask questions and watch the chatroom and learning from my mentors, as well as making small trades to determine what my trading personality is and figure out what my best patterns are.

Though I know it is going to be a huge challenge when I return to the office full-time days within the next 2-3 months, I accept that challenge and will figure out how to make it work.  Life is full of challenges, it is learning how to work around them to be successful and make you happy as a person.  Happiness and helping others truly makes life worthwhile and worth living!

Some days I really have to push myself through even though I have some self-doubt as to whether I will make it and be successful.  I became a lifetime challenge student recently to give myself the opportunity to learn for life. I read an article Tim sent just recently that keys into feelings I'm sure everyone has had during their journeys. Some days I wonder if I belong as I see friends and fellow traders in the chat room being successful, though Ellis recently reminded me to follow my journey and that truly makes sense.  We are all unique and have different circumstances for where and when we started this journey.

Yesterday, I effed up yet again, and had nothing to do with trading, per se! I took money out of my TDA account to use to add to my down payment for a condo I am about to settle on and purchase and that put me below $25K and therefore am back under PDT again. Had to deal with a little situation with TDA since I was subject to margin call since I am labeled a day trader and taking that money out threw a big red flag to TD Ameritrade!