How I Make a Living Without a Job

[00:00:00]how I make a living without a job for almost 10 months now. A lot of you know that I quit my corporate job last September. So, it's been about 10 months since I quit. A lot of you are probably curious about so all right exactly how do I make a living now that I don't work for any companies or employers anymore.

[00:00:22]In this video, I'm breaking down all the income streams that I currently make and also how do I structure my portfolio to allows me to sell option on top of my existing position. As always, everything I share also has a timestamp down below, so please feel free to jump to the section you're most interested in. If you're new, hi, my name is Michelle. I quit my job last year to become a full-time option trader. Well, also a YouTuber because I always wanted to have my own YouTube channel and that is exactly what I'm doing right now. On this channel, I mostly talk about life after fire, how do you finance your life and things related to money investment and some money psychology. Subscribe to follow along my journey if this is something you're interested in. Now let's go straight to my current passive income. And for the passive income part, I need to lay down some fundamental because the reality of how I was able to quit was not because of luck or anything. I worked really hard for about 15 years switching multiple jobs in order to get a higher income. And I always have been prioritizing saving over spending in the past 10 plus years.

[00:01:44]So when I decided to quit, my main passive income is really my over decade uh portfolio that I have been saving up over a long term. What do I have in those portfolio? The majority of the assets I am invested in are related to broader US stock market such as S&P 500 index fund. All the broker will have their own S&P 500 index. You can easily find one that works for you. But for me, my investing style is I know I'm not good at picking individual companies, but I do believe over the long period of time, the US economy will continue to go up. So that is what I choose to invest.

[00:02:33]And over the years, I set up auto investments. Sometimes if I have additional income when I had a job, for example, if I get a bonus or if I get some company stocks, I will just dump that into S&P 500 index fund. I do not look at the timing when to buy. If I get some extra cash, I just immediately go buy the index fund. And my philosophy is buy and hold forever. kind of like Warren Buffet because I do believe that's how over time you are able to generating wealth and you want that money continue to work for you. Your existing portfolio depending on your age and where you are at on your fire journey. The younger you are, you want to put more in the stocks and like higher risk, higher return kind of things. The older you are, the closer you are at reaching your fire stage, you probably want to switch some of your portfolio to lower risk um more stable reward kind of things such as bonds probably or maybe you want to put a bit more cash in the money market fund just in case of the rainy days. When I quit my job last year, I was simply thinking, "Oh, I can probably just live up my portfolio for a very long time. If I don't splurge, if I just live a humble life and not travel too much, I'll probably be fine." And I was also planning to run my YouTube channel that I was thinking, okay, YouTube can probably make some money, too. And anyways, so that was what happened uh last year when I decided to quit. Now, fast forward, it's been 10 months. Let's go over some of the active income since I quit. What are some additional income stream that I have currently to sustain my lifestyle? Now, first one, obviously, how you find me is through YouTube. And for YouTube, if I get more than 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hour, I will get some money mostly from the ads. So when you watch my video, you sometimes see an ad and maybe I'll get 1 cent or however amount. It's very little. My YouTube income is not substantial at all. I'm not able to live up YouTube.

[00:05:00]And the YouTube income also fluctuates really widely because I will have really good months when I have a lot of views and subscribers, but I also have month that's very flat. So my YouTube income currently is somewhere between 300 to 1,000 a month. It's somewhere it's somewhere within that range. Uh I know it is a wide range, but that is just the reality of YouTube. I I feel very grateful that I can even make money from YouTube. This is just a amazing platform that I get to connect with people who are like-minded and I'm able to share what I learned along the journey. And hopefully some of you, you will be able to use some of the maybe mistakes or things I learned along the way to help you facilitate your FIRE journey. And so YouTube money, yes, it is not a lot at all. For me, YouTube is a passion project. It is a platform again just for me to share my thoughts and hopefully have some positive influence to some of the people's life and that makes me feel this is a meaningful work.

[00:06:12]Miscellaneous.

[00:06:14]Maybe a few times out of the year I get to work for some modeling work or playing in some small roles in some commercials that I don't think anyone really watch and for those kind of job uh I I usually get paid like couple hundred or 1,000 2,000 per work um but that again that miscellaneous modeling work it's very it's not sustainable at all because most of the time I don't get any work at all. I think that industry is really for like pretty young people and for someone that's middle-aged it just it's a much smaller market. But that's also something I enjoy doing and I see that as just some fun project and I don't care too much about the money.

[00:07:04]It just it's something quite new for me and and it's fun and I get paid doing what I like. That's also some income that sometimes I make some money. Uh some month I get nothing. Uh but that's okay. Option trading. Now the option trading is absolutely the main current income that uh that I am relying on. uh for the option trading part I do want to emphasize that the option trading it does require some capital and for me my setup is my money is fully invested in index fund so I'm not really pulling additional money to trade option I'm simply trading on top of however much I already have and also I am an option seller I want to share a few points about Why I prefer to sell option versus buy? When you sell option, first of all, you get money up front. And that cash in a brokerage account, most broker will put it in a money market fund. And so that money will usually make around maybe 3% interest or something like that. Or you can use that money to pay off expense that you need to pay in your life. That is one benefit that I really like. The other benefit about selling versus buying is you get 100% control of what kind of contract you wanted to sell, right? You decide what ticket name you wanted to sell. For me, I like to sell on S&P. I have video that talk about exactly why I like to trade SPX for because they're cash saddle. Also, there are some tax benefit. their European style meaning it will not get exercised before the expiration date.

[00:08:58]However, not all the market is suitable for selling option. Typically, when you sell, you want to sell when there are more volatility, when there's a lot of uncertainty in the market. That's kind of the time when you wanted to sell because during those uncertainty time, you get paid more when you sell. The other thing about selling option which I think is super important is if you're selling option ideally you're selling a spread. Spreads why I like to sell spreads because when you sell a spread your risk is defined and you want to know 100% all the time whenever you sell a contract what is your potentially max loss. No matter how slim the probability is, you you have to know and you need to be okay with that maybe 0.01% or however low the chance is. It is it is possible that black swan event happen and your contract will lose to that max loss. Are you okay with it? If you're okay with it, then yes, you can sell that contract. So for me, that's always been my north star. Every time I sell a contract, I am absolutely aware of the potentially max loss and I am okay with it. That's uh that's how I sell option.

[00:10:23]On this channel, I have plenty of video that talk about exactly my monthly income. Obviously, there will have good months and bad months and I have been pretty honest and candid with this con community that I share all my trades in the prior month including my income or losses. So check out the video uh if you have not already. And last but not least, I want to share a bit more about the philosophy that is not really related to money. Um I think the other really important thing in life is all of us we have to determine what is the important thing in life that you want to prioritize. And for a lot of us, sure, money is probably on the top three, but there are other things that's important too. And one thing I always try to remind myself is it's very important for all of us to know what is enough like how much is enough for your individual situation. uh how much will look very different for every individual because we have different aspiration of life.

[00:11:37]Some people might need very little and they feel content. Some people might need a lot to feel enough. And so you need to figure that out for your own and maybe for your family as well. And unfortunately the modern life setting uh especially in America the corporate structure I think the structure is sort of setting you up to work in some corporation and make money and our culture also encourage you to spend money. So a lot of the time the more you make the more you spend and you're not really saving and you're spending all those years just to work and spend a lot of money for I don't know for what maybe for some nice cars or some nice mansion or yacht whatever luxury that you like.

[00:12:32]Um for me that's not really the life that I aspire to. For me, I really value the freedom and I have zero desire to respond to some boss or some employer. I always have really low tolerance to talk or interact with people that I don't like or that irritates me. I have been really valued the independence and freedom as a woman that I feel I'm very lucky that I am able to to live in this era that woman can work and make a money and sustain themselves as well not just always rely on a man or a husband and I truly value that independence so much as I got older I think I value that independence and aut autonomy even more compared to when I was much younger. So yeah, so those are the things that really brings me fulfillment and joys in life. And of course a lot of these security and fulfillment it does come from you need to have a very secure base that can sustain your basic needs. And that secure base it doesn't happen overnight. For most of us, if you don't have a rich parent, which most of us don't, I I hope you recognize that a lot of these appear to be successful people on the internet or whoever influencer you follow, they grind a very long time in order for you to discover them to see how successful they are. because when most of the people when they are just head on working and grinding and saving up no one will notice that anyways I'm sharing all that I really just wanted to share that it is absolutely possible if you are focusing on just one to two things in life and focus on those things for a very long time you will be able to reach the goal you want such as financial independence It will not be easy and you need to sacrifice things for sure like I sacrifice things when I was younger in order to achieve what I value the most.

[00:14:54]Not what other people tell you but what I value the most because at the end of the day only you yourself know what is the best for you. You know deep down in your heart what do you really want in life. Don't listen to other people because they don't know you. They don't know what's good for you. They don't know what you want. And if you're walking the path that you choose and you fail, I think that's absolutely fine because because you fail and then you try again, right? It's not a big deal.

[00:15:28]All right. Anyways, I think that is enough chitchat for this week. Thank you so much for tuning in. And if you have not already, I put out monthly video that talk about exactly how much I make every month selling option. So check them out to learn more. Thank you so much for tuning in. Stay safe out there and happy trading.