backtoswdev15

I don't do day trading as I don't have the personality for it. And I think it would have been difficult to be successful over a longer period because of the fees.

My investment style is value investing, primarily in the nano- and microcap space (i.e., companies with a market capitalization of less than $300 million).

Active investing is something you can easily start doing on the side: to find your personal style, and, probably most important, to experience losses and the effect it has on you. And of course to figure out whether it is really something you want to do, because I think people often have a wrong idea of what it means to do investing for a living. At least in my case, it primarily consisted of reading. Absolutely unsexy.

Thanks for mentioning QA, that was not on my radar.

The depression is currently not a problem. It's main reason, the skin problem, is fortunately gone.

That site looks useful, thanks.

Interesting ideas, thanks. Definitely worth to investigate more.

That's a good point.

Here it is common to have a probation period between one to three months, which can be terminated by both parties on short notice. And you can also define a lower salary during this period.

Hence the workaround with being a contractor first is probably not necessary with a local employer, but with a foreign employer it's probably the only solution.

Good point, thanks.

As I mentioned in another comment, a frugal lifestyle also played an important role.

I create models of income statements, it's nothing fancy. And no, I don't use data analysis.

I use "self-employed portfolio manager" in my CV.

There was a lot of luck involved that allowed me to do it for so long, and a frugal lifestyle also played an important role. I have no car and I live in a ~16sqm "tiny home", so there is not much space to have stuff and the rent is low.

I create the financial models with Google sheets.

Good idea about the freelancing sites, that could buy me some more time. Thanks.

Thanks for your great points.

Thanks for your idea, this was not on my radar so far. I'll have to investigate it further.

Thanks for your idea.

Unfortunately I don't have any Apple hardware. I have to check whether there is a way to do it on Linux.

Yes, I made my investment decisions based on that work, though not from the beginning. My first "investments" were of the kind: ah, stock XY dropped by 50% in a day, it must be cheap now.

I made some money, otherwise my savings wouldn't have lasted so long. But I failed to make enough to make it sustainable.

That are good project ideas, thanks.

Yes, I never held a traditional full-time job during this time.

Thanks for your answer and the links.

It doesn't necessarily have to be web development. During my apprenticeship I worked on technical apps (for example, one Delphi app I wrote calculated and printed some common sheet metal unwindings for the internal locksmith shop), and that was also interesting.

Yes, I received a CS degree.

In the past 15 years I read a lot, analyzed companies/special situations, and created financial models in order to invest my savings. Plus I learned a few languages, primarily for reading purposes. And I've been active in a depression/suicide channel, trying to "help" people.