Hey everyone. I'll introduce myself Grindbox, a broke (+ in debt) 23 year old high school dropout living overseas. I have been playing poker (mainly online) full time for the past 3 years now but due to bad financial education/habits (overspending, not reinvesting profits, being a degenerate ect) the past 3 years has been a constant roller coaster and I'm now broke. In regards to choosing poker as my source of income, please no comments saying 'gambling is bad, go finish school ect', its a legitimate form of income for many and my lack of stability is due to my own faults managing my time and money off the table and not the game itself. That said I've fully supported myself since I was 19 and solely through poker for the past 3 years. I'm joining this forum in order to connect with motivated and ambitious people who can help me pursue my dreams of financial freedom and a mental state of well being. I will treat this thread as my overall life/financial progress report, given thats allowed. Life summary (feel free to skip): I was born in eastern europe and moved to Canada when I was 3, I spent the next 10 years constantly moving around, lived in the states for a bit. At 13 my parents got divorced and I was forced to live with my dad who was mentally unstable and on welfare for the next 6 years. This forced me to start working at an early age and I would work late nights/completely miss my morning classes in highschool which eventually turned into me dropping out. Around this time I feel I picked up a lot of bad financial habits. As well as not having my adhd diagnosed until 2015 I was constantly struggling to 'fit in' with society so to speak. I started playing poker at the beginning of 2014 and had a real passion for it, I've never been a studious person but I really dedicated myself to this game and excelled faster than most. By the end of 2014 I quit my job to play full time. I moved overseas and was averaging about 80usd/hour playing online 6max NLH cash games by fall 2015. I always felt a bit depressed but thought it was circumstantial, and to someone who never had money making 80usd/hour made me feel like bill gates. I had a bit of fun for awhile but quickly came to realize I still wasn't happy which confused me and made me start questioning whether anything will ever make me happy. I started to slack off at work, got hooked on valium and xanax, had to drop down limits, lost my passion for the game and now here I am in Thailand while my gf pays my rent while I try to rebuild my bankroll from microstakes. Good news is I feel I've learned from my mistakes and have gotten motivated again and have a more solid mental approach now. Also I'm off the drugs/quit smoking (still take ritalin for my adhd) and I'm ready to start making progress again, that said I don't view poker as a long term thing, I wanna get out hopefully within the next 5 years. During this time I want to begin investing any excess money I make into assets and other areas and avoid indulging in any unnecessary luxuries. I have a couple of business endeavors in which I'm pretty confident and I aim to begin putting the theory into practice by the end of 2018. During this time I want to study a lot, not just poker. Things like business, investing, economics ect. In poker I feel having the right approach/talking with the right people was crucial in helping me to surpass my competition and I'm sure its no different in the business world so here I am. If any of you could nudge me in the right direction, suggest some books to read or videos to watch it would be greatly appreciated. I recently started something on the side to make a bit of money but for the most part poker is currently my only income and I'm looking to gain some sort of skills in other areas so that once I have rebuilt my roll I can start investing my money into other fields. Also I'm like 4k in debt from awhile back (stupid ik) so I want to rebuild my credit within the next few years. In the past it has helped me document my progress as well as having others keep me motivated, usually I'd do this sorta thing in a poker forum but seeing as my goal now is to transition onto something other than poker I think this is more appropriate bankroll: $675
