It only took 49 days. 49 days to go from someone who had no idea what to do with his money to someone who was actively pushing forward with a financial plan that will, I believe, allow me to retire early. 49 days early to feel as if I was in control of my money for the first time since I graduated college some 15 years before. 49 days may sound like a lot. It’s like going to the gym: if you’re willing to invest in yourself and muscle through the hard parts, the rewards are exponential. But I want you to know: I didn’t think I had it in me. I can’t tell you how many diets I’ve abandoned, how many devices like the P90X are in my garage, or how many times I’ve given up on my new dreams by January 11th. The difference this time? Learning about investing was fun. I don’t mean interesting like attending a lecture or fulfilling like learning how to whittle, I mean fun. You’re probably wondering how 49 days of learning about investing on the internet was remotely fun. That’s a very fair question. I fell in love with this process by approaching it from two distinct angles. 1) Learning to argue responsibly Internet arguments are normally the bane of society if you ask me. I enjoy them in the moment—I can’t help myself—but afterwards I feel a bit gross. I think the reason most internet arguments feel so futile is because they’re counterproductive. Are you enriched by arguing politics with your uncle? Probably not. But as I was learning about investing, I found a way to make internet arguing feel like the debates of old. Something that helped me learn, made me analyze my positions and helped me really analyze investing as a whole. As is true of real estate, location is everything when it comes to internet arguing about investing. I tried joining investing Facebook groups and found them to be abysmal. When I found ScorePriority Club I knew I’d found a haven for getting into things in a way that was enlightening and fun. 2) Trade with other people’s money Want to take the pressure off of investing? Use someone else’s money. Sound to good to be true? Check out Try2BFunded. Try2BFunded is a prop trading site that lets you access their capital and split your profits. After you break through the qualifying stage—which took my 6 weeks—you’ll start seeing 60% of the total profits you made by setting up a diverse portfolio. Those 6 weeks may sound long, but without the qualifying round, I never would never have learned how to manage risk so responsibly. The layout of Try2BFunded reminded me of computer games I loved when I was a teenager, and the different qualifying stages reminded me of leveling up. Finally, I’m making money as I game. I guess my mom was wrong!