My Story
From age 21-23 I accumulated day trading losses of over $250,000. I traded with money from loans as well as trading my mother’s account (to the tune of 150K in losses).
In other words, I was the stupidest kid ever.
I finally started getting my act together in Jan. of 2007, after a last ditch effort to convince my mother to let me trade more (with her money)…I hit rock bottom. I confessed what I had done to my family, and started to clean up. I saw a counselor for some time, short sold my home, lived in my office for 2 months, declared personal bankruptcy, and completely revamped my small business…and that was just the 2nd half of 2007.
I started this blog originally as just a journey to keep me on track, as well as have a place to process everything that was happening. That’s still pretty much the focus of the blog, though I do write helpful credit/debt posts from time to time now.
As of March, ‘08 I still have just over $250,000 in unsecured debt (not including student loans). Over 100K of that is business debt.
I don’t know what my future is going to look like. I do know that I’ve grown a ton in the past year, largely in part because of this blog. My readers keep me accountable and inspire me to keep going, even when I get overwhelmed with the enormity of the situation.
“a man must take responsibility for his actions” - Lee Adama ( Battlestar Gallactica, 1st Season)
- contact me: admin @ debtkid dot com
I’m open to interviews, and I could talk for hours on the follow topics:
- foreclosures, short sales (ie, how I short sold my home)
- bankruptcy (I did a Ch. 7)
- 20’s and money problems (I’m 24….)
- day trading/forex trading losses
- being frugal
- dealing with debt
Audio Overview
An interview I did with a finance radio show in Texas:
DebtKid on NetworthIQ
This # is a total debt calculation, it includes my student loans, my mom debt, business debt…everything.
Here’s an interview I did over at Geezeo that covers quite a bit as well.
Want to Follow My Journey? Subscribe. 
on March 5th, 2008 at 5:24 am
[…] I took some time to update my “about me” page yesterday. You can see the updated version here. […]
on March 5th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Oh my… I thought I was in deep. I’m really interested to keep up on your progress. Hang in there! Nice touch sinking subscribe deally - at least your sense of humor has remained in tact : )
on March 6th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Good lord, dude! At 24 I was still in college… I didn’t get around to screwing up my financial future until atleast 26. I must be an underachiever.
Seriously though, that’s a helluva story. I don’t know what you do for a living, but even a quarter-million down is do-able.
I’m a quarter-mil down too, but only $150k is unsecure, the rest is mortgage… so I feel some of your pain.
Good luck with the rest, I’ll definitely be following
Mike
on March 7th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Debtkid: I love your blog. I am a geek too, but much older and also in DEBT! Stupid me, I let my husband do the bills. Bless his heart, he never really kept track of how much debt we owed. Once the monthly minimum payments increased last year, we were in serious trouble. In December, I took over the bill paying (and yes, creating a budget and following it). I am a few credits away from a MBA and have a MS in IT, so it just makes sense that I do the bills (duh!!!). We are debt $114,000 (counting my student loan), along with being parents to three small children from South Korea - ages 9, 7 and 4 years old - our oldest son just diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome (Autism). I am now trying to deal with the debt collectors (what fun!) and trying to convince the credit card companies to accept our low, affordable, monthly payments. I am also trying to start a small business (IT and accounting), along looking for a part-time job to pay off these debts quickly and selling our useless stuff on Ebay!! Hang in there! I appreciate your honesty! Good luck and keep posting your blog entries. You are an inspiration to us all!
Dawn
on March 11th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
[…] say it’s hard to lose $250,000. But it’s actually far easier than you might think. Take Debt Kid’s story, for example. He "managed" to lose that much in only two […]
on March 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Wow… impressive in the worst way possible. Best of luck with everything. I’ll definitely be watching via RSS!
on March 24th, 2008 at 8:00 am
I thought I was in trouble with my $30,000 debt ( credit cards, car loan and personal loan) and a job loss, but this doesn’t compare with you. So I will be taking this journey with you. I hope I can be debt free by the end of this year.
on March 25th, 2008 at 9:42 am
This is definitely scary. I had $30k of debt at the beginning of this month and I’m also trying to get rid of it as quickly as possible. I thought I had a hill to climb, but you certainly have a mountain range.
on March 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I love all your info on short sales and foreclosures. You are very well versed in it. As for the tax implecations on a short sale, President Bush signed in to effect a bill that provides tax forgivness on short sales, which should help short sale sellers somewhat.
How do I become one of your recommended Realtors?
I work in the Metro Washington DC area, licensed in Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC. I am very knowledgable and versed in short sales and foreclosures. I am honest and ethical and always educate my clients so that they may make an informed decision, not what I want them to do, but an educated decision on their own.
I love your blog!
Lisa
on March 25th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
@ Lisa, I’ll add you to my spreadsheet. Thanks for the comment!
on March 28th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Hey man,
Love the blog - sorry to hear about your problems but it’s great to see your working hard. Im 23 and can’t imagine that stress. Keep going - it will work out
on March 29th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Interesting story. It goes to show that you can’t dig yourself out of a hole.
I am curious though, since I am a mildly successful day trader- Tell me, when you started losing money, why didn’t you adjust your trading strategy? Did you not learn from your loses, or were you convinced that you had it right and the market would eventually go your way?
I have read many books on successful traders, and they are all different, but reach success all the same. I am very curious to hear about the mistakes you made in day trading, and why you continued to make those mistakes. Do you go too far out on margin, were you trading stocks, options, etc?
I look forward to reading more.
on March 29th, 2008 at 10:19 am
No, it is not a good figure. Yes, it is deeper than a lot. But there is always going to be someone else out there worse off than you.
You are not alone, and amazing things are going to happen along the road to get you out of debt if you take advantage of this unfortunate situation in the right way. Remember that. I’m hear commenting. There will be others. They will inspire you. Think of Dave Ramsey … his failure paved the road to his success.
You’ll learn how to achieve real wealth. I’m staying tuned to you …
on April 7th, 2008 at 7:24 am
[…] victim to the sunk-cost fallacy. I recently had coffee with “Debt Kid” and listened to his story. After some initial success with day trading, Debt Kid found himself down $2,000. Rather than […]
on April 7th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
sadly enough, its somewhat comforting knowing you are not alone. I’ve spent 50k on a wedding and completely regretting every penny of it. your journey came from high intentions of an actual investment…mine, not so much = ( I admire your maturity and your willingness to share openly. I’m on the verge of filing for bk13 and finding your blog today has shed some sanity on my situation, if that makes any sense. I’ve been completely depressed over some time now and have pretty much disappointed myself completely. I wish you the best and will be checking in every so often.
on April 27th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
My profile is very similair to yours. I had a negative 60 K balance in my day trading account when I was 30 yrs old. Keep your spirits high because this experience is what transformed me. Now I have changed so much in life that my networth grows steadily every year, recession or not.
Wealth is not the destination. It is the path to the destination.
Atleast you are not shy to talk about this. I withdrew like a turtle.
on April 28th, 2008 at 8:25 am
“I’ve spent 50k on a wedding and completely regretting every penny of it.”
That must have been some wedding. Did you borrow money to pay for it?
on April 30th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
I really like in the audio clip where you and the host talk about “marketing with God”. I’ve never really known what to call it but nothing irritates me more than when people abuse that. It’s always made me avoid the topic for risk of unintentionally “marketing with God” myself.
Best of luck.
on May 8th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
DebtKid,
Love the blog. Like yourself, I am a geek who is blogging for the inspiration to keep paying off the debt.
Wow. That’s a lot of debt.
Good luck to you and your endeavor.