Tela Holcomb was fired from her well-paying job in 2012 as a result of her side hustle – learning how to trade in stocks. Holcomb, a stocks and options trader, before gaining financial independence, had worked a 9 to 5 job and knew nothing about the stock world.
But with hard work and practice, as well as, the desire to achieve financial freedom, she perfected her skills and within four years, she had earned over $1 million from stocks and trading alone.
The other good news for the African-American mom and wife is that she was able to retire from her 9 to 5 job sooner than she had planned. Doing administrative work for the government for about seven years, Holcomb had planned to leave her job and achieve financial freedom by 2014 by teaching herself how to trade after a colleague’s advice.
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But in 2012, she lost her job.
“You’d think after losing my job I would’ve waved the white flag, but NOPE I didn’t. In fact, firing me was the best thing that employer ever did for me. And how could that be? Well, that unexpected kick in the butt forced me to use the stock market knowledge stored in my brain to achieve financial freedom even sooner than I’d planned.
“So, instead of retiring in 2014, I smacked financial freedom in the face and more than doubled my retirement account by 2013 – just 8 months after being fired from my “good-paying” job,” she said on her website.
When she started learning to trade, she was a single mom while having a well-paid job so she had to create time to practice.
“What I did was find the time that I was already pretty much wasting — like all the time I was using to watch television — and reallocate it to learning about stocks,” she told Bauce Mag in an interview.
“So while I sat outside and watched my daughter play, I would be reading a book about the stock market. I would be looking at stock charts. When I was sitting at doctor’s appointments waiting to be seen, I would be scrolling through information about stocks on my phone. I chose to use the dead times in my day also to do more studying and more learning,” she added.
Even though she lost money the first time she purchased a stock, she still kept on trying to practice to master her craft. She would soon learn the trends and differences in stocks, and ultimately she became fearless when it comes to trading and investing.
“The biggest mistake is trying to get out there with your real money when you have no idea what’s going on. I get people all the time that put their money out there and then they don’t even know how to sell it. Take the time to practice and learn this. The stock market’s not going anywhere. All this money is still going to be there to be made,” she told Bauce.
Having achieved so much in terms of financial independence within a few years, Holcomb believes that stocks are definitely one of the biggest paths towards financial freedom.
“I believe everyone should have stocks as a part of their wealth building or their “legacy building. Because we can’t pass down financial legacies if all we’re doing is saving and budgeting. So stocks, real estate, something of value – some type of investing needs to be a part of your wealth building plan so that you can start building a financial legacy within your family.”
Currently, the investor and serial entrepreneur has her own platform where she shares tips on stocks trading.
“I decided to create my own platform to educate people and share my story because when I started there weren’t very many people trading stocks that looked like me.
“…So it’s really for me to be out here and represent so that other black women (and men) can see what’s truly possible.”
For those who would want to trade their 9 to 5 jobs immediately and pursue her path, she recommended the following practice accounts – Investopedia and thinkorswim by TD Ameritrade.
Learn some of her tips in this video:
