How Teri Ijeoma quit her job in education to trade stocks and travel the world

Meet Teri Ijeoma, a millionaire, stock investor, and entrepreneur who teaches others how to invest in the stock market. Though her journey to becoming a stock investor has been unconventional, she has managed to create a purposeful and unique path. 

She first got interested in stocks when she was in high school. After graduating from college, she interned at Morgan Stanley, where she was exposed to the financial markets. She later switched to the world of consulting before deciding to pursue something else, which led to a position in education, she told Side Hustle Pro.

This was influenced by her childhood and family background. The mission is to work with Teach for America, a non-profit organization whose mission was to help create equal opportunity to access education. She was in charge of planning operations for the courses and workshops run by the organization for their corps members and eventually became an assistant principal at a newly launched school.

As she worked in education, she started trading stocks as a side hustle. At a point, it brought in $300 per day, which influenced her decision to quit her career in education and focus on stock trading full-time.

Today, she is the founder of Trade and Travel, where she teaches people how to trade and find financial freedom while living their dreams. The company is a combination of her passion to teach others about trading and traveling around the world.

Ijeoma combined education and stock trading. However, in 2017, the sudden death of a close friend led her to reassess how she lived. After some reflection, she realized she had always wanted to travel around the world.

She realized she needed extra income to fund her travels and support herself after quitting her regular job. After making her calculations of making $300 per day through the stock market, she decided to quit.

Prior to that, she spent time educating herself and doing more programs and courses – within six months, she had reached her goal. After quitting, she set off on a tour to Asia and Oceania in 2017.

She launched a course in stock trading, which cost $1,000 per person, and later increased the course fee after refining her content and introducing comprehensive content. According to Forbes, she was named Creator Of The Year by the e-learning website, Teachable, in 2020 after generating over $10 million in sales. On its website, Trade and Travel says it makes over $10 million every year.

Ijeoma grew up in Dallas, Texas, and was raised by a single mother and her grandmother. Education was emphasized in her value as the surest gateway to finding success. This led her to develop an interest in physics, however, after graduating from high school and getting admitted to MIT, she decided to pursue business management.