Having first dabbled in shares in about 1994 as a way of bettering my C&G savings account, I knew I could do it and would find it interesting (made 24% in year one and 20.4% year two, using only teletext, Investors Chronicle and no computer).
I had always fancied quitting paid employment by 50. That was looking like a pipedream, as i never made any surplus cash from any job I ever had (never volunteered to do overtime, never chased bonuses – preferred gardening).
At 49 the firm I worked for got bought by Americans of the type that make good Americans cringe. Time for a sharp exit. The only way I could raise capital to set up in business on my own (or to buy a cheap franchise) was to sell my modest terraced home in a S.Warks village, pay off the mortgage, downsize to something barely habitable in a very very cheap area, and invest whatever was left. That took me a year to arrange, during which I attended numerous franchise exhibitions and weighed up every type of business on every page of the Yellowpages, regardless of what field. Also, read some inspiring articles regarding individuals who had quit day jobs to become investors or traders. They all started with far more capital than the