On 'Salary' Strategies (Off Topic, PB-ish)

[Messiahkid]

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good post

I also advise 2p2ers who play for a living to goto the finance forum and spend some time learning about investment/retirement accounts

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Agreed, as most of us are at a young age and compounding over a long time frame + regular additions can lead to not 'working' until we are 70.

[morphball]

Nothing personal, StarRain, but if you are going to stick your entire savings separate from poker into a car, you are an idiot.

Here's a rule that will get you far ahead of most suckers. Never spend more than 10% of what you make in one year on a car. (And if you can walk to work, don't buy a car at all, because it's cheaper to rent when you need.) That's right, if you make $40,000 a year, I am advocating spending $4,000 on a [censored] car. You can find them. I never understood the concept of having a car payment or spending a lot of money on a car.

My girlfriend moved in with me last year, and before she did she had a BMW 325i, I loved that car. But between lease, insurance and parking, we were talking $1,000/month. As my girlfriend was quitting to become a student, I decided the car had to go.

I think if you are depending on poker for money entirely, you'll want to be more conservative for those very bad times, such when you lose $1,200 in one night at the Borgata playing $1/$2 NL.

[carnivalhobo]

as a college student with parents who have the means to pay for all my normal expenses (tuition, food, rent) im lucky in that i dont need to set aside poker money for real expenses, so the money i take out goes to presents for the g/f, alcohol, the plasma tv i just bought. I think its important to reward yourself with some cool things that poker lets you buy, but my goal is to move up and make more money, not grind 200nl forever. So i try to leave as much as i can in my "roll" at one point i had like 5k online and 200 bucks in my checking acct. that has gotten better and i have taken several K out in the past months. But i still have way more than i need to play 200nl online, so when i feel ready (hopefully soon) i will have enough to play 400 comfortably. There are no investments better than a winning players bankroll as you are moving from 10nl-200nl (and probably higher) so for most of us, i think its smart to leave every cent you can in your roll. I even leave my rb in there.

[Isura]

Good stuff. I've been a recreational player for the last 2 years. My withdrawls have been fairly random. I generally take money out every 2-3 months, or whenever I feel that I have too much money online. But this year I hope plan better and try to set better money goals each month. There's a good chance that I'll go pro/semi-pro this summer after I finish school, so I need to get my [censored] together moneywise.

[DanoMak]

Thanks for the post.

I've been evaluating my bankroll management vs. my goals for a while now. Being a grad student, non-poker income is near non-existent, so I'm very tight and conservative with my roll.

I'm over-rolled for NL100 and want to test myself without fear of destroying my progress. I think I'm use some of your suggestions and start a pyramid scheme:

1) Start with a buy-in for NL100
2) (Hopefully) build it up to six buy-ins
3) Take 1/3 and put it away, and take another 1/3 for a shot at 200

[Chubbers]

I'm starting to think i should stay at NL$100 and take a few rewards instead of trying to move up to NL$200. I've been taking shots at NL$200 and have lost half my bankroll then dropped down again. Some of this has been due to me changing my game play from FR to 6max and also experimenting with LAG play instead of sitting as a TAG.

This week i shipped half my bankroll to UB (so i can get rakeback) off Party Poker but i didn't drop back down to NL$100, a few bad beats later and i've lost my whole PP roll so i'm back down on the NL$100 tables at UB again (sigh).

The rakeback now will help a lot though and i think i'll sit pretty and work out a nice $1000 reward for myself and my wife... then focus on cracking the NL$200 games.

Cheers for the advice

[Claunchy]

I play for a living.

I keep around 6k in my online account (a little more if I'm playing bigger games sometimes), and usually pull out 2-3k just whenever I notice it's getting high and I haven't pulled any out in a while.

The only problem with this system is that it's hard to motivate myself to move up when I know I have to earmark another 4-6k to leave sitting online. I'd rather buy something cool. So basically my problem is the opposite of the guy you're talking about.

[Heine]

I'm so glad i play for poker just a hobby.

Soon as I hit 20 buyins for 200NL, back to 100nl and half my roth ira contribution is sitting there. What a nice hobby, donating to a roth.

P.S. i recommend the roth to all poker players, especially when they are young. Tax on the way in and not on the way out. Use this little hobby to help populate that account, and you can't go wrong.

[ImsaKidd]

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I think I'm use some of your suggestions and start a pyramid scheme:

1) Start with a buy-in for NL100
2) (Hopefully) build it up to six buy-ins
3) Take 1/3 and put it away, and take another 1/3 for a shot at 200

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I dont get this scheme. Confusing.

I am a BR nit to the fullest extent. I don't really have a need for offline money except interest (and having my parents confidence boosted when they see 2k wds and stuff). I withdrew lots of money I made from casinos, usually whenever I thought I didnt need all my neteller money, or when I wanted to buy something.

[ImsaKidd]

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I'm so glad i play for poker just a hobby.

Soon as I hit 20 buyins for 200NL, back to 100nl and half my roth ira contribution is sitting there. What a nice hobby, donating to a roth.

P.S. i recommend the roth to all poker players, especially when they are young. Tax on the way in and not on the way out. Use this little hobby to help populate that account, and you can't go wrong.

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Is a roth better than investing money in a CD or mutual fund?

EDIT: Roth is earned income only, right?