What's the capital needed in order to achiev $500 monthly with Options Trading

External question — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: MorMinimumWageGuy Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/162368 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. I'm looking for some advice on to achieve a monthly income equal to my monthly expenses which is 500$ - I already have a portfolio of monthly dividend stocks valued at around $1,200, which provides me with an average of $4 in monthly income. I'm relatively new to options trading and still learning the ropes, so I'm seeking guidance on the capital needed and the Strategy I should considere

External answer — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: Bob Baerker Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/a/162373 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. If you're a unique individual who can mke money without training and experience or you're just plain lucky, you could make $500 a month. If you're like most people, you're going to lose your grubstake (90% of traders lose money). A better plan would be to spend a few years learning about options and then to start trading slowly. Breaking even in your first year would be a success. I've utilized options successfully for 30+ years and I've seen the wannabe easy money traders drop like flies. Don't become one of them.

External answer — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: nanoman Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/a/162374 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. As with any other form of trading or investing, there is no free lunch with options. Unless you are blessed with unusual skill or luck, the best you can expect is market returns. Building your stock portfolio is at least as reliable a way to enable generating income as options would be. Thus, your question can be answered roughly in the same way as other "early retirement" questions like this one . Taking my answer there (and its assumptions), cutting the amounts in half because you need $500 per month, the amount needed to generate that income indefinitely would be about $200,000.