Are You Doing Enough to be Successful in Crypto?
There are generally three different opinions about crypto that you will be able to find on a regular basis. The first is that people may not understand crypto at all, and therefore will consider it a scam or some-type of magical internet money. These people stay far away from investing into bitcoin or cryptocurrency. The second person will have heard of cryptocurrency and has a decent understanding of it. This person views it as a good risk hedge investment and might slightly dip their toes into crypto while still investing in a large variety of other assets. Only devoting a few percent of their net worth to it. Lastly, you will find the red-pilled person who has had their life taken over by crypto. They have seen the light, and are convinced about the future we are heading towards. This type of person invests heavily into the market. Crypto might be the only thing that this person is investing in. Which one are you?
For many of us, those 3 stages may feel extremely familiar. Perhaps we have all traveled through each one of them ourselves. I know I have. Several years ago when I first got introduced to bitcoin, I was definitely in the first group. Back then, bitcoin was still under $100; I have many regrets about this. I was introduced to it and without doing much research, I instantly formed an opinion that bitcoin was some type of scam or Ponzi, and that it was a waste of money. Why would I ever give up dollars for bitcoin? Unfortunately back then, I was young and had little to no knowledge on how the world actually runs. What makes money valuable, and why I need to invest. I am a completely different person now compared to back then. Even though I missed out on buying bitcoin under $100, the experience of actually hearing about bitcoin is something that I would remember a few years later and would benefit me greatly.
I had progressed through stage 1 of being a skeptic and no-coiner. Now progressing to stage 2; liking bitcoin and crypto, but not going all-in yet. At the time I was splitting up my investments evenly between crypto, stocks, real estate and saving cash. To this day, my largest crypto regret isn't that I missed out on bitcoin when it was under $100. But it was that I didn't go-in harder on bitcoin and crypto once I finally did decide to invest into the market. As well as I have done, things could have been much different. So, why didn't I go all-in at that point? It was because at that point in time, bitcoin was a much younger asset that had just had a huge blow-off the top price movement. We had no idea if bitcoin was going to be made illegal by world governments, or if it was just a fad. Perhaps people were going to lose interest and stop buying it. Perhaps, a different and better technology would come along. Even with all of those things taken into consideration, I would say it was because I had never experienced a bull-market. Having only experienced a bear market will make a person more conservative. Remember, we now have had a few bull cycles to base our predictions on. But back then, we didn't have that and the future was not so certain. And then my first bull cycle came, and everything changed. I began making money and that is when everything clicked for me. That is when I decided that I really needed to deeply learn about this industry and invest harder.
Which leads me to entering the 3rd stage. The stage where you have been red-pilled and view crypto as the future. As I mentioned above, in the past I used to be a very balanced investor. After doing the research and also seeing results, I came to the opinion that bitcoin, ethereum and cryptocurrency were once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunities. This led me to selling out of all of my stocks. Keeping less cash in my back accounts and instead investing that money into crypto. Many people would look at my investing portfolio and see it as incredibly risky. I will either swim or sink depending on how crypto performs. Although it is funny that as far as cryptocurrency investing goes; with me investing a majority in bitcoin and also ethereum, that is seen as conservative in this market. I also am in the minority for how I decide to invest into these coins. Generally in the crypto market, having a well-diversified portfolio is considered the best route to take. I prefer to have a heavily-concentrated portfolio. Sure, this makes my net smaller and I may miss out on catching some coins that explode upwards in value. But, if you only have a few coins because you were too thinly-diversified, that will cut into your profits a lot. Being more highly-concentrated allows my profits to be higher when coins go up in value. It also allows me to accumulate much faster since my funds aren't being spread over many places. Which helps me in my end-goal, which is to create a large passive-income that I will be able to live off of or gain financial freedom.
I'm willing to bet that a large number of people reading this article have at some point been in each of these stages and probably now find themselves in the 3rd stage. We view the crypto market as the best way to hopefully change our financial futures. If you have a longer time-frame that is definitely possible. But there is a question that you need to be asking yourself.
Are you doing enough to be successful in crypto?
One of the largest fears I have is that I will wake up several years from now and have regrets about not going in harder on cryptocurrency. There are several golden investing opportunities that we have all missed out on. Chances are that we weren't in those markets or didn't expect it to happen. Therefore, missing out on those opportunities is less painful. But, the cryptocurrency market is different. We are all in this 3rd stage and believe crypto to be the future. Liking an asset, knowing its potential future, but still missing out on it would be extremely painful.
So what am I doing to try to ensure my success?
The first thing is that I live very frugally. I have moved all-over the world and this has made me somewhat of minimalist by necessity. Packing up and sending my belonging to each place is tiring and expensive. And so I began to cut back on everything. Buying only what I need, and limiting my want purchases. My plan is to sacrifice a bit while I am young in order to make my future brighter. Cutting back on want purchases, entertainment, traveling, clothes, expensive restaurants and so on. The money that I would be spending on those things are then invested. This has allowed me to invest a much more substantial amount than I could have ever imagined.
The second step I take is never stopping my purchases. Rain, sun, snow or storm, my purchases never stop. The power of continued purchases and how fast you can accumulate will surprise you. I heavily attribute dollar-cost-averaging to my success. Also, keeping cash on the side to take advantage of dips has been very helpful as well. The fall dip of 2019, the March 2020 covid crash, the summer 2021 dip, and even now. I'm always taking advantage of those opportunities.
Thirdly, using compound interest as my ally. I do this by lending out coins to 3rd party lenders, and also staking coins. Admittedly there is risk to lending out your coins, so only take on the risk that you feel comfortable with. Even though lending rates have recently become harder to find, it still is an incredible way to help accumulate more. Especially as prices continue to go up. Last year I was able to accumulate more than double of what I would have been able to if I hadn't lent out any of my coins.
Finally, finding other ways to make money to invest even more. For me, this has meant blogging about cryptocurrency and even taking on freelance work. I have also sold things around the house that I no longer need or use. If you really have the desire it could even mean taking on a part-time job or side-hustle to invest even more. Remember, that those who grind the hardest right now will end up having the best results. Giving up a few nights a week to earn extra income to invest may seem tiring and now worth it now. But, I have full confidence that in a few years it might end up being the smartest thing you ever did.
How about you? What are you doing to ensure your success with crypto?
As always, thank you for reading!
i am here to learn about crypto