If you are anything like me, your life could be split up into two different categories. The time before you got into bitcoin, and your time with it. I have said this many times, but by becoming interested in bitcoin and then investing in it; it has set off a huge number of changes in my life, and really transformed it for the better. Some of these changes will be completely obvious, but some of them might come as a surprise as well.
Some of things are directly bitcoin related, but some of them are ways that bitcoin shaped my financial mind as well. Perhaps I would have learned all of these things eventually, but bitcoin definitely sped up the process for me.
So without further delay, let's dig into this more.
Just like most people out there, I have my own set of regrets for past decisions that I have made. One of the things that I regret the most is that I was so late to get into investing. Starting from my first job during high school all the way to some of my jobs after university I had completely put off investing. Some of the things that I told myself were that I was still very young, and had plenty of time to invest later on. That there were other things that needed my attention much more at the time. Some of these things were saving for University, or a car, moving overseas, that great vacation trip, surprise medical bills or even for a beautiful engagement ring. While some of these things are very important and were definitely worth saving for. The fact is that once I was able to pay for these things, there was also something new that would pop up afterwords. And then I kept delaying investing for my future further and further until I could no longer put it off any longer.
My brother had tried to get me into bitcoin long ago, and unfortunately for the most part I did ignore him. But when I decided that it was time to finally begin investing, that is when I remembered some of the things that he had told me long ago. And before stocks, bonds, or real estate; bitcoin was the first thing that I remembered and decided to research more. During that time of research, the things that I learned astounded me.
This was the first time that I had actually learned what money is, and the principles behind. I am a little embarrassed to say it, but I had never thought about it before. Throughout the years I had always heard how the government rigs the game to make the rich people even richer, and keep the poorer people at work. I was amazing at just how far this rabbit hole went. The inflation, interest rates, tax rates, banks getting away with being criminals, and so much more. It had flipped my world view upside-down.
I had always had the viewpoint that if I had worked hard and saved some extra cash in the bank I was doing a good job. But I quickly learned that cash is trash. In the world that we live in savers are losers. While of course it is important to have extra cash set aside for emergencies and so on. The people who are becoming rich in the world that we live in have appreciating assets, multiple income streams, and legally avoid paying those taxes.
The crazy thing is that once you do learn more about bitcoin, and the way the financial system works; all this corrupt government information is readily available for everyone and is constantly being broadcast on TV news stations. Any time you hear of Tax breaks for the rich, a new $1.9 trillion dollar stimulus package, free money checks being sent out to Americans, huge companies like Amazon paying basically $0 in taxes, the FED admitting that they will print as much money as needed during this pandemic. The signs are all there for everyone to see. But most people aren't able to connect the dots and see what is happening, and more importantly, what is coming.
Bitcoin really does help a person open up their eyes to some of these things. One of bitcoin's most hyped features; the halving, which cuts bitcoin's inflation rate in half every 4 years. Once a person learns this fact about bitcoin, and then learns more about inflation and fiat printing. This results in them learning more about finance than they have probably learned all of their lives. One of the great secrets for accumulating wealth is to outpace inflation. If your salary increases at a rate of 2% per year, but the currency inflation rate is likely 7%, the real result is that your salary is becoming lower each year. The same goes for saving money at a bank. If the interest rate offered is 2%, you are losing money each year by having it in the bank. This is why people invest in stocks; in the hope of earning more than that inflation rate. And bitcoin has been having great percentage gains in value year over year, while at the same time is inflation rate is cut in half every 4 years. Meaning that it is one of the very rare currencies that you are rewarded for saving it, instead of being punished. In fact, if the value and adoption of Bitcoin continues to increase, you may never need to sell it.
Bitcoin not only had a great affect on me by heavily increasing my financial knowledge and literacy, But it has transformed my budgeting as well. While of course the easiest way to grow your wealth and invest is my having a higher salary. Many people out there could do very well with their current salary if they were to just budget much better.
I will admit that at points I can be pretty obsessive about wanting to invest more money into bitcoin. I always reason it with myself because of the fact that I feel very strongly for where the world is heading. But regardless, because I wanted to invest even more I needed to find more money within my salary to do so. This started off by just monitoring how I spent money and where all of my dollars went. But by doing that I was able to see how much money I was actually wasting. Then I would begin eliminating things that I didn't need. And I was very surprised how much money this amounted to. All of which I would invest into bitcoin, and because of the recent BTC price action, it became something very nice. I know budgeting is an idea that many people don't want to do, but you will be very thankful you did so.
For the longest time it was always my dream to start my own business and be my own boss. But for years it was only talk, and nothing amounted from it. But after I became a bitcoin investor; all of a sudden my newest passion was finding new income streams. I was quickly learning that wealthy people usually don't have only 1 income stream, but have many. This has led me to explore how I could earn extra income as well; leading me to begin lending out BTC and ETH for a passive income, blogging about cryptocurrency, beginning to invest in other areas, and also beginning development on that long delay self-business idea of mine.
The key point with starting new streams of income is to be persistent and not give up. It does take time to build something up from zero, to something significant. I had started off very small as well. My first month of crypto lending and blogging combined was probably less than $30 and that was just over a year ago. But now that total monthly amount has gone up to nearly $1,000 per month. All of which I reinvest in hopes of growing this number even further. While still not absolutely huge, it has become something significant and I can't wait to hopefully make it grow even further and hopefully someday have it surpass my monthly job salary.
For years I had come to peace that perhaps I would never be able to retire and most of it would have been my fault. By not beginning investing young enough, or by life circumstances. It was a quite dismal thought if I'm going to be honest. The shocking thing is that was only a few years ago. But then I got into bitcoin, made some very nice profits, and also transformed the rest of my life when it comes to finance. To recap, in just a few years I was able to completely turn around my financial future. In fact, if this bull run turns out the way many people believe it will, I could then choose to retire if I desire to.
I went from not wanting to think about the future, putting off major decisions to being very exciting. Thinking about what exciting new opportunities will present themselves, and how I will take advantage. It really does take a lot of weight off of one's shoulders.
Like I mentioned above, getting into bitcoin was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Not just for the financial gains that it has brought, but for the opened up mindset that it has given me. Learning more about finance in just a few years than all the previous years combined.
But I want to know what getting into bitcoin has done for you! How has it improved your life?! And what have you learned!?
As always, thank you for reading!
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