Son Of A BITCoin! – A Brief Discussion of Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies may be the next big thing for investors to get involves with, but are they right for you? I have received multiple questions about this topic and provide some guidance. However, to keep it simple, I would not advise anyone to do it.

My Experience

It was the Spring of 2017 and it was starting to get extremely hot in the Arizona weather. In passing, I got into the discussion about Bitcoin and other cryptos with some colleagues. Bitcoin at the time was continually dropping in value, and it seemed prudent to take this opportunity to purchase a rather small amount just to see what happened. After my purchase, I immediately regretted it. The value at the time continued to tank, and I was just watching my entire investment be worthless.

Months later, I was talking again with some colleagues, and the discussion about Bitcoin was brought back up. This time, however, the price was climbing rapidly. Needless to say I was very happy to see this.  My investment was literally coming back to life and now skyrocketing in value. I watched it day after day. It was just before Christmas  2017 I decided to sell off to avoid a potential collapse. I had made a huge return on my investment! Unfortunately, I started learning about other currencies coming into the market at that time as well.  I wanted to be one of those early buyers like Bitcoin at $0.001.  So I decided to reinvest some of the money I had received and spread it across multiple platforms and currencies in hopes to grab the next big one. In short, that didn’t happen. It was not long after all of the currencies gained the popularity that they also began to see declines. Let me show you some of the items I bought into.

Ripple

Ripple at the time seemed to be the next big currency to be a part of. If you were lucky enough, you had the option to get in when the price was cents on the dollar. Soon after prices increased, it was upwards of almost $3.00! This would have equated to a 3,000% increase on the initial investment. If you add some dollar figures in there for how much you invested in, there would have been a sizeable cash payout. Unfortunately, this was again not the case for me. It declined too rapidly for me to make any sizeable profit off of it. Thus I cashed out.

LiteCoin

LiteCoin was another popular name to be associated with cryptos. It too had a much smaller purchase value at the time in dollars though, not cents. I was able to pick up a small position in the currency in hopes it would continue to grow. This proved to be fatal to the position due to its low movement. While most of the other cryptos in the market move in tandem with BitCoin, LiteCoin seemed to be slowest of the bunch. Therefore, while others were rapidly growing to the thousands, LiteCoin was staying in the hundreds. I soon unloaded this position as well.

Ethereum

The last one I will touch on is Ethereum. This is a position I, much like many others, had witnessed substantial growth. It had the most potential when others began to fall. It was in the lower hundreds when I bought into it, and it quickly soared. Similar to other types of investments there were good days and there were bad ones. Unfortunately, in a similar manner to the rest of the others, it too saw a steady decline. I was about to sell one day before I saw a big uptick. I kept it for a little longer as it seemed it had received a second wind. However, in a matter of days, it had dropped too far too fast. I sold at a loss.

My Sentiments AND Advice

It was a good year and a half playing around with the different cryptocurrencies before I decided to end it all. I got to learn a great deal about this world and even more so about the brutal feelings of loss. There are those out there who have had tremendous luck and have made millions off of these markets. However, I was not one of them. I knew getting into this whole debacle that there was a strong chance I would lose all of my investment and I needed to set a limit. So I did. I made money, then I lost money. I netted a profit, but it wasn’t much.

If you are thinking about getting into these markets please think twice. If someone is promising you financial success through it, they are probably lying to you. You would be better off getting your financial household in order and making sure you have a strong budget. Especially if you are trying to get out of debt. If you are absolutely sure you want to try it out, set aside a fixed small amount of money to do it. If you succeed, great! If you fail, you won’t be in trouble later. I have heard horror stories of those who have refinanced their homes or cashed in their retirements to get into these markets. Please do not do this! As with everything for your financial success, Please Finance Responsibly.