One day in mid-late 2017 (weeks before the start of the up coming bull run and subsequent crash of Jan 2018) I’m sick in bed and I come across some Crypto/Bitcoin news articles and the tale of once in a lifetime gains and millionaires. You have my curiosity.
I start throwing a few bucks in here and there, couple hundred bucks or so and by Oct/Nov 2017 I’m the smartest motherfucker on earth. Shit I must have turned $500 into $1,000.
Christmas 2017 comes and it’s my time to shine! Forget Santa I’ve got the bags and a sacks you wanna hear about! A couple people listen, most don’t. I’m fresh and my advice is likely shit!
Early Jan 2018 and I’m taking a shit, it explodes (no not my arse) my crypto portfolio! My $1,000 has gotta now be worth $10,000 - pants down! Dick hard, the only thing missing is the hookers but with this kinda money, it’s not going to be long! You now have my attention.
It happens! THAT crash! Fuck I didn’t even... what... I can’t.... my... my dreams... gone! Ohh fuck! am I more worried about my lambo I just ordered or the fact most folks I couldn’t stop pestering with “advice” know where I live?.....bad times.
Time moves on and so does my arse, to work every single day... except I’m hooked on the drug. Crypto has me.... each and every time I have extra cash for the next 3-4 years I’m throwing money into Crypto. I’m $40,000 of my own money In come the start of 2020. It goes up, it goes down, it’s not life changing but I can make it life changing by TRADING! Ohh boy! My trading skills are about as good as my crypto crash prediction skills.. and by Christmas 2020 all I do is loose money and rack up hundreds of capital gains tax events (By this point I now owe the tax man big time (it’s 45% tax here on any crypto profits) & come tax time I either sell most of my gains or get on a payment plan) That’s 2021’s problem right.
I settle on some bags I’m happy with BTC and VET mostly. Modest stacks from my 4 years of hard work putting money into what most are calling “a Chinese scam” whilst my friends point and laugh each and every pay day at how I’m throwing money away!
It’s now the start of 2021 and I’m on my way to work and I hear it! What was that? Another one in the wild.. someone a stranger no less talking about crypto.. ohh boy the 4 years cycle, it’s happening, my dick rises, suddenly I have a semi . Could this be it....
Defi this, pancake swap that.... holy shit crypto is fucking changing FAST! I used to be with it, but then they changed what with it was...
The months flash by, it’s April 2021 and suddenly Vet is no longer the cancer to the crypto reddit it once was, my gains and losses every hour would make a grown man cry (I was also watching the notebook at this time for full disclosure) and gaining and loosing six figures per day....
Friends, family, work colleagues, it seems now everyone has a crypto opinion and just can’t wait to tell me and everyone else about it.... it reminds me of me from 2017 (cringe!) ..... but Fuck me I didn’t get laughed at for 4 years to risk having nothing again. I pull the trigger (possibly to early.... who knows????) and take out 95% of my profits... sacrificing a vechain X Node in the process and my hopes and dreams of becoming a millionaire (for now)
I straight up gotta give 45% of my profits to tax. It hurts hard! Hey at least I can now afford a bottle of lube.
5% of what I pull out is my original investment over the 4 years and the other 45% is my hard earned profit? and the very important part for the newbies here is that 45% is now enough for 1/2 of a house. 1/2 a fucking house all from just a few hundred bucks every pay over 4 years. Even with all my mistakes along the way!
YES I probably sacrificed the chance to make millions and millions of dollars (time will tell) but I also made some genuine life changing money! Or at least enough that my life is “easier” yes I could have DCA out but that didn’t work for my risk/reward right now in my life. Point being you gotta do what is right for YOU!
You will make mistakes and have many experiences during the crypto journey, just remember you need to learn from your experiences, and mistakes! And do what is right for you! Don’t get sucked in to a echo chamber, if it’s made you cash and you start losing sleep over the potential losses if it crashes I would say it’s time to consider taking out some of that dirty fiat.
So ultimately in a nut shell this is what I learnt....
1) I’m going to be damned if I let 1/2 a house slip past my fingers for another long long bear winter, even if it means I could have made more, my greed in 2018 made for a harsh crypto winter and I don’t want another where I didn’t take any profits.
2) I am not a crypto prophet, and everyone is a genius in a bull market.
3) I don’t know how to trade, I will never know how to trade and fuck me the tax man likes money. Just don’t fucking trade you idiot!
4) Life is bigger than crypto, don’t talk about it so much it becomes your identity, most people think it’s lame and likely are bored by you talking about it (if they know what crypto is and don’t seek to learn themselves that’s there problem)
Last but definitely not least...
5) DCA.. I have no idea what the future will hold, and yes it’s possible that I’m going to be kicking myself in 3 months for pulling out and blowing my load prematurely but I will be ok.... I will continue to DCA every week for the years ahead and we’ll Natasha Bedingfield said it best with the “rest is still unwritten”
