BTC price at the time of this writing: $61,350
Also today: A BTC Futures ETF has been APPROVED. YES!
Ok so you’ve heard a bit about my Bitcoin background and how I got here. There’s so much more I want to share about my journey but ill save those for later posts. The first conversation that I had about Bitcoin was with my dad. I respect his opinion on life and thought, well what the heck, lets see if this makes sense to him.
An engineer by trade and a HUGE Las Vegas Raiders fan by Knight (see what I did there), my dad is the perfect example of why I wanted to write this newsletter. He was actually the one that inspired the topic of this Substack so I have to give a quick plug on that. Follow him on Twitter (He just bought his first NFT) @bogeymark456.
The only person I mentioned my BTC purchase to back in 2017 was my dad. He’s actually a unicorn because being over 50 years old, he’s not your typical extreme investment risk candidate. BUT, he jumped in. And let me tell you, he’s a HODLr if I’ve ever met one.
“Dad you know how I’ve been dabbling in the forex market”, I asked. He knew I had been involved in learning forex and that’s really where my trading career started.
“Yes”, he replied.
“Well I came across this new thing, Bitcoin”
He mentioned that he had heard about it on CNBC, he watches stocks every morning before work and back then they would bring it up on the show occasionally. Its funny how now the ticker is on the TV every morning.
“I think you need to look into this with me”…
His first BTC buy was on January 18th, 2018 a few months after me. The conversation leading up to this actually started because I caught the beginning of the epic run up in 2017 and I turned a little bit of money into a lot of money very quickly. This was the definition of beginners luck. I asked him, “Do I sell?” and he said the run up reminded him of the dot-com bubble. I thought to myself, this times different...lol
So just like that, we were in the Bitcoin Class of 2017. But we had a lot of questions, and getting through the KYC and actual purchase wasn’t as smooth or fast as it is today. We chose Coinbase as our exchange. I had some experience with other exchanges but this one seemed to be the most trustworthy and user friendly. Our HODL had only just begun.
Truthfully, neither of us knew what we were doing, or why we wanted this digital coin. I was still young in my investing career, I was so inexperienced, and this Satoshi guy created a virtual token that we were dying to own. Here are some of the questions that my Dad asked and its probably not too much different from a no coiner today.
What’s a blockchain?
What purpose does Bitcoin serve?
How is Bitcoin going to be used?
Are there other cryptos?
What’s a cold storage device?
You get the idea. There really isn’t a limit on how many questions a no coiner can ask before they get involved. When I look back at this moment, there’s one action that stands out…getting off 0. It is the most important action you can take. There is no way to hypothetically learn markets or Bitcoin in this case without having your skin in the game. If that means $10 then its $10 and that’s fine. The beauty of BTC is that you don’t have to buy a whole coin.
When it comes to explaining this stuff, keep it very simple. Start small, get off 0, and only invest what you are willing to lose. Back then, we still thought $0.00 was a possibility. Today, I don’t think 0 will see the light of day…
My Dad now consumes as much content as anyone, listening to his network of influencers, YouTube, and podcasts. He sees the value in just staying involved and learning as much as he can in his free time.
One last thing, a year ago he told me that he thinks one of the bigger mistakes a family can make is to not share financials with each other. Meaning your immediate family, making them aware of where you are, can be a great advantage in the long run. While I don’t know exact numbers, I have an idea and its comforting to know that as BTC rises, so does our families wealth and were doing it together. Generational wealth isn’t talked about enough. Setting each generation up for success is the key. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Thanks again for reading, I really cant tell you how much it means to me. I hope my writing continues to develop and keep you engaged. If you have any suggestions or thoughts or just want to chat, don’t hesitate to reach out!
-Vegas