Cryptocurrency

The Sunday Long Read: Stop Buying Crypto. Here’s What You Can Do Instead

10 hours ago by Jenny Ross • 6 min read

The truth is that crypto won’t make you rich, a piece by Rachel Miller

Crypto has seen unbelievable gains over the past two years. Many people made hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars as a result. This should come as a surprise to no one. Why?

There have been trillions of dollars being printed during the last year and a half, and as a result, there have been record highs in the stock market. The impact that all of this had on the crypto space was even bigger, leading to astronomical highs.

It looks like we’re about to witness yet another bull cycle, which could lead to another astronomical run-up for crypto.

Toxic mindsets in the crypto world

However, you should be aware of the toxic mindsets that many crypto investors have. The truth is that if you’re investing in crypto with the hopes of getting rich, it’s most likely just not going to happen. So let’s see why.

Let’s look at the vast majority of people who made a lot of money from crypto — life-changing money to be precise — were either already rich, or at the very least financially well-off in the first place.

You need to keep in mind that when these people invested into crypto, it was considered to be very risky, and highly speculative.

That was the case in the beginning, and a lot of people could still argue that it still is the case.

Crypto — a risky asset

People had to throw at the very least thousands of dollars, in some cases way more than that, into a risky asset. Realistically, these people already had a lot of money to burn. This type of investment simply wouldn’t make sense for an average person earning $60,000/year, since they would simply be unable to invest a third of that into Bitcoin, for example, in hopes that it explodes.

There was a very real potential that Bitcoin could’ve gone to 0 instead, making it worthless. If an average person ends up losing that money, it’s a lot to lose.

This was especially the case for all of those who decided to invest in crypto a few years ago when the chances of it going to 0 were even higher. The reason behind it is that the mainstream hadn’t adopted it at that point.

So let’s say you were a middle-class person investing in crypto, who managed to invest between a few hundred, to a few thousand dollars. That still wouldn’t be enough money to make you filthy rich. There simply wasn’t any life-changing money to be made.

This same thing applies to most of the other average people getting into crypto with a mindset that I’ll discuss later in this article.

Investing in crypto should never be a gamble

When I see people jumping at the chance to throw money at the next meme coin, or buying some of the other popular cryptocurrencies at insane prices, thinking it’ll make them filthy rich in a few years — with close to no effort, work, or time invested in learning about their investments — it definitely makes me cringe.

Here’s the truth. Unless you’re dedicating some serious time to learn as much as you possibly can about the crypto field, and find some legit projects that have a lot of upside potential, you might end up making some gains over time. However, you’ll never even get close to the gains that you’re hoping for.

You could still earn some money from crypto

Now don’t get me wrong, if you play your cards right and invest smartly, with enough cash at your disposal, you could even make tens of thousands of dollars. It all depends on your return on investment. But even that isn’t exactly attainable to everyone — and certainly not to the average person.

An investment simply isn’t meant to be your one big break in life that makes you super rich instantly.

The people who made millions from investments are mostly people who were either already millionaires, or people who had enough cash to invest.

All of these large sums of money simply compound into even more millions for them over time.

Even if you’re not a millionaire, the best investors that manage to get their hands on significant investment returns (such as angel investors or day traders), are people who have a competitive advantage in certain industries thanks to their special skillset.

Let’s take a startup entrepreneur as an example. He’s definitely going to be more likely to pick a good investment when investing in a different startup company.

On the other hand, someone who’s already a multi-millionaire and can afford to just throw $100,000 into Bitcoin and forget about it, can end up making very large sums of money as a result.

Don’t let this discourage you from investing

With that being said, I’m not telling you to stop investing in crypto — not at all. However, your expectations if you decide to take this route must be realistic. Having your future depend on a risky crypto investment that you know very little about is simply not the way to go.

If you want to achieve long-term wealth, you can do that by building your own business that brings in cash flow or getting a skillset that can earn you lots of money and make you wealthy consistently.

The toxic mindset that lots of people who are investing in crypto these days appears to be a very big problem. Unfortunately, most people seem to believe that they can simply follow the latest trend of a crypto meme and get rich as a result.

You need to remember that it’s simply not going to happen because you’re just gambling.

If you believe that your best, or perhaps your only chance at getting rich is gambling on speculative assets, that’s a red flag that you must be aware of. You’ve simply got no belief in yourself.

Here’s what you should try if you want to become wealthy

Remember that the real way to get wealthy is by developing businesses and skills that can then make you money for many years to come. Once you’ve acquired these skills, get a high-paying job, or start a profitable business.

What you do with the money that you earn from either of these is also very important. You should always use the money that you make to work for you, and as a result, you’ll make much more from investing. You now have more cash to invest, which will obviously increase your gains as well.

This isn’t financial advice, and you should invest whatever amount you can afford, no matter how low your income is at the moment.

Invest in yourself

If you’re taking one thing from this article, let it be this one.

The biggest and most important investment that you’ll ever make is going to be in yourself. The potential return on investment is infinite if you do this.

Go ahead and invest, try to take advantage of compound interest, as well as rising asset values, and earn some cash in the process.

What I’m asking from you, however, is to think bigger and to try to go after long-term skills and businesses that will make you way more money in the long run. This will obviously allow you to invest more efficiently since now you’d have more money to invest with.

If you can’t beat them, join them

If you really believe in crypto, and you’re ready to bet on it, then you should also consider potentially getting a job in the industry. That’s a great way to make a lot of money from the crypto industry because you’d make a guaranteed salary, as well as vital information from the inside.

You might also have the chance to be one of the first to invest in the latest life-changing technologies coming out of the crypto space. Chances are that if you’re working for a crypto company and it ends up taking off, you’ll make a lot of cash in the process as well.

The way I see it, judging by the way the crypto space works in the present moment, the real opportunity is to either work for a company that’s already in this space or to start one of your own. Remember that the momentum is in your favor.

You are basically guaranteed to make more money this way, rather than gambling on new coins that you know absolutely nothing about, or that you saw some random person on YouTube promote.

Please don’t make a fool of yourself, and don’t gamble your life savings on something like this, without knowing anything about it.

This is just my opinion about the toxic mindsets that I see more often these days in the crypto world. Remember that there are ways to protect your investments and your assets, and there are also ways to build long-term wealth.

This article, by Rachel Miller, was originally posted at: https://medium.com/@armolis/stop-buying-crypto-heres-what-you-can-do-instead-dd0f441ea114Article b