Rate of return on paying down credit card debt is 19-30%, which is really good rate of return. And zero risk! So just pay down your debt as much as you can.
Half of me sees this cryptocurrency boom as the beginning of a bubble that will pop in 2018 or 2019. The other half of me is like what if this is a new era of global commerce and this is the investment of a lifetime?
It's hard to know which one will happen. The Internet was a mix of both from the 90's to the 00's to now.
So if it's commerce, how is buying the currency a form of investing?
When this thing pops (and it will eventually) there will be a number of stories of "rags to riches" that will be in widespread media. What you wont see is the vast majority of people who lost out.
Something with this much value involved and so little regulation is bound to cater to a very small number of people.
If there is ever a possibility of a large-scale shift to a cryptocurrency as a standard for any currency, I doubt it will be bitcoin. I also doubt that anyone will reap the benefits simply by "being in early".
Someone somewhere is pulling strings. You may get lucky and ride the waves that are created by those doing the behind the scenes manipulation, but there's a much bigger risk of getting worked.
I was 10 when the dotcom bubble happened and 18 when the Great Recession started. This is the first time in my adult life where I've had the money and opportunity to 'be part of something big' but I think you're right and that I should just use this money to pay down the last of my debt.
I read yesterday that some 40% of the Bitcoin market is controlled by a small handful of hands. This is part of why I am hesitant to invest without asking here first.
Glad I asked!
From what I understand, isn't there a small minority of users who own a vast majority of BTC, meaning they could crash the market at will?
More seriously I have a 3.5% mortgage. Interest is not tax deductable. So roi is almost 7% pretax paying that bad boy down.
- Stellar Lumens has been doing well recently, IBM recently created a bunch of Stellar full nodes and will be using it as part of a banking on blockchain project
- SALT Lending is a cool new project that has started, where people can lend out their cryptocurrency in exchange for cash. If you default, the lender keeps the coins; if you pay back, you get the coins back, even if the value had gone up
- Zclassic recently re-started active development and seems to be doing well. The main devs are trying to get the community onboard with a hard fork, and I think it could do well if it actually takes off
- Metal Pay is a solid payment processor startup that I think could do well over the next few months
It's hard to find the right thing to invest in. I'd say pick 2-3 projects and buy some of their tokens, and don't sell at a loss unless the project is doing really badly.
Stellar just popped 25% today on the back of a Russian bank announcement of tie up with IBM for blockchain tech.
And I think this is a terrible idea. If you don't have a sense of what ideas you personally believe matter in the field, this is a terrible time to put money into it. I've got money in coins I believe in long term, but that long term may be years. It's certainly not months.
The problem is that crypto is volatile. Today I'm looking at ETH going up 32% a week. But next week it could be down 80%. Then it could go up again 184%.
In hindsight, it looks smart to invest in it. But when your $484 becomes $350, then $210, then $90.. you are going to be under a lot of emotional distress. You'll be kicking yourself, wishing you put it into your debt, or some other crypto. It could go on to $1500 later, but only if you could hold on long enough.
What's worse is that most cryptocurrencies will actually fail. If you go for a high risk one, there's a good chance your investment will go to $0.
The key to investing well is faith. But you need a lot, lot more faith if you really need the money and need it fast.
And making your investment decision based on some 5 minute comment on an internet forum is not going to give you a lot of faith.
You never think we could both be wrong and are missing something? Just curious.
The idea is good, the sentiment is bad. These people aren't getting into Bitcoin because they believe in the mission, they just see pretty graphs and lots of money.
I think this should be a pretty good sign to start hedging.
With that said I too have at least looked into buying some BTC, but only with "fun money". At this point, I think cryptocurrency speculation is like going to Vegas where you set aside some money you can afford to lose, and having fun playing the game is the point. Because long term, if you keep playing the games long enough, you will lose it all.
Fair point about only betting 'fun money', I feel that I should trust my gut and accept that the best time to 'get in' was a year ago and best time to cash out is probably in 2018.
We'll wait and see.
Also, have what's probably $1000 or more floating in the bitcoin and splits void because I lost my private key.
if you want to get your feet wet just buy a GPU and start mining.
you can checkout whattomine.com it's pretty accurate.