Ultimate Goal: Produce 300k+ from 7k. Insanely unlikely, I know. But if things unfold like I'm hoping, this will nearly close out my mortgage; a life-changing event for a family man such as myself.
Disclaimer: Don't play with money you cannot afford to lose. I have 7k that I can burn on crypto. I won't be happy to lose it all suddenly, but it won't put me in the poor house or ruin my daughter's college fund. My true family funds are in e-trade.com collecting dividends 'n such.
Overriding-rule: Never be 100% fiat or 100% coins. Be ready to make a buy or sell at any moment.
Back in Nov 2013 I put in 1k and the market promptly crashed afterwards so I have 26 litecoins(at $40 each) I can't sell for a long while. I knew my luck from experience on e-trade, so this didn't phase me - it always starts this way. The next 1k I sent into crypto-coin world is at btc-e.com where I day-trade. At first I bought and sold quickly, simply making 4 to 5 dollars. Just getting use to how btc-e.com works and its transaction speed. Then I started to make bigger and more long-term bets as I observed the big swings. It appeared to me after a few months of watching that Litecoin biggest swings are between $18 - $29. So when MtGox had its recent issues and "Russia banned bitcoin" pulled the price down, I bought in. I'll make about $600 when Litecoin reaches $29 again. But on the other hand, if the price of bitcoin goes below $500, I will put in 1k for the 3rd time. If bitcoin falls below to single digit numbers[1], then I'll buy 3k more. This brings me to my limit of having 7k in the crypto-coin world. I will now sit back and wait.
If we ever see $1,000/BTC after the events I describe above, I will sell everything I have - producing at least 300k. I'm done. Or, BTC will simply fall into oblivion and I've lost 7k. I'm "fine" with that, but I'll always make sure to have copies of my private-keys for the rest of my life... just in case.
1. http://www.businessinsider.com/williams-bitcoin-meltdown-10-... ...very unlikely, but if it happens I'll have USD waiting.