Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys, this is a serious post.

I have been holding for almost 10 years at this point.

Sold one coin in 2017, lost some in 2014 to mtgox and HODL'd the rest.

I currently have what might be considered 'life changing money' to many.

I have been living at an extremely low cost and standard of living for the past 10 years. Some would scoff at my frugality and tradeoffs to maintain a low cost way of life.

I keep a low cash balance, with my liquid fiat cash balance is down to something like under 0.5% of my total net worth. Rest in BTC. I have no motor vehicle, no property, no other assets.

I feel like the dog who has been chasing the mailman (trying to accumulate wealth), and now that i've finally caught him... I don't know what to do! I have been studying 'sudden wealth syndrome' to avoid falling victim to it, or the common vices newly minted wealth attracts.

I want to avoid self destruction through wretched excess. I have gone down that road before and want to avoid touching it second time. I want to live a life with long term goals and take action based on thought, reflection and reason.

I am a long term believer in the bitcoin project and have invested significant time into educating myself about the technology and economics, in addition to how the current financial system works.

I find that I am currently dis-incentived from working a /hour job, as it's just so little money earned compared to my holdings. Even laying down capital for entrepreneurship because holding BTC is so profitable (though it does not grow in a linear fashion).

WTF should I do!? What would you do in my position!???

I would personally rebalance/de-risk at least half my Bitcoin into traditional investments.

The stock market had a correction recently, so I would put the majority in stocks. Investigate growth vs. value stocks/funds/trackers/investment trusts.

Then some precious metals, gold, silver etc. Keep an eye on the Gold / Silver ratio.

Then some government and corporate bonds. Just a little as they aren't performing well, but they do shoot up when stocks crash. Think of bonds as a cash proxy.

I'll also mention property separately. Spend a bit on a deposit on an apartment or house. Mortgages are dirt cheap at the moment, and are almost free money. It's basically a loan that enables you to invest elsewhere.

Then after that, see where I am in 5 years :)

Use some percents of those coins to sustain your life, maybe while you get some better education if needed or while you search for a better and clearly steadier job.
Settle down and start living better. And do it gradually. Maybe slowly. This would avoid shocks and should allow the rest of the coins grow.
Keep yourself a safety net. And this is very important. The price of the coins will grow, and fall, and grow and so on. You don't want to get to the point you have to touch those coins and the price is lower than you'd want to sell them at.
Start gradually. But start. You don't want you get to the point you have too much money, but you no longer can actually benefit.

It almost sounds as though you're asking us for advice on how you can make yourself happy?

No one here is in a position to tell you how you should live your life.  What might make a contented lifestyle for any of us, could well have the opposite effect and make you miserable.  That's the problem when asking strangers on the internet for advice.  We don't know you or what your passions are.  It's something everyone has to figure out for themselves.  Decide what brings you joy and pursue it, basically.  Easier said than done, I know.  But that's all there is to it.     

you are like being in a ditik where you are tired of going through the various hustles of the economy to meet your daily needs. sometimes there are many things that you forget about the complexity of life, just need to reflect on people who are much lower than us. maybe you can still survive and eat 3x a day. isn't that the standard thing. Thankful that you have made it this far, there are many out there whose lives are much more miserable who are trying to complain and end their lives.
you just have to look in a different direction. save your coins, and reduce the ambition in wasting finances, use it sparingly.

Many dont do shit which does sadden me since Money opens up possibilities previous closed.

If you need an Consultant let me know. I will put you on a Path of Self Reliance without you being a Victim of your own Wealth. ( Props to you for being aware of the Wealth corruption, Many peeps do not understand this and let themselves be overtaken by the fanaticism coming with Wealth)

Oh, dear. That doesn't sound good at all. The first thing you need to do with your "life changing money" is hire a lawyer and cease making incriminating public statements. I don't know what country you're in, but there aren't too many that offer unemployment benefits to millionaires - and I can guarantee that you were explicitly asked if you had any secret millions stashed away on at least one of the many forms you signed to get your benefits. Honestly, the best you can hope for at this point is that your lawyer can cut a deal for you to pay back your illegitimate benefits in exchange for staying out of jail and keeping the remainder of your assets. (Speaking of staying out of jail, don't forget to pay capital gains tax when you sell any of your coins. Hire an accountant if you need help with that.)

Life is too short for ultimate frugality. You need to at least live & stop merely existing. Buy a house, a car, invest a load into stocks & HODL the rest of your bitcoin. It sounds like you’re living a very restrictive, possibly miserable life & you don’t need to be.

Thanks. Good ideas here.

Thanks. I needed to hear this. This is good advice.

With money you can only do three things: spend it, save/invest it and give it away. You have concentrated too much on saving, now it's your turn to enjoy it as you have been told. Other than that, I see you too exposed to Bitcoin. Even though I myself believe it is the best asset to invest in at the moment, I would take money out of Bitcoin and buy other assets that give you income, such as dividend paying stocks or ETFs or income-producing real estate.

I don't know how you will have your legal situation because by the looks of it your Bitcoin is undeclared. The first thing you have to do is to legalize it. If you can't in your country go to another one. There are many where they will welcome you with open arms.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes. On review of my own post I might be slightly overexposed and causing myself unnecessary stress.

So then, change your life! What good is life changing money if you don't change your life?

If you are afraid to sell any, then here's another way to think about it: If you had only half of what you have, would you still consider that a life-changing amount? If so, then there is no reason not to sell half because even if you lost one half or the other, you would still have a life-changing amount of money.

Finally, just don't be greedy. That generally leads to disappointment.

You are reading your situation in terms of wealth. Why don't you change your paradigm?

Firstly, money multiplies what you are. People say that it may change you, but that is not true, it just reveals what you are. The key to survive is to make money help you become your best you.

Second, money is not the scarce resource, time is the resource you actually own. The most difficult decision in life is what do you do with your time that means something to you, so for that firstly you need to understand what is that matter to you. Your family? Friends? A cause? Wisdom? Your choice.

So sure, you are living frugal, but that could be just fine if what matters to you does not require buying stuff. Close your eyes, think for 5 minutes how the perfect world would look for you. It may be a house in Ibiza full of ladies (or boys) but I would rather think of something that you can do for many years and would give you a sense of fulfilment and that is rarely "living la vida loca".

I guess that you need to figure out what life means to you.

I will sell and buy my own property. IMHO, that's the first thing that you should do.  It is ok to sell if you're going to use the thing that you'll buy with that profit.

And it's another asset that you can also profit in the future if you want to sell it, real estate properties are good for you to diversify and it's very known for most wealthy people.

If you don't want to work, as you buy real estate properties, you can rent them out so you have passive income even if you don't work.

my advice given the high value of bitcoin and to change a percentage let's say 25% in real money and move to a lifestyle with an average profile

If I were you, I would sell some of bitcoins (about 70%) and buy something that cannot be lost. For example, a large territory and a house somewhere in nature. I would plant a lot of fruit trees there and do a lot of other things in this area. So you will provide yourself and your family with environmentally friendly food, a home and a large territory. Well, and you can think of a huge number of businesses on your territory. And part of your bitcoins will still be with you and, if anything, you can also sell them at any time.

I probably buy some assets and crush the banks if/when hyperinflation takes hold!

Why stay in this stupid life style when you can just sell all your Bitcoin now that the value is 60,000 dollars and live your life in better way.

We only live once , and life is too short for not to enjoy, What if tomorrow you'll die ? what will happen to your bitcoin ? you did not even Enjoy the fruit of your investment ?

No one can predict tomorrow mate and we don't hold our life , so live with your funds.

Clear of the debt if any, secondly buy a good house which rest of your life you would like to stay with. Create a contingency money and save in the bank so that during the hour of need you can use it. Then remaining amount you can keep in btc or divest in some other coins and buy some stocks for yourself so that you will be diversified and not totally depending upon a single source of income for future.

Buy some rental property and diversify your portfolio now to other safe assets. Move to a better living house and buy a car using the loan against your rental property and use the rent from the property to pay the EMI tenure so in few years your car will be yours and also your will be still making revenue from rents and the ideas are infinite if you have money. 8)

Congratulations for your new wealth. If you have a lot of coins to spare, I would recommend selling some and switch into other assets. For example you could buy a house and rent it out.
If you don't want to work at the moment it might be worth to create a portfolio than creates some monthly cash flow. Holding bitcoins is a good idea for the future, but you would need to regularly sell some to have money at hand. If you would have a stock portfolio that pays dividends all year round you would be setup as well. Or if you want less risk, you could just buy some bonds.

Ihadbeen there and I would honestly say that I didn't manage it properly so I ended up coming back to my old life where I struggle to live daily or just manage to survive day by day.
But if I ever had a second chance like that I would manage it properly invest in something that I could use in life buy a property that I could live off for the rest of my life and open a business.

You need to think about how to use this money correctly. I think that you definitely don't need to spend them immediately on some kind of luxury. After all, happiness is not in money.