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Someone I knew, a mentor who showed me what I was missing by not getting into crypto invested 100k in crypto, he started DCA'ing in 2018 to 2020, I was still struggling because I had no job then, he kept me close and kept me informed, in 2020 is wallet turned 4,000$ from 100k, he was so calmed like it was nothing, when he told me this I freaked out..  He replied " I was ready to lose the money anyway" that's investment for you..he said.

In 2021 he made a bit over 1 million dollars when market started to recover, the once 100k that turned into 4k grow over a million in dollars, he his an icon of motivation for me today , the reason why I shared this story today is for you to learn a lesson or two .

If he invested what he is not ready to lose he would have freaked out just like I did and took out his 4,000$ in big loss, so my point is, why would you invest money that you aren't ready to lose in the first place? This is wrong, you won't be able to sleep at night, you won't be able to take your eye off your portfolio, there will be no single calmness in your world.

Crypto is very volatile, invest only what you are willing to lose, no amount is too small as far as that's what you can afford to lose.

Have a great weekend.

OP, that's the first lesson any of us learns in crypto anyway.
I've been in crypto for almost 10 years and I've seen many times how crypto rises sharply and then falls sharply and every time there was first a lot of euphoria when crypto rises and then a lot of panic when crypto falls.
I think that investors in crypto should first of all be rational and not emotional, have a concrete investment plan and a clear exit strategy.
Before any investment, you should of course thoroughly analyze the crypto market and make an investment decision based on concrete facts and not based on something you read on a forum or FB.

I am not ready to invest what I can afford to lose because I will invest nothing because I do not want to lose anything. But I have certain percentage I am investing on cryptocurrencies, I DCA when bitcoin is at $20000 down to $16000. I planned it very well and I did not invest during bear market. I invested one third of my money, expecting bitcoin to get to $17000 which can make me invest the remaining two third, I mean the % of the total money I want to invest on crypto. I will advice people not to invest more than they can afford to lose too, but this goes to beginners.

Wanting to lose and what you can afford to lose are a bit different.
No one wants to lose even a Kobo, penny or cent, but if they did lose that amount while taking a stroll, they wouldn't freak out or call the local authorities to help them out. If that same person lost a $100k or $1 million however, they would have a panic attack and do everything possible to try and find it.

That's the concept of what you can afford to lose; amounts that would not greatly impact your standard of living or overall purchasing power.

I set things for myself in the following way when it comes to what I want to invest in crypto-currencies in general, considering that, like most, I was curious at the beginning and did not focus only on Bitcoin. I tried to save on things that I considered unnecessary in life, so I stopped smoking, eating fast food, and instead of a lot of low-quality alcohol, I started drinking a little high-quality alcohol.

All that money was diverted into investments, and part of it was of course unsuccessful, but it was not difficult for me to bear because I know that it is better to lose it that way than to spend it on things that destroy my health. Given that this board is read by beginners, maybe this experience of mine will be a good guide and motivation for some to try to do the same thing.

Of course, we spend money on a lot more unnecessary things, and everyone can decide to give up something and try to invest in something that will bring them profit and a better future.

Since you didn't specify which ones were part of his portfolio and we're on a board targeted at newcomers, I would like to point out that it's not going to always end well ^{[list of dead coins (https://99bitcoins.com/deadcoins/)]} if newcomers invest in something that doesn't have any reason to exist!

I wouldn't, but it probably has something to do with the following saying: "No risk, no reward"

You did a great job with your advice and elaboration bit tye truth be told that saving is totally a different virtue of it's own and most times, the money invested isn't intended to be pulled out not because it's falling a d I'm sure this would be one of the thoughts and expections of most so called and acclaimed investors, not until reality and life hits them and one will realize that life isn't bed of roses.
Most times people don't actually sell because the price of an asset is falling but they sell their possessions when they're faced with some emergencies that truly requires money and leaving them with no other option but to sell and I'd you've been in this situation I'm sure you'll relate

The logical reason is money which is not a problem for rich and elites so they can invest and wait for the right time to make profits whereas middle class investor is in need of money so he saved for year probably even for decades and invested onto something and when he see the value is crumbling we can understand how pissed his mind will be, but the experience will teach us what we should and not.

He has faith that's why he was calm but you freaked out. Also, that was the money he can afford to lose, maybe it was a big portion of money for you but not for that guy. He was ready to lose all of it.
That is why you only invest the money you don't need, or you can afford to lose. If you lose that amount of money you don't regret losing it or losing that amount of money won't have any impact on your life.

I can't help but, have the impression that this story isn't true.
Yeah, the context to it is possible, people could make a whole lot through this but, before I get to be elaborate on my suspicion on the authenticity of your story which at this point, I feel its way too exaggerated.
What coin did in particular did your friend and mentor invested in again? You never really did specified.

Haven't said that and looking at the fact that, the context to OP is possible, investing investing you can afford to lose, forgetting about its existence buy not your password or seed phrase has always been some means to hodl successfully. Also, there isn't much profit in rushing to sell with any pump. There is always more profit in hodling as much as you can over a long period of time.

First you really need to understand how crypto works and how it give this kind of problem. As you have said, it's a long journey and he knows that in a bull run, his money will grow so he is willing to risk that. So if you have that mindset then you can sleep at night thinking long term, 2-4 years down the line. So obviously, he is willing to risk and you can say ready to lose or afford to lose, but he knows in the long run he won't.

And maybe his strategy of doing DCA also help him a lot, he doesn't have to like invest $100k instantly. So second lesson is that this bitcoin investment is a long game, it's a marathon and you need to have a lot of mental toughness to stay focus and not panic and think that you might be losing big.

The "invest only what you are willing to lose" thing" only applies if you're just a normie investor in my opinion. If you've done investing so much and you're already experienced enough to make smart decisions, investing money that you don't want to lose is totally fine — you just don't need to over-invest to the point that you'll end up being homeless if you lose.

From $100k to $4k, from 2018 to 2020, from this story I believe your mentor did not invest in Bitcoin only but invested mostly in altcoins. In bear market, altcoins lose more than Bitcoin and with the given lose rate, it is from altcoin contributions.

I congratulate for your mentor but how about his condition now?

Did he cash out and hold strong stable coins or fiat currencies now?
Did he continue to hold altcoins and repeat his mistakes in 2018 to 2020?

If he hold altcoins from 2021 to 2023, $1M can become $100,000 or $25,000 or even less.

I think your advice is a very good one sir Lucius because most of us spend money on unnecessary things. Meanwhile, if we avoid these unhealthy habits, the funds when saved can be enough to invest in bitcoin no matter how small it might look. I just calculated how much I spend on junk and it would have been enough to invest. And the good part of this advice is that even if you lose your investment it might not be very painful because you know that you would have spent the money anyway. It might not be a bad idea to start saving in a piggy bank from today henceforth.

It's been a long time but I can still remember  Doge coin, Matic, Harmony, Shiba and some other altcoins, I don't know how much he put in each of the projects per say but he made mention of these altcoins, he had some BTC too, it was in the covid period that the portfolio shrink to it's lowest, we aren't allow to go out for work then because of the lock down that's when I told me that has happened, if you don't believe that is your problem.

It's a good story here and it motivates people to wait for their investment to yield profit. I'd say that he is mainly focused on selling when the price increase. He only kept holding his money because he has seen more market changes, which made him to trust that his 100k investment won't plunge down the hill without bringing profits again. When his 100k turned a million, did he keep on holding or he sold?

No one would want to loose money on investment but when dealing with other cryptos loosing becomes inevitable no matter how big or small, some has made their way through in this while other got hunged along the way by loosing all their investment on fake cryptos.


Am sure if you should ask him more and again on the other sides of the story he will still have alot to tell you on how he has been paying the sacrifice before things begin to yield up that is now what is evident as result we all are seing, they took the risk, can you?

In every investment, it’s always safe to just invest on the amount you can afford to lose, otherwise you will end up being rekt because you invest the money intended to pay for the bills, or you invested from your borrowed funds. And once you invest, prepare for some initial losses because you won’t be making profits in the long run without having to experience mistakes and losses at first. And always know that those who became successful investors at the end are once those who were losers at the beginning, but because they were resilient enough and have remain on their faith, that motivated them to work hard to end up successful.

I am sorry to say but the guy you are talking about seems more like a gambler than investor. I mean, he used DCA for some shitcoin as only those could drop ~96% during that time period and then soon after that get him 2500% profit. I wonder if he cashed or he ended up being a bah holder (my guess is the latter).
 
Another thing, if you were out of job as you said you were, instead talking to you about investing in crypto he should have told you to first get up your life in order and find a job before you can think about investing into something as risky as crypto is.

While what he said is not wrong ("only invest what you can afford to lose" etc), if that guy is a mentor to you when it comes to investing, I doubt that you will end up well.

That’s the essence of investing, you will not only consider about making profits but you should think of losses too that anytime will attack you because that’s also part of building your success later on. But it would be much better to invest on the amount you can only afford to lose, as there’s no security from investments and you might only end up losing so better yet, anticipate losses too more than you anticipate for profits. Because if you’re only focus with profits, that makes you greedy and will certainly invest because your emotions are telling so, which i think won’t be helpful at all.

As OP told, DCA is a strategy of investing that can absorb loss without the investor even noticing it much, but if and only if one doesn't stop the regular percentage of scheduled investment because of a loss that may not linger for long.
I admire the courage of your mentor in maintaining discipline despite the market conditions that would have made him relent in his consistent fractional investment.

The thing is, these altcoins can go either way, they could pump or they could dump, that's why they are called pump and dump projects/coins, and as a result of that, they are very much more risky than investing in Bitcoin. In the short term altcoins (if you are lucky to get a good one) can generate quite a huge ROI for its investor before it dumps (which is somewhat a certainty). Thus your 'mentor' might have been lucky to stake his money on these coins at the right time, but on another day he might not be that lucky. If you want to hold your crypto for a long term after investing what you can afford to lose, then the crypto of your choice should be Bitcoin that is sustainable for the long term.

Even if he invested money he could afford to lose and it was completely gone, one would never sleep in peace. Will always imagine why he could fail and lose the money. What really needs to be prepared is a psychology that is able to realize that the capital owned can be lost or even increased, if psychology is not ready then everything will fall apart. Your mentor may be lucky enough or have good trading skills. Able to get a big profit, but we also have to ask how many losses the biggest ever experienced. Because someone only sees the benefits they get, not the losses they have experienced, so they will give up.

Thats because he said that was nothing means he is ready to lose that 100k. Im sure he got depress over it when he see the $4k value during that time but got discipline to supress his emotion by selling it just to recover something. Making it a million $ is awesome and he probably got a good gains from that. Anyway a lot of stories like this in the past. The lesson there is just risk whatever you could cause who knows what will be the aftermath of the market right.

Your mentor is lucky because the coin doesn't become a dead coin during bear market, there are a lot people become rekt after invest on shitcoins. I will say if you're looking for make money in long term, it's better if you start DCA ing Bitcoin because Bitcoin have been proven can survive during bear market for multiple times. If you want to trade for short term or small amount, it's no problem to choose pump and dump shitcoin.

The reason that you see many people shouting and lamenting that bitcoin and cryptocurrency is scam is because they have lost so much money in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

In Bitcoin it my not be a lost because it will definitely recover but as newbies they will immediately cash out at loss and say they lost all their money. In the other hand, so many shitcoins have stolen people's money for ever. Why this happens is because the mentors of these newcomers refused to tell them the truth about the crypto-currency market. That they can lose all they have if they are not careful but only tell them the positive side which does not happen every time and they will enter into the cryptocurrency indutry with the mindset of becoming rich the next month but instead their money will vanish,  that is why they have to call it scam.

It is nice to always tell people about the rules "invest what you are able to lose" because you can lose it in any second

This has a good point. It’s not all the time that we should only invest what we can afford to lose, because if that’s our basis, our portfolio will not grow and we will not be making huge profits after all. So instead, we should invest but must take calculated risk. Otherwise, if we continue all in investing without even gaining good returns even at once, we will surely be homeless in the end. But for a complete novice here, only invest on the amount you can afford to lose.

Anyone will be depressed because the loss of asset value is very large, imagine he has lost $ 96k in his assets but he is very lucky that his assets make a profit of $ 1 million, the profit is fantastic and he has to switch to bitcoin investment immediately bearish market prices for profits in the long term.

He probably has so much money that $100k is said to be ready to lose but the bad lesson is that he invested in shitcoins even though he finally made a profit but it was due to luck.

How can someone lost 96k? Did the bought all his coin at ATH? Because that is the only way this story can make sense, I have invested in this bear market and the lowest I saw my wallet goes was just 30% off, in his case that's 96% off, I am curious to know what went wrong, maybe he invested in altcoins that goes deeper like 90% down? No man could have survived that loss without zero worries, it is impossible.