High school dropout who invested in bitcoin is now a millionaire at 18

[Bitcoin Guy]

http://www.c[Suspicious link removed]m/2017/06/20/bitcoin-millionaire-erik-finman-says-going-to-college-isnt-worth-it.html

Erik invested in bitcoin when he was 12 and not is a millionaire at age of 18.  This is a good story for Bitcoin.

But here is something that I do not understand:

An excerpt from the article:
"Eventually he found a buyer for Botangle's technology in January 2015. The investor offered either $100,000 or 300 bitcoin, which had dropped in value at that time to a little more than $200 a coin. He took the lower cash value bitcoin deal because he believed it was "the next big thing."

"My parents asked 'Why don't you take the more cash?"' Finman explained. "But I thought of it more of an investment.""

Why didn't he take the $100K and bought more bitcoins instead?  Granted that there has to be some tax consideration, but tax rate has to be as high as 40% in order for both of the cash option and the bitcoins option to breakeven.  If the tax rate was at 40%, then he could get $60K after tax and would be able to buy 300 bitcoins at the market price ($200 at the time).  Moreover, one day when he sells the bitcoins, he can dedect $200 on each of the bitcoins from the capital gain as cost.

Am I missing something in here?  Don't drop out from high school?   

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[cellard]

http://www.c[Suspicious link removed]m/2017/06/20/bitcoin-millionaire-erik-finman-says-going-to-college-isnt-worth-it.html

Erik invested in bitcoin when he was 12 and not is a millionaire at age of 18.  This is a good story for Bitcoin.

But here is something that I do not understand:

An excerpt from the article:
"Eventually he found a buyer for Botangle's technology in January 2015. The investor offered either $100,000 or 300 bitcoin, which had dropped in value at that time to a little more than $200 a coin. He took the lower cash value bitcoin deal because he believed it was "the next big thing."

"My parents asked 'Why don't you take the more cash?"' Finman explained. "But I thought of it more of an investment.""

Why didn't he take the $100K and bought more bitcoins instead?  Granted that there has to be some tax consideration, but tax rate has to be as high as 40% in order for both of the cash option and the bitcoins option to breakeven.  If the tax rate was at 40%, then he could get $60K after tax and would be able to buy 300 bitcoins at the market price ($200 at the time).  Moreover, one day when he sells the bitcoins, he can dedect $200 on each of the bitcoins from the capital gain as cost.

Am I missing something in here?  Don't drop out from high school?   

I did read this the other day on reddit. We all wish to be this guy and retire early, even tho he is the type of guy that keeps going after getting rich. He invested his initial bitcoins into a business, then bought back by selling the business from what I've read. He is not the average high schooler. What were the chances that a 12 year old would be investing on bitcoin back then? It was unlikely for an old experienced man, let alone a damn kid. He must be a genius + the luck of stumbling upon bitcoin at the right time.

[Variogam]

Am I missing something in here?

At the age of 12 years and such serious money, his parents would need to be involved in every step of the $100K taxation and then conversion to Bitcoin.

[Kprawn]

Am I missing something in here?

At the age of 12 years and such serious money, his parents would need to be involved in every step of the $100K taxation and then conversion to Bitcoin.

Age does not matter at all.... you could have been 12 years old when Bitcoin mining were still possible with GPU's and you could have tinkered

with this technology back then and mined a few 1000 coins. These coins will now be worth a few million. I had some friends who mined back then,

and they were in their early 20's and I have some friends now... more or less the same age, who is mining Alt coins. 

[pearlmen]

http://www.c[Suspicious link removed]m/2017/06/20/bitcoin-millionaire-erik-finman-says-going-to-college-isnt-worth-it.html

Erik invested in bitcoin when he was 12 and not is a millionaire at age of 18.  This is a good story for Bitcoin.

But here is something that I do not understand:

An excerpt from the article:
"Eventually he found a buyer for Botangle's technology in January 2015. The investor offered either $100,000 or 300 bitcoin, which had dropped in value at that time to a little more than $200 a coin. He took the lower cash value bitcoin deal because he believed it was "the next big thing."

"My parents asked 'Why don't you take the more cash?"' Finman explained. "But I thought of it more of an investment.""

Why didn't he take the $100K and bought more bitcoins instead?  Granted that there has to be some tax consideration, but tax rate has to be as high as 40% in order for both of the cash option and the bitcoins option to breakeven.  If the tax rate was at 40%, then he could get $60K after tax and would be able to buy 300 bitcoins at the market price ($200 at the time).  Moreover, one day when he sells the bitcoins, he can dedect $200 on each of the bitcoins from the capital gain as cost.

Am I missing something in here?  Don't drop out from high school?   

LOL to the last part of not dropping out of school. Even Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg with their wealth will not encourage anyone to drop out of school for any reason. If I had been in his shoes at that age, I would have taken the same decision because at that time, I wont have any need for the money afterall so its an educated guess anyone would have taken and nothing special happen just that he took the decision more favorable to him.

[Bitcoin Guy]

LOL to the last part of not dropping out of school. Even Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg with their wealth will not encourage anyone to drop out of school for any reason. If I had been in his shoes at that age, I would have taken the same decision because at that time, I wont have any need for the money afterall so its an educated guess anyone would have taken and nothing special happen just that he took the decision more favorable to him.

What I was implying was that if he did not drop out from high school and complete all this mathematics curriculum, he may have chosen the cash option and use the cash to buy more bitcoins than just 300 of them.   

[stromae]

I don't see your question here. What is weird in the story? He did the right thing by accepting bitcoin instead of getting cash. Because he got rid of possible tax and he made a great opportunity for his future.

[Wendigo]

The way the education system is structured now, I wouldn't recommend it," Finman said. "It doesn't work for anyone. I would recommend the internet, which is all free. You can learn a million times more off YouTube and Wikipedia."

This guy is a bloody legend 

Work smart, not hard. This is one smart guy. Hats off to that guy.

BTW I think the link in the OP is borked. Here is another link to the article:   http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/20/bitcoin-millionaire-erik-finman-says-going-to-college-isnt-worth-it.html

It's a pretty interesting read so give it a go.

[Ryan Dugan]

Dropping out of highs school is never a good idea. You learn things there that you will need later on in life. He was clever to have made this decision and I am glad he came out on top. This is another story of a wealthy young man who is retired for life living off investments.

[Bitcoin Guy]

I don't see your question here. What is weird in the story? He did the right thing by accepting bitcoin instead of getting cash. Because he got rid of possible tax and he made a great opportunity for his future.

What I meant was that if he had accepted the cash and used the money to buy bitcoins, even after tax, he may still be better off.   But we cannot know for sure.  One thing that we all agree on is that this kid is a good entrepreneur who is a millionaire now.  I do not even remember where I was when I was only 12!

[mrcash02]

Why didn't he take the $100K and bought more bitcoins instead?  Granted that there has to be some tax consideration, but tax rate has to be as high as 40% in order for both of the cash option and the bitcoins option to breakeven.  If the tax rate was at 40%, then he could get $60K after tax and would be able to buy 300 bitcoins at the market price ($200 at the time).  Moreover, one day when he sells the bitcoins, he can dedect $200 on each of the bitcoins from the capital gain as cost.

Maybe he did... But if he would say he bought more BTCs, many eyes would grow over him and his family, better to keep in secret if he did that. It's never good to flaunt yourself, especially when we talk about money.

Dropping out of highs school is never a good idea. You learn things there that you will need later on in life. He was clever to have made this decision and I am glad he came out on top. This is another story of a wealthy young man who is retired for life living off investments.

If I had made a lot of profit like that guy I would have particular lessons, if the goal is to learn, you could learn faster with a teacher only for you. At school with dozens of students for one teacher in the class it's hard and takes time to learn.

[Bitcoin Guy]

If I had made a lot of profit like that guy I would have particular lessons, if the goal is to learn, you could learn faster with a teacher only for you. At school with dozens of students for one teacher in the class it's hard and takes time to learn.

Come to think about it, his parents are PHDs and he was probably getting home education. 

[gentlemand]

He didn't really do anything other than sit there and wait for the price to rise. That doesn't make him worth listening to.

But I do agree that most education is horseshit either designed to milk you of your money or turn you into a robot, and usually both. The problem is that the jobs market is framed by it whether you feel that way or not.

If you can self employ then great. If you can't then you have to toe the line. I left education at 16 myself. I would've preferred to have left around 10. Most of my teachers were too stoned to hand over any useful info.

[Sweetbtc]

Am I missing something in here?

At the age of 12 years and such serious money, his parents would need to be involved in every step of the $100K taxation and then conversion to Bitcoin.

Too many people in our country do that weekly visit to the parents and that calling thing.  They are your parent, not an anchor to the past. 

[dothebeats]

At the age of 12, I was busy playing Dota 1 because of tournaments and shit, have stumbled across bitcoins but never bothered seeing that I don't have my own pc back then. I became interested yet again after reading a meme about it having a thousand dollar tag. That was early 2014 and since then I dedicated my time and some of my money to bitcoin by investing a portion of it. It isn't interesting to say the least since all he did was buy and hold, but that is a success everyone could have made if they invested a couple of dollars to bitcoin back in 2011-2012.

[Bitcoin Guy]

At the age of 12, I was busy playing Dota 1 because of tournaments and shit, have stumbled across bitcoins but never bothered seeing that I don't have my own pc back then. I became interested yet again after reading a meme about it having a thousand dollar tag. That was early 2014 and since then I dedicated my time and some of my money to bitcoin by investing a portion of it. It isn't interesting to say the least since all he did was buy and hold, but that is a success everyone could have made if they invested a couple of dollars to bitcoin back in 2011-2012.

Buy and hold is the strategy and ignore all the short term price flucturations.  But the most important part is that whatever one is investing for long term, it need to have the potential and the survival characteristics.

[mrcash02]

If I had made a lot of profit like that guy I would have particular lessons, if the goal is to learn, you could learn faster with a teacher only for you. At school with dozens of students for one teacher in the class it's hard and takes time to learn.

Come to think about it, his parents are PHDs and he was probably getting home education. 

Ah, so he is in the Heaven. 

When the parents are educated and have good relationship with their children, the children will become educated too naturally by living together, sharing experiences and knowledge.

[wolfracer]

So much money for a teenager is bad, but he was smart enought to invest in bitcoins when it was started, good for him

[Taki]

In 12 years?! I doubt that he provided everything without parent's help. Well, this guy is just one more example in the list of people who get rich with bitcoin.
I am thinking almost daily that if I would not doubt in bitcoin at least this 1,5 year that I am here I also would become not a milionare, but somehow rich for sure. But who knew that bitcoin will rise so fast and so high?!

[KrakAJAX]

Stroke of luck. We have lots of millionaires now but look in hindsight it could have easily been anyone on this forum.