Buying your first Bitcoin or accumulating towards a goal?

Hi All

I recently started a new thread in the main section on how I achieved my first Bitcoin goal. "Owning my first full Bitcoin"

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5104126.0

After receiving some great feedback and a few questions, I posted a response. (the thread is worth a read as there is some good advice from other members)

This response was aimed at any newbies getting into this space. I think my response might just have got lost in the thread and not reach the individuals it was intended for. So I have posted it here again, with a different subject. Hopefully it makes it easier for them to find. Also, I hope other forum members will reply with there own advise/suggestions/experience.

Apologies for those of you who have already seen it.

Hi All

I have enjoyed reading your comments and appreciate your good wishes.

Whatever your approach to crypto and investments, I hope you all achieve your goals and achieve the financial freedom we all desire.

After getting so much from this forum and its members I felt I should give something back. So if you would indulge me, I’m going to put down some of my thoughts in regards to my outlook and strategies in this crypto/financial world. For you more experienced members, you probably know all of this already and it has probably been posted many times. But, this is aimed at any noobs who may stumble across this thread.

Just to be clear this is not financial or investment advice, just my thoughts and opinions.

So where should you begin? To me this is obvious now, but it wasn’t when I FOMO’d into crypto in Dec 17.

Education

If you are just getting into crypto now, please do your research first. Spend at least a month reading and learning before you put any money into the eco system. Yes, it’s not sexy, but I must of lost .2 BTC just by messing around not knowing what I was doing.

You need to understand what bitcoin and fiat (money) actually are. Bitcoin is so much more than just a get rich quick scheme and fiat has its own issues. I’m not going to spell it out here, but you will have a lightbulb moment.

Yes, In doing this research you may miss a pump, but in the long term you will gain so much more than what you missed out on. And it could go the other way, you could get in at a lower price.

Where can I get this crypto education you ask? (there are so many places, but this is where I got some of mine)

1. Right here – read, read, read then ask.

2. Books: The Bitcoin Standard, The Internet of Money, Bitcoin for Dummies, Cryptoassets.

3. Podcast channels: Crypto 101, Let’s talk Bitcoin, The Bad Crypto Podcast, The Crypto street Podcast, Off the Chain, Rekt Podcast. (Made
my work commute a learning experience)

4. YouTube: I never really have time to sit down and watch YouTube, day job and all that. But I did watch CrytoDad on how to set up
an Ledger Nano. I'm sure there are some great channels out there.

5. Twitter: @Apomliano, @aantonop, @cz_binance, @TheCryptoDog, @Tradermayne, @crypTobanger, @Satoshilite and of course
@officialmcafee (love him).

6. Places like Coinmarketcap.com

7. Google

The list is endless, but that would be a good start.

2nd

Security

Learn what OPSEC and PERSEC is and apply it!!!!!!

Don’t keep anything on exchanges. They will all, in my opinion, eventually get hacked. If you don’t hold your keys, you don’t hold your crypto. (Google this statement)

If you can, buy a hardware wallet before buying your first crypto. If you don’t, you may never get around to buying a wallet and one day you may wake up and your exchange is gone, with your crypto. Wouldn’t that be sad after doing all this work. At the time of writing, a Ledger Nano S is around £54/$65. I know to some, this is a lot of money. And I know you would rather buy your first Bitcoin with that money. But trust me on this, get one!

There are other wallets out there – again educate yourself. (And always buy direct from the manufacturer, forget eBay and amazon).

Seed words, Seed words, Seed words – find out what they are and how to keep them safe! Did I mention Seed words.

Use 2 factor authentication wherever you can.

I even use a different email account with 2FA for my crypto activity.

Ok, so know that you have a basic understanding of Crypto (and believe in the tech) and know how to be safe, it’s time to pull the trigger.

Strategy (only my thoughts, more experienced people here will have their own ideas, so don’t take this as gospel)

This is where it gets difficult!

You want to be a trader? DON’T – if trading is going to be your main strategy – you WILL lose! Maybe in a few months you can give it a go for fun. But in my opinion, never trade with more than 10% of your stack and only 3% to 5% of that on each trade. And definitely don’t trade on Arthur’s exchange for at least another 6 months. (I’m not even going to name the exchange here, as I don’t even want you to go looking for it). And only trade the higher timeframes 4hours and above and understand all the different order types (if you don’t know what this means you are definitely not ready)

So what was my strategy to achieve my goal.

Accumulation and averaging.

Start with a target. Let’s say you would like a quarter of a bitcoin – i.e 0.25 BTC.

Divide that over say 6 to 12 months. (for this example I’m going to use 6 months)

That means you need to buy around 0.045 BTC a month. ($150 a month at current prices)

Some months your 0.045 BTC will cost you a little less and the next month possibly a little more. But after 6 months you will have achieved your goal of 0.25 BTC with the lowest possible risk. Yes, there still is risk. It can go both ways. It’s about managing that risk.

Now put it on a ledger and forget about it.

You can adjust the figures above to meet your own goals, but the principle stays the same.

Only use extra cash that you can afford to lose. This is very important, this could all go to $0, but who knows how high it could go. You don’t want to have to sell your crypto after all this hard work and dedication, because you have to pay back a loan etc. and miss out on your end goal. In 10 years’ time you don’t want to be kicking yourself saying, I wish I still had that 0.25 BTC.

Only after you have achieved your goal, would I say it is time to start looking at alts and trading. But this should always be with new cash.

Lock that first Bitcoin away and come back to it in 5 to 10 years.

Charlie Lee (Litecoin creator) wrote:

“There will be at most 21 million bitcoins in existence. There isn’t even enough BTC to go around for EVERY millionaire to own one. So before you buy any other coin (LTC included), try to own at least 1 BTC first,”.

“Once you have 1 BTC, buy all the shitcoins you want!”

And I agree with him.

Now an added caveat, I don’t think you should be putting all your disposable income into crypto. I have also been buying stocks, gold and paying into a pension.

Don’t put all your eggs into one basket.

The barriers of entry to these other types of investments has come down over the last few years and there are cheap apps that can help you (do your own research).

I have followed the same strategy for these types of investments.

Now please don’t think that I assume everyone can afford all of this, but it can all be scaled down. Take your disposable income and invest a certain % in stocks, certain% in bank deposits, certain % in crypto etc. etc.

It’s all about planning and risk management. In a few years, I hope you will have your reward.

Where to buy

This has changed so much over the last year, but again do your own research. But wherever you buy, get it off the exchange and onto you hardware wallet.

A few final thoughts

• Ignore the noise, you have chosen to by Bitcoin. So just do it. If the price goes up - great, you are making money. If the price goes
down – great, next month’s purchase with be cheaper. Keep accumulating till you have achieved your goal. And then in 5 years who
knows what it’s worth.

• When you transfer your first bitcoin to your hard wallet, check, check and check again. If you make a mistake its gone. Only send Bitcoin
to a Bitcoin wallet.

• Know the difference between BTC and BCH – it’s not the same thing! Other individuals will try tell you different.

• Don’t watch the charts all day, you will lose your mind. You have a life, live it.

• Write down everything you do and learn from your mistakes.

• Be kind to others and share your knowledge.

• It’s not all doom and gloom – it’s an opportunity!

Thanks for taking the time to read this. It’s not a sure fire way of getting rich, its just how I am trying to navigate my way through financial life. It could work or it could all come crumbling down around me. I’m just trying to give myself the best chance. It’s your choice and its on you.

I’m sure I have missed so much, but my brain is fried and I'm not a writer. I hope the more experienced members on this forum will add value to this and I hope they do, either positive or negative, I don’t care. As long as it gets the noobs thinking.

Good luck to you all and God Bless

This is a comprehensive starters pack and there is very little that can be added or removed. The ability to read and learn is very essential for newbies to cryptocurrency, anyone who does read and do their research could hardly go wrong.
Security is one aspect that requires emphasis, with cryptocurrency you are you own bank. Take every possible precautionary measure regardless how much bitcoins you own at that time.

Quote from: Kopyleft on January 31, 2019, 04:02:22 PM

Cheers Kopyleft - If it just helps 1 person in a small way, my job here is done.

This is one of the most valuable thread I've ever read there. Even though I'm not new to this crypto world but I still don't accumulate to the point as OP did (and it looks like OP is here longer than me), so congrats OP. The guide covers a lot of topic from learning about crypto and fiat to the differences of BTC and BCH, I'm not sure if this will attract more people to read or they just skim it (because they want fancier design?), but it's good.

I'll beat you and get my first Bitcoin at the end of this year (hopefully)!

Great read there, but I have to disagree with the Charle's shitcoin statement. Look at most of them, they're either dying or have gone bust. Stick with the ETH, LTC, NEO kind.

After last year's bloodshed, I'd take BTC over a thousand shitcoins anytime.

Also, I suggest you to format the thread so it's easier for newcomers to read (e.g. bold on emphasis points)

Very detailed write up an individual would hardly go wrong if they follow this.
But still the market is very unpredictable and anything can happen but regardless if you ought to have a nice cryptocurrency investment you would be better off following this guide lines

I’ve lurked on this forum for a long time, part of the reason I never really contributed to the community before is due to the amount of crazy, uninformed or self serving posts in the majority of the boards.

Good to see a genuinely helpful informed post! This post was the reason I’ve decided to be more active in the community to hopefully try and give some balanced input myself

Quote from: MeEsH BaCcA on February 01, 2019, 01:52:10 PM

Looking forward to it!

Quote from: BTC4theFUTURE on January 31, 2019, 03:31:10 PM

The list is endless, but that would be a good start.
2nd
Security
Learn what OPSEC and PERSEC is and apply it!!!!!!
Don’t keep anything on exchanges. They will all, in my opinion, eventually get hacked.

Very informative post. This list is really well chosen, then advice about security on point.
I hope more people will read this post, this is time well spent.

i really dislike the social media things such as twitter and youtube that you are talking about here. many of them are pretty bad, specially on youtube. i have seen many videos where the creator of them had no idea what bitcoin is and yet he was explaining it to others and mostly misleading them. not to mention when they start talking about the market and prices it all gets even worse. specially when they start promoting some altcoin or ICO that they have put their own money in! they stop at nothing to hype them up to make some small profit.

Quote from: pooya87 on February 02, 2019, 04:13:01 AM

have seen many videos where the creator of them had no idea what bitcoin is and yet he was explaining it to others and mostly misleading them. not to mention when they start talking about the market and prices

This is one major menace to this system,and it's on the path of the so called cryptocurrency experts who feel they've acquired that much knowledge to give out speculative and tentative advice,without considering that newbies could watch such videos and be fooled by such erroneous advices.
It's best new users stay away from YouTube videos that discuss crytyo prices and prediction

Quote from: pooya87 on February 02, 2019, 04:13:01 AM

It's not because of youtube or twitter that will bring negative impact to those who might be interested to bitcoin, it's because of the people who dislike bitcoin and decided to create a video and upload to make the youtube's video not suitable for learning newbies. Even facebook can still be used to bring disadvantages to facebook and as we all know it's not allowed to promote cryptocurrency ads in facebook.

It is very important for a newbie not to only listen to the FIRST person on they find on social media.

They need to listen to numerous opinions and then make up there own mind.

Thanks for bringing this up, it's something I should have included.

Quote from: BTC4theFUTURE on February 03, 2019, 09:45:00 AM

It is very important for a newbie not to only listen to the FIRST person on they find on social media.
They need to listen to numerous opinions and then make up there own mind.
Thanks for bringing this up, it's something I should have included.

For you I would strongly suggest to stay around the forum and spread your words.
You seem to have a very good stance here, reasonable and analytical thinking is strong with this one :0)
I guess you have already figured out that good newbie posters are rare or at least uncommon.
11 post and 19+1 merits... impressive, hope you will remain such quality ratio forever, which could easily make you the best poster of all times. And as you probably know by now, some extra "accumulating" can be made thanks to this.
My only suggestion is to avoid spacing overuse in your posts. It makes reading harder (at lest for me), the eye of the reader have to travel much greater distance, resulting in quicker fatigue. Cheers.

Quote from: BTC4theFUTURE on February 03, 2019, 09:45:00 AM

They need to listen to numerous opinions and then make up there own mind.

Listening to only one source is likely to direct someone through a singular part, every enthusiast should read wide and listen to various contents.
Finding quality social pages and handles is difficult but after a while one would have had a decent compilation to choose from and use that to direct their actions.

Quote from: poptok1 on February 03, 2019, 10:04:45 AM

Quote from: BTC4theFUTURE on February 03, 2019, 09:45:00 AM

It is very important for a newbie not to only listen to the FIRST person on they find on social media.
They need to listen to numerous opinions and then make up there own mind.
Thanks for bringing this up, it's something I should have included.

Thanks poptok1
I will take your spacing suggestion on board.
I have a few PowerPoint slides that I want to share, but did not realise I had to have 30 posts to do so. Im currently posting some 1 liners to get to that number. From then on, its back only to quality (I hope).

I saw your other thread in bitcoin discussion few days ago and made a comment too. Good luck with your 1 bitcoin milestone. Only a few lucky people can own 1 bitcoin. You are one of them.