Balancing Financial security and Bitcoin Accumulation

[Egii Nna]

Although, no doubt because there are all possibilities for such to happened only if they get involved in with altcoin that are more of pump/dump, when they are lucky they could get pumped to cash out good profits from their investments and only those who have been in the cryptocurrencies space can actually achieved such quicker profits.

You just rounded up the discussion with the truth by saying, “Only those who have been in the cryptocurrency space can actually achieve such quicker profit.” If not, how would a newbie in crypto even know which altcoin to invest in to get a quick return?

Let’s be honest, we all know crypto is not a “try your luck” scheme where you just throw your money into an alt coin and it suddenly pumps overnight, making you rich. That narrative is not only misleading, but it’s also dangerous.

It’s actually funny and sad how many people jump into the crypto space without having any real knowledge, experience, or guidance. They move based on hype, social media noise, or the fear of missing out (FOMO), thinking they’ll wake up to massive profits.

The truth is, only those who have spent time in the market, studied its behavior, understood trends, and learned from experienced mentors are in a position to identify potentially profitable altcoins  and even then, it still carries risk.

Cryptocurrency, like any other form of trading or investment, requires time, patience, research, and discipline. Without these, you’re not investing,  you’re gambling.

So, before diving in, make sure you understand what you’re doing. Learn, follow those with proven experience, and never invest more than you can afford to lose. In crypto, knowledge is not just power, it is also protection.

[Proty]

Although, no doubt because there are all possibilities for such to happened only if they get involved in with altcoin that are more of pump/dump, when they are lucky they could get pumped to cash out good profits from their investments and only those who have been in the cryptocurrencies space can actually achieved such quicker profits.

You just rounded up the discussion with the truth by saying, “Only those who have been in the cryptocurrency space can actually achieve such quicker profit.” If not, how would a newbie in crypto even know which altcoin to invest in to get a quick return?

Let’s be honest, we all know crypto is not a “try your luck” scheme where you just throw your money into an alt coin and it suddenly pumps overnight, making you rich. That narrative is not only misleading, but it’s also dangerous.

It seems you don't really get what he was trying to say , he was talking about alt coins that is pump/dump projects.There are individuals who have had different experiences with altcoin, there are those who has been lucky with it,also there are majority who was not so lucky. The lucky are those who invested when the project was still going up lucky for,they were able to sell it off before it dumps also there are majority who has lost there money because the project dump some even turn to dust and they couldn't get back there capital . However this not the same with bitcoin, with bitcoin this kind of scenario is not possible because bitcoin has proven it's worth over the years as a potential coin and also as a store of value.

[Mate2237]

There is need for people to have a balanced financial life because it's very important as it will give you an edge when it comes to setting up your financial priorities because financial management skills is key so when you try to balance your finances by having a roadmap on how to spend your money wisely it will save you of many financial embarrassment so there is need for us to set aside money for different reasons because that will really help us to achieving our goals of investing and having a balance personal life



Financial management is one thing that should be thought in school because there are allot of people who are misplacing priorities as they can't differentiate between money that is used in investing and money that is used in spending at home so it's important that people should have a balanced financial life when it comes to handling money

[Tungbulu]

Financial management is one thing that should be thought in school because there are allot of people who are misplacing priorities as they can't differentiate between money that is used in investing and money that is used in spending at home so it's important that people should have a balanced financial life when it comes to handling money

I agree with you. A lot of investors often undermine the importance of a good financial management system. They often think that investing is just about having the money to invest and then everything will be alright, which is a very huge misconception. Just like you said, a good financial management system is key to achieving success in your investment because I don’t see how it’s possible to achieve success in investment when you can’t even sort your financial needs accordingly, you’ll always end up being confused and misplacing priorities and this is very bad for investment.

[JayJuanGee]

About a week ago Tungbulu invited me to participate in this thread, and I don't mind, even though I understand that some local's might prefer to keep threads to locals so that the topics might remain accessible and even communicated in local language, which I don't necessarily understand very well.

You're absolutely correct, overthinking can indeed potentially lead to paralysis. The best way to get started is to take the first step, even if those steps are very small, at least it's better than waiting for a perfect time that may likely not even come. Bitcoin accumulation and building an emergency fund can actually be done simultaneously, I actually created a topic on how this could be achieved.

I did a quick glance at it, and I bookmarked the thread so that I can read it and subscribe to it.

That'll be very wonderful.
And it'll also be very much appreciated to also share your thoughts and knowledge on the topic, it'll definitely create further opportunity for users to get to learn from your knowledge and contributions.

In many of my interactions with Tungbulu, I do tend to agree with a lot of his bitcoin and financial management points, yet when I reviewed OP, I did find several areas in which I would have had expressed the ideas differently, which may even rise to the level of substantive differences of opinion.

To attempt to clarify what I mean, I will go through all of the points raised in OP.

I greet all of you my country people. I know there may be a few other topics that emphasizes on the importance of an Emergency fund to an investor. Yes, everybody knows say Emergency funds dey important, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. With the help of this thread I'm aiming to give a detailed and step by step guide on how to simultaneously build an emergency fund while also accumulating Bitcoin. This is to prevent the excuse of having to waste more time building an emergency fund before getting started with one's accumulation journey.

For sure, I think that it is a good idea for guys to consider the role of an emergency fund and to try to tailor their level of emergency funds to their own financial and psychological circumstances, and frequently I like to presume that a large majority of normal people already tend to keep right around 2 to 6 weeks (or even more) of emergency funds (or back up cash) whether they invest in bitcoin or not, and yeah, they might not call their funds an emergency fund, but the money still tends to be available so that money does not run out between the receipt of pay, and surely some folks have regular pay periods and other people have more irregular pay periods, so many folks already tend to get into some kind of a practice of keeping back up funds and/or emergency funds just so that they can try to stay somewhat self-reliant and not having to count on others in order to make it between paychecks.

Of course, many of us likely know folks who are always running out of money and/or seeming to cause their own emergencies because they are not managing their cashflows or their back up funds (emergency funds) well.  The idea of back up funds become even more important when a guy has an investment like bitcoin because part of the purpose of the back up funds is to make sure that the bitcoin is not serving as the back up funds and/or emergency funds, especially since the value/price of bitcoin is not pegged to the local currency, so its value will likely fluctuate a lot and so it does not tend to serve as a very good emergency fund/back up fund since the aims of any investor (who has a timeline of 4-10 years or longer) should be to building his bitcoin and not to be drawing upon the bitcoin during the period of building it up and not draw upon the bitcoin at any time that is not of his own choosing, which surely should be 4-10 years or longer.. (perhaps 10 years or longer except for those folks who might have health or age concerns that do not necessarily allow them to lock up funds for 10 years or longer).

DETERMINING YOUR FINANCIAL PRIORITIES
1. Emergency Fund: An emergency fund like we already know should be at least 3 to 6 months of our living expenses and this is what we should aim for.

I frequently like to suggest that our aim for emergency funds should be at least 3 months of expenses.. and to try to show that with the emergency funds there should hardly be any flexibility, yet of course, if a person does not have any other funds besides emergency funds and his bitcoin investment, then the emergency funds should be spent prior to spending from the bitcoin.

I think that if there are back up funds that go beyond 3 months of expenses, then those funds would have more flexibility to potentially use for other purposes, other than being for ONLY emergencies... .. so if someone is spending down his back up funds and they are more than 3 months, when the funds are depleted down to 3 months, then that should be a sign that times are dire, since ONLY emergency funds are remaining.

Many of us likely realize that if we were starting out our investment into bitcoin, and maybe we already had around 4 weeks of expenses worth of cash but we had zero bitcoin, and maybe if we were setting aside $50 per week to buy bitcoin, then we likely need to build the expenses at the same time.. so it could take a while to build up the emergency funds and the bitcoin investment to each equal around 3 months of expenses invested into them, yet the bitcoin would likely be more volatile and changing in value, while the emergency funds would be in the local currency or perhaps some of it in dollars to the extent that dollars mighty be able to be used for local expenses.

Maybe an example might be helpful?

Let's say that a guy is in his late 20s, and he had been working on various job skills and he has a decent job (I am going to try to use something that might be Nigeria relatable even though it might be considered a decently good income).  Let's say that the guy earns anywhere between $500 and $2,500 per month, and most of the time the monthly income is right around $1,500 (so he considers his yearly income to be around $18k).  His expenses tend to be between $750 and $1,200 per month (most of the time around $950), so overall he already has been in the practice of keeping $900 to $1,100 in various forms of cash in case there might be months in which his expenses are greater than his income, and overall he feels that he has a pretty comfortable financial situation...

and he also figures that he could probably invest around $300 per month into bitcoin, yet he realizes that he probably would need to build his bitcoin and his back up funds at the same time, yet since he had already got a bit of a start on his emergency fund, since right now he has $1k in extra cash, he may well start building his bitcoin at anywhere between $60 and $90 per week, and let's say that if he averages around $70 per week, and if nothing goes wrong in which he has to use his $1k emergency funds, he figures that it may well take him around 14 weeks before the amount that he has invested into bitcoin will be equal to his emergency funds, and since his emergency funds are still only enough to cover about a month, then he may well have to continue to build his emergency funds at the same time as his bitcoin investment, especially once the 14 weeks has passed then his tentative plan is to invest around $35 per week into each, until his emergency funds reaches a total of $3k to $3,600.. and then he is going to reassess.. but his tentative idea is that it may well take him an additional 71 weeks or so to get his emergency fund up to $3,600, so then in the total time would be around 85 weeks in which he may have had invested something like $3,600 into bitcoin and around the same amount into his emergency fund.  

Surely, the bitcoin price may well have have a lot of changes in 85 weeks, yet he considers that once he builds his emergency fund up to 3 months, then he may well be able to resume investing the full amount of his extra pay (his $70 per week into bitcoin).  He also considers that if he is investing into bitcoin and studying bitcoin, and paying attention to his cashflow management better, then he may well find some opportunities that he might be able to increase his discretionary income by increasing his income and/or cutting expenses.  He might also identify some areas in which he might be able to receive extra cash or even bonuses and/or maybe to work on getting a promotion.

The final amount usually varies from individual to individual so focus on your financial situation and allocate 20% of your income to a readily accessible savings account. You may also choose to diversify a lesser percentage of your Emergency fund to Bitcoin too. Note that this is by choice and not really necessary.
2. Bitcoin Accumulation: 30% of your income should go to your discretionary spending, you can choose to use all 30% to accumulate Bitcoin or use a lesser percentage, it's totally up to you, but note that it should be a reasonable amount.

I know some people might already be tempted to as where the other 50% of your income should go. Take a chill pill, we'll also come to that. Now, we move to another segment which is...

I have a hard time imagining scenarios in which guys are able to save or invest more than 20% of their salary (especially in consistent ways), and many guys have difficulties figuring out ways to consistently invest 10% to 15% of their salaries.

The example that I gave above is a guy who is generally making something like $1,500 per month and is trying to work with $300 per month, so yeah, that is right around 20%, so it is possible that a guy can get to higher levels by either increasing their income or cutting their expenses, yet I have trouble presuming that guys are able to easily accomplish those kinds of savings/investing on a regular basis, even though they can continue to work on putting themselves in such a situation to the best of their abilities.
 

TIPS FOR BUILDING AN EMERGENCY FUND
1. Automate your savings: sometimes having to manually save money can be very tiring, you might even forget sometimes and before you know it, you've used the money for something else, so automating your savings can be a pretty helpful tip to ensure you stay religious with your savings.

I personally don't like the idea of automating savings and/or investing into bitcoin and I tend to consider that to be a more whimpy approach to investing, even though there could be some automation as a kind of supplemental practice, so maybe the guy that I had described earlier, he knows that no matter what he wants to invest $70 per week into bitcoin for a period of 14 weeks, and then perhaps for another 71 weeks he would invest around $35 per week into bitcoin and then thereafter to revert to $70 per week... and so there could be reasons to supplement the weekly invstments to the extent that the cashflows change.

I also consider that the first year or two investing into bitcoin that manual investing into bitcoin on a weekly basis and actively adjusting may well be better ways to keep the investing active and attempting to be as aggressive as possible within personally tailored limits.

2. Make use of the 50/30/20 allocation rule: 50% of your income allocation should go to taking care of essential expenses and immediate needs. The mistake people often make is neglecting this aspect, forgetting that it is actually inevitable and unavoidable, even when you manage to avoid it today, it'll come back tomorrow bigger, and you'll be forced to still sort them out, thereby messing up your plans. 30% goes to your discretionary income and the other 20% towards your savings and also for debt repayments.

I have a hard time imagining very many situations in which normal people are able to save and/or invest 50% of their income.  You have largely described a situation of 50% expenses and 50% discretionary income.

TIPS FOR INVESTING IN BITCOIN
1. Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA): This is a very popular strategy and every true Bitcoin enthusiast should have heard or known this strategy. Now the reason I'm bringing up this strategy is because, if you're to achieve building a portfolio and an emergency simultaneously, then you need to marry this strategy, because it's the only strategy I know that gives you the kind of flexibility to achieve this. So prioritize investing a fixed amount from your discretionary income/spending at a regular interval that sits well with you, regardless of the market's performance.

I agree that DCA fits an overwhelming majority of folks to be able to tailor their level of aggressiveness, yet in the end there likely are needs to consider both DCA and the other BTC accumulation strategies of lump sum buying and buying on the dip.  i surely am not a large fan of buying on the dip strategies, yet it can supplement lump sum investing and DCA investing depending on how much a person front loads, so for example the guy that I mentioned with around $70 per week bitcoin buying, from time to time (maybe a couple of times a year), he might come across some extra cashflows, which might justify that he considers supplementing his DCA strategy with lump sum buying (buying right away with higher amounts) and/or buying on dips... and these are the kinds of situations that are somewhat individualistic in terms of determining how aggressive the guy might want to be.. and if his situations might be able to allow some variance during those periods, from time to time, that his cashflow might vary.

2. Start small: Starting small is very important, especially if you're a low income earner, don't look at how much you plan to achieve just yet and just start with a manageable investment amount and then you can gradually increase your pace/amount overtime.

 This tends to be a good idea, since guys tend to need to get used to investing into bitcoin and how it is going to affect their cashflow, including if they are investing for 4-10 years or longer, then they have to come to the realization that the money that they put into bitcoin is not going to be available to them, so it may well be better if they error on the side of not putting too much and not making the mistake of putting money into bitcoin that they actually need for current expenses or even expenses 3-6 months down the road.. and surely it can be helpful for guys who are investing into bitcoin to project their cashflows into the future, maybe even 12-18 months or longer.  Of course, the more complicated their cashflows (income, expenses, relations, family, debt management) then the more that they might have to project out further into the future.

3. Diversify your portfolio: for starters, this isn't actually very mandatory but I just wanted to include it because there are some unique situations that may likely arise that may potentially lead to diversifying your investment beyond Bitcoin in order to minimize risk.

 I am also not too excited about the idea of diversification, especially for newbies, since they likely need to start with one thing at a time, which would be bitcoin and dollars.  Sure there are some folks who come to bitcoin and they had already been investing or they have some other investments, so how to treat their other investments would be a factor that they would need to account for... but yeah, generally diversification for the mere sake of it hardly makes any sense, and newbie investor might spend more than a whole bitcoin cycle investing into bitcoin before diversification might start to make some sense for their situation.

BALANCE BOTH GOALS
1. Your Emergency Fund should come first (for now): If you're hoping to achieve both goals simultaneously, then your focus should be more on stacking up that emergency fund FIRST, and then you may allocate more funds to your BTC accumulation.

 For sure, I don't see any reason to build up an emergency fund prior to getting started in bitcoin... and like i mentioned in my above example, guys may well start out investing in to bitcoin and already have 2-6 weeks of cash onhand, which practically would be the budding start of an emergency fund.  

There are a few other reasons to not build up an emergency fund prior to getting started with bitcoin.

The first thing is that if there is no bitcoin investment, then what the fuck are you protecting?  The emergency fund helps a guy to not have to tap into his bitcoin at a time that is not of his own convenience, but if he does not have any bitcoin, then what is it that he is protecting exactly?

Second, if a guy is building up an emergency fund to be at least 3 months of his expenses, then holy fucking shit, it might take him 2-3 years to achieve that goal, especially if he is ONLY able to stock away 10% or less of his income at a time.  My earlier example was a guy who took 14 weeks to get his bitcoin up to the same size as his already existing emergency fund (that was about 1 month of his income), and then he took another 71 weeks to get both his emergency fund and his bitcoin to the same level (about 3 months of expenses invested). .and yeah maybe he could cut that time in half if all the money was going to his emergency fund rather than diluting between the emergency fund and the bitcoin investment, but can you imagine, holy shit, waiting 30 weeks or more to fuck around building an emergency fund prior to even buying $10 worth of bitcoin (getting started?) .. seems unreasonable and even self-defeating.

Third, your money is automatically losing value when it is kept in fiat.. and emergency funds should be in fiat.. .. so you got a bunch of money building up and none of it is working for you.. since emergency funds need to be liquid.

It just seems self-defeating to employ waiting strategies prior to getting started buying bitcoin.. .and surely an emergency fund is not more important than getting started buying bitcoin.. .. and guys should be able to figure some balance and prudence in these matters of doing more than one thing at a time.

2. Adjust your allocations: This may not also be very necessary for some, but periodically review your income allocation and should the need arise, make some necessary adjustments in order to ensure you're actually meeting the goals.

 This sounds reasonable.. and it seems guys should be continuously studying his own individual factors, and sometimes if any of his individual factors change, then adjustments (tweakings) can be made and probably should be made, since we should be striving to tailorize our investment style to our finances and our psychology.

3. Be Patient: this is actually the most important one, building an emergency fund and a Bitcoin Stash at the same time takes a lot of time and so requires lots of patience, because sometimes it might look like you're not even getting it right, but as long as you're following the above steps, just keep going and being patient.

 I agree.. Frequently at least a whole cycle might be necessary to even start to see meaningful progress... and sure, some of the ability to measure progress may well relate to how much frontloading is possible, but many guys are not really able to front load their investment, and they might be mostly stuck with 5% to 25% or some other amount coming out of their pay, whether they are investing into bitcoin weekly or some other period...and whether they are erroring on the side of whimpy or aggressive will also make a difference in terms of how the results are measured.

These steps may not really look like pretty much but I assure you that these steps and tips can actually help anyone (with a steady income source) to build a robust Emergency fund while also accumulating Bitcoin regularly. And don't forget that staying disciplined, patient and informed is also key to achieving this goal.
Pls you can also include other helpful tools if you've got any.

Mistakes might also be made at various points along the way, and sometimes we might not realize our mistakes for several years after we had been making them, yet surely we can still make tweaks when we discover that we make mistakes, and surely the better kinds of mistakes relate to levels of aggressiveness, yet the worse kinds of mistakes would be if we were to end up going overboard in one direction or another.. or getting lured into shitcoins and/or trading.. and sometimes even if we might make some of the worse mistakes, if they were tempered by their size, then it may not be a BIG deal if we ended up investing 10% into shitcoins or something like that ,since we may well have had made sure that we stayed focused mostly on bitcoin and we just dabbled with areas of our curiosity and realizing that it might not be a good use of our time, energy and/or money, but if we limited it to 10%, we still might have been able to get some advantage and learning from that kind of a mistake as compared to if we might have had dabbled larger in that direction.

[Y3shot]

Financial management is one thing that should be thought in school because there are allot of people who are misplacing priorities as they can't differentiate between money that is used in investing and money that is used in spending at home so it's important that people should have a balanced financial life when it comes to handling money

It is not as if people don't know the importance of investing, but the money that is coming in as income is very low, making it difficult for them to meet their investment goals. Since the pay is low, the first priority is to cover daily expenses. You can learn about financial management, but if you don’t strive to increase your income, there is nothing that can be done about investment. It is more important for people to understand why they need to increase their income and not just settle for less. Low income is a limitation to investment; it makes people seem as if they know what needs to be done.

[Tmoonz]

Financial management is one thing that should be thought in school because there are allot of people who are misplacing priorities as they can't differentiate between money that is used in investing and money that is used in spending at home so it's important that people should have a balanced financial life when it comes to handling money

It is not as if people don't know the importance of investing, but the money that is coming in as income is very low, making it difficult for them to meet their investment goals. Since the pay is low, the first priority is to cover daily expenses. You can learn about financial management, but if you don’t strive to increase your income, there is nothing that can be done about investment. It is more important for people to understand why they need to increase their income and not just settle for less. Low income is a limitation to investment; it makes people seem as if they know what needs to be done.

You are right about this perhaps that should be an imperative priority it is not just called daily expenses they are basic which of course one can not do without it and at most times there are individuals priorities towards the level of things to be considered a basic which might differs from one another all this must be first put in the place and have an extra value left before considering investment but however, indeed low income not suitable enough to take care of this basic expenses based on scale of preference or importance and have a left over is a limitations because negligent to not sorting out the basic needs first before investment is tantamount to a failed investment.

[IceLincoln]

And don't forget that staying disciplined, patient and informed is also key to achieving this goal.
Pls you can also include other helpful tools if you've got any.

You have made quite good points and helpful tips, your last statement says it all; one can have sufficient income and financial knowledge but without discipline to plan and follow it through, it’ll all be a waste.

It’s good budgeting your income but the assigning of percentage might not be for everyone, it’s not everyone who’s able to survive on 50% of their income and with the current economic situation in the country sometimes you might even find it hard to survive on the full income. It’s only those with more than one source of income or large income earners that can freely and successfully plan with this 50/30/20 percentage. Hence before one can think of investment first work hard to increase your sources of income, that way you have more fluidity in your planning and financial services.

That is not to say low income earners can’t invest, but they can only afford to invest as much as they can afford to lose at the time, their emergency funds also is less, their major aim is to survive first before investment.

[Tungbulu]

About a week ago Tungbulu invited me to participate in this thread, and I don't mind, even though I understand that some local's might prefer to keep threads to locals so that the topics might remain accessible and even communicated in local language, which I don't necessarily understand very well.

First of all, I'm very pleased that you've managed to honor my invite and carved out some time from your busy schedule to visit this thread. The truth is, I never really thought you'd actually honor the invite, but seeing your contributions here on the thread just increased the respect I have for you sir. Thanks once again for the honor.

DETERMINING YOUR FINANCIAL PRIORITIES
1. Emergency Fund: An emergency fund like we already know should be at least 3 to 6 months of our living expenses and this is what we should aim for.

I frequently like to suggest that our aim for emergency funds should be at least 3 months of expenses.. and to try to show that with the emergency funds there should hardly be any flexibility, yet of course, if a person does not have any other funds besides emergency funds and his bitcoin investment, then the emergency funds should be spent prior to spending from the bitcoin.

I've just picked out your point about having back up funds beyond the 3 months minimum allowing for more flexibility, and I can say that it has been well noted. The truth is that I never really thought about it that way and thinking about it just now gives it even more sense. I believe it can be considered as a great way of gauging the severity of a situation when those funds are depleted, as well as only emergency funds remain.

TIPS FOR BUILDING AN EMERGENCY FUND
1. Automate your savings: sometimes having to manually save money can be very tiring, you might even forget sometimes and before you know it, you've used the money for something else, so automating your savings can be a pretty helpful tip to ensure you stay religious with your savings.

I personally don't like the idea of automating savings and/or investing into bitcoin and I tend to consider that to be a more whimpy approach to investing, even though there could be some automation as a kind of supplemental practice, so maybe the guy that I had described earlier, he knows that no matter what he wants to invest $70 per week into bitcoin for a period of 14 weeks, and then perhaps for another 71 weeks he would invest around $35 per week into bitcoin and then thereafter to revert to $70 per week... and so there could be reasons to supplement the weekly invstments to the extent that the cashflows change.

I guess your approach do have its own advantages too, and perhaps gives me more reason to agree with your approach. Manual investing do not only enable investors to stay actively engaged and adapt to changes in their cash flow, it also allows them the opportunity to manually adjust their investments when necessary, based on their financial situations and goals.

Manual investing also gives one the chance to consciously make decisions about the amount one chooses to invest each week, which is a great way to stay within one's limits while still maintaining some level of aggressiveness in your accumulation strategy. I believe the best time that this strategy could be more beneficial is during the early stages of Bitcoin accumulation, since it can really help one develop a deeper understanding of the marker and also your own personal risk tolerance level.

[Gooner0]

 In as much as we can create guidelines or certain steps that will seem best for anyone doing a 9-5 job and wants to invest in Bitcoin, it is also necessary to know that we all have different financial principles, guidelines and ethics. Like I have always frequently said what fits Mr x might not be what's good for Mr y because we're not all the same, we earn differently we spend differently so all of this should just remain as an opinion not fact's.
You can't talk about automative savings it just wouldn't sit well with everyone, to some it might be alright but to others it won't.
Emergency funds can mean anything to anyone, for some they are funds for moths full of unwanted expenses while for others they're for certain goals or things they tend to achieve.

From everything I've read so far , investing in Bitcoin and saving from your 9-5 job has been made routinic , and honestly am not a fan of routines.
Let everyone be a judge to their financial prowess, not that any strategy is better than the other.

About a week ago Tungbulu invited me to participate in this thread, and I don't mind, even though I understand that some local's might prefer to keep threads to locals so that the topics might remain accessible and even communicated in local language, which I don't necessarily understand very well.

  I acknowledge the fact you took the invitation to this local board, you're most welcomed.

[EluguHcman]

Financial management is one thing that should be thought in school because there are allot of people who are misplacing priorities as they can't differentiate between money that is used in investing and money that is used in spending at home so it's important that people should have a balanced financial life when it comes to handling money

Of course the studies of financial management is not left out from the educational curriculum.
Shortly financial management is the strategic approach that lays the foundation to achieve our financial goals effectively. This course of studies is practiced right from our primary and secondary level of education in the economics studies.

It is not as if people don't know the importance of investing, but the money that is coming in as income is very low, making it difficult for them to meet their investment goals. Since the pay is low, the first priority is to cover daily expenses.

Certainly the rates of our incomes determines the phase of quotations we applies in our investment and also our daily expenses. So if we don't have sufficient income inflows when there are essential needs to attend to, it will be difficult to do this experiments of having separate savings for your emergency needs and same time being able to meet up investment goals.

Although there are people who can be mean that nomatter how small their incomes maybe, they will remain undistracted to their investment plans. While there are also those who acts intentional and ignorant to understand the importance of investments in the meantime even with their high rate of earning. They just feel relaxed in the meantime While they owe themselves regrets in the future.

[sotelorene]

2. Bitcoin Accumulation: 30% of your income should go to your discretionary spending, you can choose to use all 30% to accumulate Bitcoin or use a lesser percentage, it's totally up to you, but note that it should be a reasonable amount.

Me I no support the idea of using all 30% for accumulating Bitcoin. Don't put yourself in a bad spot because you want to prioritize accumulating Bitcoin. Use a smaller percentage that won't make you run out of cash or get to use your emergency funds for things that aren't emergency. Plan your finances properly and allocate your funds very well. No do pass yourself. Say your friends they invest 100k monthly no go make you to dey do the same. If na 10k you fit afford and you no go broker, they run am like that and soonest you go done accumulate some decent amount of Bitcoin.

Baba you don talk am finish. Bitcoin investment no be competition on who buy pass but na to buy based on your own financial power so that you no go choke yourself. If na 5%, 10% of your income wey you go freely buy with and forget about am, na that amount good pass. E better say make person get little wey him go fit dey buy gradually for long than say him no get at all due to buying more than your financial strength.

The way some investors are behaving it is obvious that they don't still understand this you said and that is why we have people selling off when the market is going down because of wrong investment. The reason why some investors won't go forward or make progress in their investments is covetousness, some of them are not always contented with what they have even though that is the only thing they can afford at that point in time and anyone who wants to exceed there capability or capacity will definitely learn in the hard way because there is a saying that  " you can not be faster than your shadow"

[Odohu]

Baba you don talk am finish. Bitcoin investment no be competition on who buy pass but na to buy based on your own financial power so that you no go choke yourself. If na 5%, 10% of your income wey you go freely buy with and forget about am, na that amount good pass. E better say make person get little wey him go fit dey buy gradually for long than say him no get at all due to buying more than your financial strength.

The way some investors are behaving it is obvious that they don't still understand this you said and that is why we have people selling off when the market is going down because of wrong investment. The reason why some investors won't go forward or make progress in their investments is covetousness, some of them are not always contented with what they have even though that is the only thing they can afford at that point in time and anyone who wants to exceed there capability or capacity will definitely learn in the hard way because there is a saying that  " you can not be faster than your shadow"

Those who display these tendencies like selling off and running away when the market is making correction are not qualified to be call investors. They are just traders which is people who bought and plan to sell at the sight of small profit and will try as much as possible to avoid losing most of their money. What this means is that they did something wrong from the beginning which is buying Bitcoin with money that should not be in Bitcoin. Investing in Bitcoin require that we purchase with only discretionary income so that we will be able to hold and not panic when the profit is not forthcoming and even when it is coming, we can hold as long as we can to be able to achieve what fully what made us start the investment. In addition, if you check very well, people who easily panic this way do not setup emergency funds which is supposed to be used in case there is emergency during the period of investment. Without such arrangement, it becomes very difficult to hold for long because sometimes emergencies happens and makes us spend money we do not plan for. It is important we aim to be smart investors by following the route of investing part of our discretionary income only and also setting up emergency funds.

[Tungbulu]

The way some investors are behaving it is obvious that they don't still understand this you said and that is why we have people selling off when the market is going down because of wrong investment.

That's right. Nativity can indeed be a major barrier and can hinder the progress of an investment. This is why it is always good to always stay updated on matters that concerns your asset class (in this very case Bitcoin) as an investor. Some people rush into Bitcoin without truly understanding the technology, yes it's true that one cannot acquire all the knowledge from the beginning, it's a gradual process, but it's crucial to first understand the investment you're going into, even before you make the first step of entering, because you might end up failing even before you started.

In order not to fall prey to making naive and ignorant decisions, investors or enthusiasts need to first understand the technology, as well as how it works, then you can start and develop your strategy and also acquiring some necessary knowledge on the process.

[Proty]

Those who display these tendencies like selling off and running away when the market is making correction are not qualified to be call investors. They are just traders which is people who bought and plan to sell at the sight of small profit and will try as much as possible to avoid losing most of their money. What this means is that they did something wrong from the beginning which is buying Bitcoin with money that should not be in Bitcoin. Investing in Bitcoin require that we purchase with only discretionary income so that we will be able to hold and not panic when the profit is not forthcoming and even when it is coming, we can hold as long as we can to be able to achieve what fully what made us start the investment. In addition, if you check very well, people who easily panic this way do not setup emergency funds which is supposed to be used in case there is emergency during the period of investment. Without such arrangement, it becomes very difficult to hold for long because sometimes emergencies happens and makes us spend money we do not plan for. It is important we aim to be smart investors by following the route of investing part of our discretionary income only and also setting up emergency funds.

The main reason why most people panic over market correction is because they don't have the conviction to hold bitcoin for a long term. If an investor has this conviction that no matter the up and no matter the down , that they won't option for sale. A strong conviction backup with a good plan can make an investor to actualise his long-term goal. Investors should always under go contingency planning exercise with regard to there long term goals. emergency funds is essential for long term bitcoin investment goals however without a strong conviction backup with a good plan, patience and high risk tolerance even with emergency funds and investors will still options for sale morespecially when there is a downward trend.since the conviction is not there he will force to make impulsive decisions based on market correction.

[SuperBitMan]

The way some investors are behaving it is obvious that they don't still understand this you said and that is why we have people selling off when the market is going down because of wrong investment.

That's right. Nativity can indeed be a major barrier and can hinder the progress of an investment. This is why it is always good to always stay updated on matters that concerns your asset class (in this very case Bitcoin) as an investor. Some people rush into Bitcoin without truly understanding the technology, yes it's true that one cannot acquire all the knowledge from the beginning, it's a gradual process, but it's crucial to first understand the investment you're going into, even before you make the first step of entering, because you might end up failing even before you started.

In order not to fall prey to making naive and ignorant decisions, investors or enthusiasts need to first understand the technology, as well as how it works, then you can start and develop your strategy and also acquiring some necessary knowledge on the process.

You are right Tungbulu, some newbies that are now into Bitcoin rushed into it without having a basic knowledge of Bitcoin and that is why you see them rushing out of it too, the reason why this kind of a thing happens is because of Misinformation, some people where told that Bitcoin is the most easy way to make money and for the fact they have been hearing about Bitcoin they just decide to believe that information and then rush into Bitcoin investment with the hope and believe that is the easiest way to make money, and because of this news they lost interest in wanting to know more about Bitcoin.
Some people are even told trading Bitcoin is the best and they went into it and when they start losing there money they tag Bitcoin a scam.
No one can prevent hearing wrong information but how you handle every information matter's a lot, any information or teaching you get do your own research and findings, this way you will always prevent yourself from getting messed up by wrong information or teaching.

[Justbillywitt]

TIPS FOR BUILDING AN EMERGENCY FUND

2. Make use of the 50/30/20 allocation rule: 50% of your income allocation should go to taking care of essential expenses and immediate needs. The mistake people often make is neglecting this aspect, forgetting that it is actually inevitable and unavoidable, even when you manage to avoid it today, it'll come back tomorrow bigger, and you'll be forced to still sort them out, thereby messing up your plans. 30% goes to your discretionary income and the other 20% towards your savings and also for debt repayments.

I like how you categorically listed everything out, but from the percentage allocation you did, you didn't make room for emergency funds percentage. Maybe you are are hoping to achieve that from the 30% allocated to discretionary income. But since we are talking about automation of our income, emergency funds being an integral component in determining the success and failure of our bitcoin holding, I think it will be best to make provision in terms of percentage for emergency funds for the onset.

This will help the investor to know the exact amount that should be going into emergency funds from the pay cheque, rather than leaving it at the mercy of the investor to determine what goes into the emergency funds account from the discretionary income percentage. Everything should be totally automated from the onset, so an investor can know which percentage should be for purchasing of bitcoin and which percentage should go to emergency funds. Emergency funds is important and it should be treated as something that is  important. If it is 10% or 5% make it known for the beginning and follow it strictly.

[Tungbulu]

TIPS FOR BUILDING AN EMERGENCY FUND

2. Make use of the 50/30/20 allocation rule: 50% of your income allocation should go to taking care of essential expenses and immediate needs. The mistake people often make is neglecting this aspect, forgetting that it is actually inevitable and unavoidable, even when you manage to avoid it today, it'll come back tomorrow bigger, and you'll be forced to still sort them out, thereby messing up your plans. 30% goes to your discretionary income and the other 20% towards your savings and also for debt repayments.

I like how you categorically listed everything out, but from the percentage allocation you did, you didn't make room for emergency funds percentage.

I'd like to believe that the 20% to cover for emergency funds allocation, since paying of loan isn't something you do all the time, so sometimes, 20% of your income could go to your emergency funds.

[Agbamoni]

You are right Tungbulu, some newbies that are now into Bitcoin rushed into it without having a basic knowledge of Bitcoin and that is why you see them rushing out of it too, the reason why this kind of a thing happens is because of Misinformation..

Only few are as a result of misinformation. The main cause is ignorance, they are aware of what to do and what not to do, they know the right approach but they choose to ignore it for several reasons. Investing in Bitcoin isn't an easy ride, its a roller coaster, success dont just come easy, especially when the investor neglect doing the right things. And also, Bitcoin investment just like any other investment needs time. Speaking about time, I dont mean a few months, weeks or days, that is not considered to be an investment. I mean years or decades of holding unto it. Because the most profitable investors are those who HODL.

[JayJuanGee]

In as much as we can create guidelines or certain steps that will seem best for anyone doing a 9-5 job and wants to invest in Bitcoin, it is also necessary to know that we all have different financial principles, guidelines and ethics. Like I have always frequently said what fits Mr x might not be what's good for Mr y because we're not all the same, we earn differently we spend differently so all of this should just remain as an opinion not fact's.

It seems to me that many of us are providing examples in order to attempt to show some parameters in which any of us might be needing to decide and/or to prioritize his investment into bitcoin, to the extent that a guy might have discretionary income that varies, yet still choose some level of aggressiveness in regards to his situation.

I had specifically provided an example of a guy who's income tended to vary between $500 and $2,500 per month and who's expenses tended to vary between $750 and $1,200 per month.  Of course, the details might vary, and also a person's assessment of the situation might vary too, yet if we go through the process of pointing out the various parameters and describing the choices that the guy ended up making, including that he decided that tentatively he was going to invest $70 per week into bitcoin for the first 14 weeks, and then $35 per week for the next 71 weeks, and then he was tentatively planning to return to investing $70 per week into bitcoin after the first 85 weeks.  Even though the matter is not set in stone, he has figured out a tentative plan based on what he expects his current situation to be and also in regards to how he expects his future situation to be.  Surely if some of his details change, he can account for the changes and to adapt within parameters that he finds acceptable.  He likely realizes that he has preferences that he is attempting to express through the system that he has chosen to follow, and his options are not "whatever" since "whatever" would not necessarily help him to reach his objectives and/or to balance whate he believes to be limitations within his circumstances (income/expense and/or other matters).

We could have had also contemplated that the guy was not necessarily new to investing, and maybe he had already spent 5 years or more investing at about a rate of 15% of his income, and maybe he had already accumulated an investment portfolio of $30k or more.. and so then when he starts out his bitcoin investment, maybe he wants to take around $10k from his already existing investment and lump sum invest it in into bitcoin.. or at least he might consider lump sum versus DCA versus buying on dips as three accumulation options that he might have right from the start, and he also might have a situation in which he receives a bonus of anywhere between $500 and $2k a couple times every year, and so then maybe he has some additional options that we might be able to take into account, and surely not everyone is going to decide the same in regards to how to treat those additional individualistic factors.  

We describe some individualistic factors in order to show that the choices might not be all over the place, but they have to attempt to deal within the parameters that are available, to the extent that any of us might be in a position to be able to identify our various factors and then to be able to come up with a plan and to employ it within what we would consider to be acceptable terms to our own situation. So in that regard, even if some of us might be expressing our own preferences within the parameters, hopefully none of are imposing our own preferences onto others... even if some others might agree that we had reached a reasonable balance given the known circumstances that have been outlined through the hypothetical example.

You can't talk about automative savings it just wouldn't sit well with everyone, to some it might be alright but to others it won't.

Talking about automatic savings (or automatic buying of BTC) seems to open up considerations of trade-offs between automatic and manual.  For sure, I like the idea of manual in order to be able to attempt to maximize aggressiveness, yet there surely could be cases in which people are steadily busy with a variety of activities and they might not be in a position to make sure that they are doing their weekly buys, so it may well come in handy for them to just set it and forget it so that they can focus on other areas of their life that needs attention while at the same time feeling good that they have already authorized the buying of bitcoin every week.. whether it is $100 per week, $10 per week or some other amount that they feel sufficiently comfortable to establish as a preset weekly amount (or whatever might be the time interval for the BTC buys).

Emergency funds can mean anything to anyone, for some they are funds for moths full of unwanted expenses while for others they're for certain goals or things they tend to achieve.

Surely back up funds can have different categories and even be loosely defined by some individuals, and part of the reason that I like to describe and differentiate three kinds of back up funds is in order to be able to show how they differ from each other, especially for someone who might be having to treat back up funds more seriously, especially if the back up funds might be for the purpose of protecting the bitcoin investment for 4-10 years or longer so that the bitcoin is not tapped into at a time that is not completely of the investor's choosing.

1) emergency funds are the last line of defense - so usually they should be at least for 3 months of expenses in local currency and used only for unexpected increases in expenses and/or decreases in income. Should be promptly replaced as soon as possible if used.

2) reserve funds - can be used for any reasons including emergencies, consumption, buying on dips or whatever reason.. optional whether to replace.. and surely the more erratic a person's income versus expense, then the more justification to keep more reserve funds.

3) floating funds tend to be the extra income that is held until monthly expenses are resolved.. once the monthly expenses are resolved, if there are any floating funds remaining, then those would convert into discretionary income that can be used to invest, consume or to add to back up funds (reserve funds and/or emergency funds)

You may well have your own definitions, even though I personally believe that differentiating between the kinds of back up funds is more empowering in regards to helping to establish boundaries and priorities - even though there still could be quite a bit of variety and variance in the ways that guys attempt to balance out how they manage such back up funds.
 
There are some guys who are very sloppy and/or general in regards to their management of back up funds, and surely they may well end up more easily getting themselves in trouble, since if we might not be categorizing and/or managing well, we might not realize our mistake  or the level of our mistake(s) until it is too late that we had made a mistake.

Brand new investors and/or even poor people might not necessarily recognize the value of the emergency funds, and they may well end up wanting to put their money to work, and then not realizing that they did not have enough money to cover some future cashflow issues, and surely rich folks might have a variety of emergency resources, even family and/or friends that they could easily get quick cash to cover their mistakes, and poor people may well not have those kinds of resources, and they ONLY have their monthly cashflow so they have to purposefully set aside funds for emergencies and/or even variance in their cashflow so that they do not end up having to sell some of their bitcoin investment at a time that is not of their own choosing.. which truly could keep them working for the rest of their lives, even when if they had managed their cashflow better, then they may have had a chance of getting at some level of fuck you status, meaning an ability to to quit their job and being able to live off of their investment, whether that fuck you status is achieved after 5-10 years or maybe after 20-40 years, and surely there are a lot of folks who never make it to fuck you status, even though bitcoin provides an opportunity that likely ONLY exists for poor people who manage their cashflows well and do not make major mistakes that cause them to have to sell way too much of their bitcoin investment at a time that was not of their choosing and also taking them out of a spot in which they may well may have had been able to enjoy the benefits of compounding value rather than just simple valiue appreciation that had not compounded multiple times upon itself..

From everything I've read so far , investing in Bitcoin and saving from your 9-5 job has been made routinic , and honestly am not a fan of routines.
Let everyone be a judge to their financial prowess, not that any strategy is better than the other.

Of course there are strategies and techniques that are better than others, just like there are investments that are better than others, such as bitcoin seeming to be amongst the best of investments available if not the best investment available to everyone and anyone... while at the same time surely investing into bitcoin is not guaranteed because there is both execution risk and their is risk with the asset itself.

Surely a lot of normies remain in positions of having fun staying poor forever and ever and ever because they might not either recognize the power of an asset (such as bitcoin) and/or they fail to figure out some ways to attempt to capitalize on the opportunities of bitcoin and to figure out some reasonable approach that is tailored to their own finances and psychology.

Surely over the years (including the last 14 yeas or so, there have been regular guys who have gotten rich as fuck off of bitcoin, and who have achieved wealth statuses that they would not have had imagined to have had been possible from within their own means, and they likely followed some practices of investing into bitcoin within reasonableness and within their means and perhaps some level of aggressiveness within their means without over doing their level of aggressiveness.., .

Of course, if they ended up overdoing their investment into bitcoin in one way or another, then they likely ended up getting wrecked and/or suffering from inferior performance, and also we likely know that there are no guarantees in bitcoin, yet there are likely guarantees to never make it anywhere by either failing to invest in bitcoin or getting distracted into inferior investments and/or inferior strategies and/or techniques.. whether that is getting distracted in keeping money in cash or getting sucked into trading or shitcoins.  There are a variety of ways to get wrecked and to get lead down wrong and/or inferior paths...perhaps even guys who think that they know everything are also vulnerable to screwing up in their approach and/or their application of whatever plan that they might develop.

About a week ago Tungbulu invited me to participate in this thread, and I don't mind, even though I understand that some local's might prefer to keep threads to locals so that the topics might remain accessible and even communicated in local language, which I don't necessarily understand very well.

  I acknowledge the fact you took the invitation to this local board, you're most welcomed.

Thanks.

The way some investors are behaving it is obvious that they don't still understand this you said and that is why we have people selling off when the market is going down because of wrong investment.

That's right. Nativity can indeed be a major barrier and can hinder the progress of an investment. This is why it is always good to always stay updated on matters that concerns your asset class (in this very case Bitcoin) as an investor. Some people rush into Bitcoin without truly understanding the technology, yes it's true that one cannot acquire all the knowledge from the beginning, it's a gradual process, but it's crucial to first understand the investment you're going into, even before you make the first step of entering, because you might end up failing even before you started.

In order not to fall prey to making naive and ignorant decisions, investors or enthusiasts need to first understand the technology, as well as how it works, then you can start and develop your strategy and also acquiring some necessary knowledge on the process.

I have had these arguments with members previously, and surely I believe that there isn't a need to know details of bitcoin's technology prior to getting started investing into it, and one of the most important things to know is your own personal cashflow management and if you have discretionary income.

You can learn various aspects of bitcoin's technology as you go, and surely if you are uncomfortable with the level of your technical knowledge of bitcoin, then you likely would ned to adjust your position size down until you reach a higher level of confidence about your level of knowledge being aligned with your level of investment.

Sure, it can be helpful to understand some of the basics or maybe some of the overview ideas that bitcoin solved the double spend problem and/or that bitcoin becomes difficult to attack in regards to computing power because there are guesses being made and the difficulty of guessing right number adjusts every two weeks to keep the blocks approximately every 10 minutes...and the details might not need to be known, especially in the beginning...and especially in terms of getting started buying $100 per week or $10 per week or whatever amount seems reasonable to the person and within their discretionary income.

TIPS FOR BUILDING AN EMERGENCY FUND
2. Make use of the 50/30/20 allocation rule: 50% of your income allocation should go to taking care of essential expenses and immediate needs. The mistake people often make is neglecting this aspect, forgetting that it is actually inevitable and unavoidable, even when you manage to avoid it today, it'll come back tomorrow bigger, and you'll be forced to still sort them out, thereby messing up your plans. 30% goes to your discretionary income and the other 20% towards your savings and also for debt repayments.

I like how you categorically listed everything out, but from the percentage allocation you did, you didn't make room for emergency funds percentage.

I'd like to believe that the 20% to cover for emergency funds allocation, since paying of loan isn't something you do all the time, so sometimes, 20% of your income could go to your emergency funds.

Those numbers make little sense to me, except maybe for someone who is quite well to do.

Maybe an example might be helpful?

Go back to my earlier example. My hypothetical guy had variance in his income and expenses, yet I also mentioned that many times his income was $1,500 per month and his expenses were $950.   So that means he ONLY has $550 left for all of his discretionary income for each month, which I thought was more than a decent income, especially if we might be hypothesizing someone who might be somewhat relateable to folks in Nigeria.. even though sure, this guy might have a higher income than what is typically expected.. but still he ONLY has right around 36.7% total for all of his discretionary income that is left after he accounts for his expenses.

I figure that most people are going to want to have some fun, consumption, entertainment each month, and so in my hypothetical  I had the guy investing into bitcoin and/or adding to his emergency funds with a total of about $70 per week which would be about $303 per month (on average there are 4.33 weeks per month). . .and coincidentally that is about 20% of his total income.. which would only leave him 16% for other discretionary matters.  I will admit that maybe I am not being realistic in terms of attempting to outline some consistency, since surely even my guy with the considerable amounts of variance in his income between $500 and $2,500, he likely is going to need to save some of his extra money for the various months that his income might go below his expenses.  I am still having trouble imagining your scenario in which you seem to believe that there might be very many guys who have 50% expenses and 50% discretionary income in which 20% of that is available to put into emergency funds.. and surely once an emergency fund is built up to 3 months of expenses are you anticipating continuing to put more money into it, such as going into reserve funds?   I am not opposed to any of those ideas, yet I have not tended to find typical cases that tend to have so much discretionary income.. .. especially people who tend to be poor or claim that they ONLY have something like $300 to $500 per month in income and in my scenario I was already presuming much higher income, but I was also presuming much higher expenses too.

Perhaps many guys in your local are able to relate to your described percentages based on potentially sharing expenses with family, so perhaps the expenses do not end up being as high of an amount in terms of percentages based on shared costs of expenses of food and lodging and some other shared expenses, perhaps?