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I think we are mostly in agreement that people shouldn't delay buying Bitcoin indefinitely, but I also see value in that small level of understanding before having to risk some money.The goal isn't to create a barrier to entry,
it is to reduce avoidable mistakes. A small DCA,knowing discretionary income, and having a long term mindset gives beginners the best chance of staying in the market
Sure. You have probably said that correctly.
We cannot completely avoid making mistakes, and it is likely that at various points along the way, we will make some mistakes, yet if the mistakes end up being fairly minor in nature, then we likely learn from our mistakes as we go.
One of the advantages in getting started buying bitcoin as soon as possible is to get used to the process of buying bitcoin, and then also to get used to how the buying of bitcoin (such as ever week) affects cashflows, so many of us likely know that it is a good idea and practice to build up back up funds at the same time that we are building up our bitcoin stack size, yet it can be a difficult thing for many newbies to bitcoin to get used to since many times they are not used to having cash available, so they might be tempted to tap into their back up funds or even to overly deplete their back up funds.
Also, if a guy is ongoingly studying into bitcoin, he may well come to the conclusion that bitcoin is an investment and not a trade, which means that bitcoin has a 4-10 year or longer time horizon, which also seems to be a long time, and so guys likely could not even realistically consider holding and building up an investment for such a long period of time without having back up funds that protect the investment into bitcoin from being tapped into at a time that is not of their own choosing. Such extensive back up funds do not seem to be necessary or justified for various other investments, yet since bitcoin is so liquid (meaning it can be easily cashed out) and bitcoin is so volatile (meaning that its price can go greatly in either direction), guys will be tempted to tap into their bitcoin, even tapping into it because it had gone up in value when they should not be tapping into it.
It can be quite difficult to tell others what to think, how to feel, how to react to various market conditions, so in some sense, they figure out those balances by going through a process of ongoingly buying bitcoin and ongoingly building up their back up funds, and mistakes are likely to be made at various points along the way, yet I suppose if the mistakes do not knock them out of the game or cause them to later regret how they went through the whole matter, then later down the road they may well consider their involvement in bitcoin to have had been a success.
As a newbie basic knowledge isn’t a requirement to start investing in bitcoin, instead what is required is a discretionary income to get started with bitcoin, some newbies would be feeling that they need a basic knowledge to get started with their bitcoin investments, first of all have a discretionary income then you can learn how to buy bitcoin, and how to safeguard your bitcoin somewhere that can be save for for you, and keep you away from scammers, hardware self custodian is something to know so a newbie can be safely informed about security and keeping their bitcoin safe.
How can you do the right thing when you are ignorant?
Because it seems like you just talk without reasoning what you spoke off, if it makes sense or not.
I know that common sense may help you to an extent, but without having common sense, you would not know that you have to do some research first before knowing the right step to take before starting, because a typical newbie will never know that he should only invest in Bitcoin from his discretionary income, so in essence of what am trying to say is that you must know the basics before starting, because starting with complete ignorance will do you more harm than good.
We should be able to presume that an overwhelming majority of people have common sense, yet they still might need to practice using it.
And, yeah being able to calculate discretionary funds is not part of common sense, so if a person is having trouble with figuring out whether or not they have discretionary funds, then they might need to practice and perhaps learn basic math skills.
Also, knowing how to manage our cashflows is not a part of common sense, even though we do not have to have our cashflows figured out in order to get started buying bitcoin as long as we can figure out that we have sufficient discretionary funds to get started buying bitcoin.
There might be things that we know and that we do not know, and common sense does not cause you to know things, even though common sense might help newbies figure out that if they do not know certain things, then they might either not be able to get started or they have to purposefully choose to start out with buying smaller amounts of bitcoin while they are learning the things that they might believe that they need to learn.
Of course, any newbie to bitcoin could run into issues that involve figuring out how to source their bitcoin, and maybe they have a friend that recommends them to a place, but then if they go to the place and they investigate into the place, they may or may not be comfortable enough to get started.. So then if they have already calculated the quantity of their weekly discretionary funds available for bitcoin investing to be at $100 per week, then maybe they end up not being comfortable with buying $100 per week through that particular source location (such as an exchange), and maybe they decide to start with $30 per week while they investigate in other possible ways to source their bitcoin buys.
Newbies can come accross all kinds of initial obstacles that might not be enough to not get them to start, yet those obstacles might be enough to get them to reduce their starting out size until they become more comfortable. It surely can be helpful if a bitcoin newbie has already figured out that he is capable of buying $100 in bitcoin per week, yet there can be so many newbies, who might not be able to come to that level of comfort, and they also might either question their own future income/expense levels or they may question the extent to which they consider bitcoin to be a sufficiently valid place to put their value as compared with other places that they believe that they could put their value.
So, maybe even if such bitcoin newbie has a busy schedule with some other obligations, the bitcoin newbie may well decide to dedicate between 1-4 hours ever week to studying bitcoin and/or cashflow management matters... and maybe he does this while he is buying $30 per week of bitcoin (even though he still knows that he has $100 per week that he could put into bitcoin). Then maybe after several weeks (or maybe several months) of studying bitcoin, cashflow management and putting $30 per week into bitcoin, the comfort levels in regards to both the topics of bitcoin and cashflow management get better, and maybe in part the comfort gets better because the bitcoin newbie is also putting the ideas into practice through his ongoingly buying bitcoin every week.
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The ability to start investing in Bitcoin and the basic knowledge to start are not the same thing. If a person has discretionary income and common sense, then he has the ability to invest in Bitcoin. Now before starting investing, you need to know some basic understanding.
For example, how to keep a Bitcoin wallet safe by saving a seed phrase. Along with this, determine which method is best suited for him according to his income flow. Depending on how much pressure he can take mentally, select the DCA amount and start investing in Bitcoin accordingly and along with that, he will gain knowledge, experience and will also give importance to forming a backup fund.
A bitcoin newbie does not need to learn how to secure a private wallet and seed phrase before getting started buying bitcoin.
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Point of correction what someone need to invest in Bitcoin is not common sense and I don't know where this idea is coming from because it can be misleading to pleb who don't know anything about Bitcoin investment. What someone need to start Bitcoin investment is discretionary income and basic knowledge and not discretionary income and common sense. For your information common sense can not really tell someone how careful they should be with their seed phrase but basic knowledge will... Because you have understood how important it is to keep it safe.
You think that the basic knowledge needed before starting buying bitcoin is how to deal with seed phrases?
What other basic knowledge do you presume a bitcoin newbie needs to know, besides figuring out if he has discretionary funds, in order to get started?
You are right that common sense does not tell anyone exactly what they need to know, so they have to figure out what they need to know, if anything, beyond their determination that they have sufficient discretionary funds to make their first buy, whether it is $100, $10 or some other amount.
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We all make basic knowledge seem like a big deal. But what basic knowledge is actually very important?
First, what wallet should one use? I made a topic asking which wallet to use, and almost everyone recommended Electrum. That's basic knowledge.
Scams to avoid. That's basic knowledge.
Understanding that volatility is your best friend and not your enemy. That's basic knowledge.
Using only discretionary income. That's basic knowledge.
With these, you are good to go. How hard can it be?
Why all this emphasis on basic knowledge? It's all about helping newbies make the right decisions. Giving them an edge in making quality decisions.
Sure, that's a reasonable list, yet I doubt that any of those items are needed to know for the bitcoin newbie to get started buying bitcoin beyond the bitcoin newbie figuring out whether he has sufficient discretionary funds to make a bitcoin buy.
Why can't he learn those other items on your list along the way, and even use his own personal judgement to adjust his starting bitcoin buy size to an amount that he believes to be reasonable based on his assessment that he has sufficient discretionary funds?
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You nailed it buddy, the discretionary income is what any investor need to figure out before they can focus on other stuffs without figuring out the discretionary income an investor would just be blindly investing their money and end up ruining things for themselves as times goes.
So anyone that's interested in owning Bitcoin should first figure out what they can comfortably put into Bitcoin after settling their essentials then understanding basic things like the right wallet to store the investment,
where to buy from and so on. You seem to be mixing things up SOB. Are you saying that they need to know the right wallet before they get started buying bitcoin?
For sure, they have to know from where they are going to buy the bitcoin, and from where they are going to buy the bitcoin might affect other things that they might feel that they need to know in order to buy, even if they have a sufficient amount of discretionary funds, if they figure out from where they are going to buy, and then there are certain requirements to buy or they might not be comfortable with how the bitcoin are stored in that location, then they might end up getting triggered into feeling that they need to learn something else. The newbie would have to decide, and where they source might affect their decision whether to start right away or if they might feel that they need to compare sources for their buying. They could also just decide to buy a smaller amount, just to get started. That is up to them. So if they figured out that they have $100 of funds that they are able to buy bitcoin, then they might decide to adjust their starting amount down to $30 if they are not comfortable with either the source or the terms for buying.
By the way, if they search around, and then they finds out that they could ONLY buy from a bitcoin vender, and so they go up to the vender and they find out their sales terms, and maybe they have minimum selling amounts, and then maybe the vender recommends some bitcoin wallets that they could use, so the bitcoin newbie goes back home to study possible wallets. That newbie is in a different position as compared with someone who decides to make his purchase on an exchange, and the bitcoin newbie who goes to the exchanges may or may not want to keep bitcoin on an exchange, but if the amount is ONLY $30 per week until he might research into the matter, he might not consider that keeping value on an exchange to be a deal breaker, since after even 10 weeks of $30 per week, he would have had ONLY put $300 onto the exchange, and he might consider that amount to be acceptable during his first 10-ish weeks of learning about bitcoin.
In other words, it seems to me that a bitcoin newbie does not have to learn about bitcoin wallets in advance, yet the circumstances of his first buy could trigger him into feeling that he needs to learn about bitcoin wallets based on the bitcoin buying source options that he had found out about up until that point of time in his investigating into what he believes to be his local options.
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If you don't even know about wallets, you can start from exchanges. But common sense is one thing and learning about wallets is another. Common sense is that you don't jump out of a moving car knowingly, you can go to the market and buy products by calculating. In terms of investment, you can separate your discretionary income. A new person needs two things, common sense and discretionary income. I think it exists in about 95% of people. And the things you have mentioned about wallets are not common sense, but they are basic things to learn after starting Bitcoin. If you still don't have any idea about wallets, then you can start from exchanges. Then we will continue learning and once you are aware of your wallet, your own custody, security, you can bring it from the exchange to your own wallet. Starting with exchanges without waiting at the beginning is the initial stage of learning, but it is not wrong. But ultimately, self-custody is the main thing.
You are correct Primark. Many guys here are not that excited about exchanges or even how so many avenues of buying bitcoin exposure relates to using third parties, such as exchanges, when the preferred way is to build systems so that we are holding decent amounts of our bitcoin value in our own self-custody.
So practically, a lot of guys might end up starting out with exchanges, and depending on how much they are buying, they might be able to continue with exchanges for several of their first bitcoin purchases while they are researching into bitcoin wallet options, and surely bitcoin wallet options should be open source rather than closed source, and so it might take a bit of time for guys to determine which wallet(s) they might choose to use, whether it is electrum or some other open source wallet... so maybe if a guy is starting out by buying $100 per week of bitcoin, then after 5-10 weeks, then he might feel like his amount on the exchange is becoming so large that he would prefer to move those funds to his private wallet. Guys sometimes will wait too long before they learn about private wallets, yet they do not need to know about private wallets before they get started, unless they are buying their bitcoin directly from someone who will send the bitcoin to their private wallet (bitcoin wallet or lightning wallet address).
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I agree with you, it is very important to calculate your monthly income, regular expenses, emergency fund and financial obligations before starting to invest,
That is not true @GIF-JOBS. Guys do not have to have all their shit figured out before getting started buying bitcoin, and they might even have a lot of financial and/or psychological problems in their life before they start buying bitcoin, yet as long as they can figure out that they have enough discretionary funds, they can get started.
you cannot use money that you cannot keep for a long timeafford to lose, Bitcoin is a long-term investment so it is very important to keep it for a long time, that is why at the beginning of the investment you need to make sure that you are able to keep the money you are using for investment without any problem.
I fixed it for you.
The proper expression is don't invest more than you can afford to lose - that way you won't get too attached or expect that there is any guarantee of profit.
It is not enough to just invest, but you also need to make sure how to store it safely without any problem.
You don't have to learn about storage before getting started, even though you do have to figure out from where you are going to buy it, which might end up affecting the extent to which you might feel that you need to learn about storage.
Financial security, and also the importance of using the right wallet to keep it safe is also very important, which many newbies may ignore at first and instead of looking at their Bitcoin in a safe wallet, they may leave it on the exchange, which is risky. It is important to keep this in mind, there should be no compromise in terms of security.
You think that learning the right wallet has to be learned before getting started? You are likely going to deter a lot of newbies from getting started, yet maybe you believe that bitcoin is ONLY for technically advanced people?
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It is quite interesting because the success of Bitcoin investing goes beyond just purchasing and involves proper planning and security measures. As a beginner, people tend to think of ways of joining the market while forgetting if they have enough resources to leave their funds inactive for some time. Any investor who starts investing using the money he might need in emergencies will end up selling when the market goes down.
It is also important to consider security in order to have a safe way of trading. Keeping Bitcoin on exchanges to facilitate easy transactions exposes the investor to many risks because the exchanges might experience issues in terms of security and operation.
Therefore, it is advisable for any novice investor to learn how to use a self-custodial wallet and save their recovery phrases safely.You think that bitcoin beginners need to learn about self-custody before getting started buying bitcoin?
It is quite interesting because the success of Bitcoin investing goes beyond just purchasing and involves proper planning and security measures. As a beginner, people tend to think of ways of joining the market while forgetting if they have enough resources to leave their funds inactive for some time. Any investor who starts investing using the money he might need in emergencies will end up selling when the market goes down.
It is also important to consider security in order to have a safe way of trading. Keeping Bitcoin on exchanges to facilitate easy transactions exposes the investor to many risks because the exchanges might experience issues in terms of security and operation. Therefore, it is advisable for any novice investor to learn how to use a self-custodial wallet and save their recovery phrases safely.
There is zero gain in person delaying your ongoing investment all because you want to learn about security. If you don't have any Bitcoin stash in your wallet so what do you want to protect huh? Security is important, yes it is, but there is always time for everything, don't use the time for investment for another thing. By the way, novices don't need to waste time in learning security. They should just get the fuck started with their discretionary income and the rest can be sorted out along the way.
A largely agree with all your points PhilosopherKing.
Beginners can adjust their position size downward if they are concerned about security.
Of course, everyone has a right to be worried about whatever he is worried about, yet it would seem that even beginners should be able to figure out a downward adjustment in their starting out amount so that they can at least get started while they are looking into the matter. If a beginner might be so obsessed about security, yet he knows that he has $100 per week of funds that he could use to buy bitcoin, and maybe he considers buying $30 per week of bitcoin, and he is still nervous, so then he decides to buy $10 per week of bitcoin while he is looking further into the security matter, and yeah, maybe it will take him several weeks to either increase his comfort or to figure out some systems that help to address his security concerns.
For sure, it is reasonable for beginners to have concerns about a variety of bitcoin related and even cashflow management matters, and surely many of us still emphasize getting started as long as they have discretionary funds and to work out their various concerns as they go.. and it is not like we are in a rush to "get rich on bitcoin" - even though there is importance in getting systems in place so that guys can buy bitcoin, even if they might choose to invest into bitcoin in a whimpy way or maybe some of them end up not investing into bitcoin, and those are choices that any guy can figure out in accordance with his own judgements on the matter, and hopefully his judgements are based on looking into the matter rather than just listening to mainstream media or getting wrong information through various other sources.
It is quite interesting because the success of Bitcoin investing goes beyond just purchasing and involves proper planning and security measures. As a beginner, people tend to think of ways of joining the market while forgetting if they have enough resources to leave their funds inactive for some time. Any investor who starts investing using the money he might need in emergencies will end up selling when the market goes down.
It is also important to consider security in order to have a safe way of trading. Keeping Bitcoin on exchanges to facilitate easy transactions exposes the investor to many risks because the exchanges might experience issues in terms of security and operation. Therefore, it is advisable for any novice investor to learn how to use a self-custodial wallet and save their recovery phrases safely.
There is zero gain in person delaying your ongoing investment all because you want to learn about security. If you don't have any Bitcoin stash in your wallet so what do you want to protect huh? Security is important, yes it is, but there is always time for everything, don't use the time for investment for another thing. By the way, novices don't need to waste time in learning security. They should just get the fuck started with their discretionary income and the rest can be sorted out along the way.
No matter how much advice you or I give to newbies, they should not start investing without learning the basics of Bitcoin. You don't have to spend a lot of time learning the basics of Bitcoin.
What are the basics that a newbie needs to learn before getting started, besides his having figured out if he has sufficient discretionary funds?
How do you know how much time it takes to learn the alleged "basics" even you are implying that you know what the supposed basics are?
A wallet management strategy for storing Bitcoin is to know how to write down the seed phrase and security code and keep it in multiple places and in safe places so that it doesn't get lost or damage.
You think that learning about wallet management is needed prior to getting started buying bitcoin?
This is your initial stage and the other is to have discretionary income available, it can be any amount. Start with $10-$20 a week and increase the amount of Bitcoin you accumulate as your income increases.
Sure, we know that you have to have discretionary funds to get started. PhilosopherKing already said that.
