Don't invest more than you can afford to lose

[Unkle]

The problem with investing is that some people will be very angry with themselves if they do lose their money. You naturally think "Argh, why did I invest in Bitcoin? I should have invested in xyz."

But as you say, you have to take risks if you want to earn big.

Most people who invest or want to invest do so to get rich, so they're going to get angry with themselves whatever happens. If it tanks they'll cry, if it rises exponentially they'll cry that they didn't invest more. Some people will never win.

[pissedoff]

I'm not as crazy as some of you and have invested around 70% keeping some to keep me going and alive just in case it falls on it's face.

[btckold24]

totally agree with OP - BTC will double in no time. Have any clue how long an IRA with take to double?  Buy now and sell half at 500$ and half at 600$

[Finchy]

The problem with investing is that some people will be very angry with themselves if they do lose their money. You naturally think "Argh, why did I invest in Bitcoin? I should have invested in xyz."

But as you say, you have to take risks if you want to earn big.

Most people who invest or want to invest do so to get rich, so they're going to get angry with themselves whatever happens. If it tanks they'll cry, if it rises exponentially they'll cry that they didn't invest more. Some people will never win.

The best thing to do is get involved because you believe in the technology. I've invested as much money as I'm comfortable in bitcoin, now I concentrate on trying to earn as much as I can in whatever way I can. I still believe in the bitcoin but the price fluctuations are a cause for concern for me to keep investing my own money into.

[AdamSmith]

A simple truth that no one will follow when times is good. Everyone is risking every dime they have until the tide changes and wipe them out naked.

[ninjaskip]

Never invest more that you want to loose.
Welcome to crypto 

[Sophokles]

Never invest more that you want to loose.
Welcome to crypto 

Don't get into debt, but as long as you got a job that pays for your daily expenses: all in.

[Gleb Goodston]

Never invest more that you want to loose.
Welcome to crypto 

Don't get into debt, but as long as you got a job that pays for your daily expenses: all in.

This is the idea which will either make you poor or rich.

[yraskk]

Good thing but people are very stupid and wants to invest to get more and more money when in the more case they lose all of their investment ! (I say this for people which invest many money in HYIP).

[pablo4345]

Good post. If you are young and with a stable job, then go all in. If you are close to retirement and cannot afford to lose all your savings, then don't invest it all.

My 2 cents. 

[Some1else0]

I currently have $1600 invested .

[segvec]

I would say to pump all of your funds into btc right now.
If it were under $299, sure...but no one knows what the bottom is right now (just a rough estimate).

[Gleb Goodston]

Good thing but people are very stupid and wants to invest to get more and more money when in the more case they lose all of their investment ! (I say this for people which invest many money in HYIP).

HYIP is just stupid to invest unless you are a early invester looking to make a quick few bucks otherwise everyone loses out in the end.

[FattyMcButterpants]

I see this quote all the time, thanks dad but I can figure out how much I have to invest. When the price was $17 I took out $10k from my Roth IRA and bought bitcoins. Was that more than I could afford to lose? What does that even mean? Most people with a job can lose everything and because they still have a job they can keep going.

So fuck it, here's my advice. Invest everything you can put together. The price is damn low and we're probably within 10-20% of the bottom (current price, $325). Drop your damn Roth...they'll find a way to tax it when you retire. Investing more than your company's matching into your 401k? Fuck that, dump it into Bitcoin. Any equity on your house? Refinance, put all of that money into bitcoins...the dollar will lose value in the next 30 years to the point where your $100-$300k mortgage will be pocket change.

This is horrible advice. Bitcoin is far from certain to succeed over the long term, and even if it is successful it is far from certain that it's price will continue to see the dramatic returns that we saw over the past few years.

In your "story" you failed to mention the overall value of your IRA as well as what happened to your investment gamble in bitcoin.

[LiteCoinGuy]

I see this quote all the time, thanks dad but I can figure out how much I have to invest. When the price was $17 I took out $10k from my Roth IRA and bought bitcoins. Was that more than I could afford to lose? What does that even mean? Most people with a job can lose everything and because they still have a job they can keep going.

So fuck it, here's my advice. Invest everything you can put together. The price is damn low and we're probably within 10-20% of the bottom (current price, $325). Drop your damn Roth...they'll find a way to tax it when you retire. Investing more than your company's matching into your 401k? Fuck that, dump it into Bitcoin. Any equity on your house? Refinance, put all of that money into bitcoins...the dollar will lose value in the next 30 years to the point where your $100-$300k mortgage will be pocket change.

Do you have a job? If tomorrow your Bitcoin investment went to $0 would you still be able to live? Then dump it all into bitcoins...now.

I am sure this thread will be riddled by people trying to "save you" from yourself. I'm here to help you. Am I just trying to pump up the price? No, the people reading this thread likely do not have enough money to change the price but a few dollars. Plus I sold the bitcoins I got from my Roth back when the price was $12, below what I paid for them (though I am still buying). I've just seen the warnings year after year since the price dropped to $2 and people were panic selling.

Investing involves risk, higher risks tend to come with higher rewards. Donald Trump is worth billions but at one point was in debt over $900 million. Was $900 million more than he could afford to lose?

Invest what you want, it's your life. Live it.

Here is a nice wall of shame of a sampling of posts saving people from themselves when the price was in the single and double digits.

  like it.

we say that phrase to newcomers in the BTC space because its a good and careful advice to them. i would still do that.

but when you are longer in this BTC space, you invest more. not everything, but more.

to be honest: bitcoin is a high risk investment. you/we have to live with that.

[Elwar]

I see this quote all the time, thanks dad but I can figure out how much I have to invest. When the price was $17 I took out $10k from my Roth IRA and bought bitcoins. Was that more than I could afford to lose? What does that even mean? Most people with a job can lose everything and because they still have a job they can keep going.

So fuck it, here's my advice. Invest everything you can put together. The price is damn low and we're probably within 10-20% of the bottom (current price, $325). Drop your damn Roth...they'll find a way to tax it when you retire. Investing more than your company's matching into your 401k? Fuck that, dump it into Bitcoin. Any equity on your house? Refinance, put all of that money into bitcoins...the dollar will lose value in the next 30 years to the point where your $100-$300k mortgage will be pocket change.

This is horrible advice. Bitcoin is far from certain to succeed over the long term, and even if it is successful it is far from certain that it's price will continue to see the dramatic returns that we saw over the past few years.

In your "story" you failed to mention the overall value of your IRA as well as what happened to your investment gamble in bitcoin.

What happened to my investment in bitcoin? I lost it all. Half I lost by day trading getting it up over 800 bitcoins only to fall on bad leveraged short and long positions during the manipulation days of Bitcoinica. The other half I sold at $12 to put toward a downpayment on a house.

So ya...I lost it all (other than having some for my down payment).

But I'm still alive, I have a job. I'm still making money. The risk was high and I lost money.

But then I started buying back in at $22...$10k from my Roth is a tiny bump in the road.

[RobertDJ]

I see this quote all the time, thanks dad but I can figure out how much I have to invest. When the price was $17 I took out $10k from my Roth IRA and bought bitcoins. Was that more than I could afford to lose? What does that even mean? Most people with a job can lose everything and because they still have a job they can keep going.

So fuck it, here's my advice. Invest everything you can put together. The price is damn low and we're probably within 10-20% of the bottom (current price, $325). Drop your damn Roth...they'll find a way to tax it when you retire. Investing more than your company's matching into your 401k? Fuck that, dump it into Bitcoin. Any equity on your house? Refinance, put all of that money into bitcoins...the dollar will lose value in the next 30 years to the point where your $100-$300k mortgage will be pocket change.

This is horrible advice. Bitcoin is far from certain to succeed over the long term, and even if it is successful it is far from certain that it's price will continue to see the dramatic returns that we saw over the past few years.

In your "story" you failed to mention the overall value of your IRA as well as what happened to your investment gamble in bitcoin.

What happened to my investment in bitcoin? I lost it all. Half I lost by day trading getting it up over 800 bitcoins only to fall on bad leveraged short and long positions during the manipulation days of Bitcoinica. The other half I sold at $12 to put toward a downpayment on a house.

So ya...I lost it all (other than having some for my down payment).

But I'm still alive, I have a job. I'm still making money. The risk was high and I lost money.

But then I started buying back in at $22...$10k from my Roth is a tiny bump in the road.

If you were attempting to leverage trade the bitcoin market then that by definition is going to be gambling despite any argument of the likely hood that the price of bitcoin will rise over the long term.

Yes you are still alive (good) and yes you are still earning money via your job (also good) however your retirement fund has taken a hit (bad). If you are very young then it may not be as big of a deal as you will have a long time to recover from the hit you took; however generally speaking it is not good to be investing large percentages of your retirement funds in something as high risk as bitcoin

[g27wr]

I just wanted to stop in and say that I love the OP's advice. I'm 32 and have about $10,000 in BTC and I keep buying. Can I afford to do it? Who cares. I have a roof over my head and food on the table, and I believe in BTC

If I lose it all, then I pick myself back up and start on a new project. Regardless of what anyone tells you, there's always more money out there.

[TaunSew]

Problem with buying Bitcoin is that all the easy ROI is long gone and yet current buyers assuming 100% of the risk unlike the earliest adopters.  Seems legit - exchange your real dollars for fake Bitcoins while the Bitcoin rich buy a Bugatti with your real dollars.   


  People who initially bought Bitcoin in 2009 when it was fractions of a penny saw like 450,000 return leading up to last November.  While today, assuming the rate of inflation is static (I don't need to entertain hyperinflation arguments), the most Bitcoin's capitalization could ever be is $Trillions.  So the ROI limit left here is like 1000x on a new investment.


1000x return so $10,000 would only net $10 million..  of course this is no guaranteed thing..  BTC could plateau at its' current capitalization forever, drop down to $0 or be replaced by a competitor.

The latter is possible I think because Bitcoin is only 500K-2M users when the internet in the late 1980s had more users.  It seems very possible that some coin better at promotion and user base expansion could simply fly past Bitcoin in months and Butters would be asking themselves what just happened.

[jonald_fyookball]

Problem with buying Bitcoin is that all the easy ROI is long gone and yet current buyers assuming 100% of the risk unlike the earliest adopters.  Seems legit - exchange your real dollars for fake Bitcoins while the Bitcoin rich buy a Bugatti with your real dollars.   


  People who initially bought Bitcoin in 2009 when it was fractions of a penny saw like 450,000 return leading up to last November.  While today, assuming the rate of inflation is static (I don't need to entertain hyperinflation arguments), the most Bitcoin's capitalization could ever be is $Trillions.  So the ROI limit left here is like 1000x on a new investment.


1000x return so $10,000 would only net $10 million..  of course this is no guaranteed thing..  BTC could plateau at its' current capitalization forever, drop down to $0 or be replaced by a competitor.

The latter is possible I think because Bitcoin is only 500K-2M users when the internet in the late 1980s had more users.  It seems very possible that some coin better at promotion and user base expansion could simply fly past Bitcoin in months and Butters would be asking themselves what just happened.

Doesn't seem that likely.

Why would a new coin get hundreds of thousands of users?  What killer feature
would it have to be so attractive?