The first time I went to a casino was around the age of 21. I visited my buddy Brian in Northern California, and it happened to be during the same time as his older brother's bachelor party. The group drove out to Lake Tahoe, and we decided to do some gambling before enjoying the nightlife.
Brian sat down at a blackjack table, and this was my very first exposure to the game. It was just he and the dealer, so the two enjoyed some casual banter while Brian, a math major, educated me on playing the game. Brian made it look easy, winning ten hands in a row. "You're going to make your friend think this is normal," the dealer said to my friend. "I better quit while I'm ahead," Brian replied.
He walked away from the table and explained that what I had just witnessed was not typical. In the over twenty years since then, I've gotten to experience the housing bubble and the 2017 cryptocurrency mania, which reinforced the idea that a streak can last until it doesn't.
Last night, I had the chance to speak with a 30-year-old man named Jonathan from Plano, TX, who's made a small fortune in the 2021 Bitcoin pump. Despite not having a college degree and a blue-collar job, Jonathan has a net worth or multiple six-figures thanks to his cryptocurrency speculation. He thanked me for my bullishness during the bear market, but even I have to admit that things are getting frothy.
For anyone familiar with my work, they know that I'm a long-term Bitcoin bull. Today I went to a Coinstar machine with my nine-year-old, and we had the opportunity to purchase Bitcoin with his $101 in change. He opted for cash because he and his little brother want to buy a game for their Nintendo switch, but the story illustrates just how ubiquitous cryptocurrency is becoming. "Necessity is the mother of invention," and that's why Bitcoin is here to stay.
I have been enjoying the unrealized gains myself, but it's irresponsible to pretend that this streak will last. Eventually, buyers who suffered through the 2018-2020 bear market are going to cash in and hand their bags off to the newcomers who see the opportunity for "easy money." They will learn a hard lesson that most of us experienced when we thought an asset could only go up.
As I explained to Jonathan, investing ought to be relatively dull, and if it's exciting, then one can rest assured that a significant correction is coming. Most millionaires earned their wealth slowly, and they did mundane things like a monthly budget, save, and dollar-cost average into their 401k to make it happen.
These are the boring things I'm discussing with my clients as their money coach. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, and you're getting tired of working with nothing to show for it, then I'd like the chance to speak with you. Schedule a free consultation today, and let's figure out how we can work together to get you on a hopeful path.