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495: What You MUST Know about Bitcoin in the Era of Wall Street and Government Adoption!
Podcast: Download
To my credit, I was relatively early in my recognition that Bitcoin was for real and that it wasn’t going to zero. It was 2016, and, up to this point, I had the misfortune of hearing only one narrative about Bitcoin—that of Peter Schiff.
Peter is a very smart guy and quite convincing if you listen to his podcast. At the time, I was an avid listener and my opinion on bitcoin was shaped only by his view.
It wasn’t until I went to an entrepreneurs’ meeting in the Fall of 2016 that I heard the real narrative behind Bitcoin for the first time. Now’s not the time for me to explain it, but for those of you who are interested, I would suggest reading The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous.
Inspired by this new perspective, I went home from that meeting and bought Bitcoin for the first time—at about $5K. In fact, with bitcoin fluctuating up and down I managed to acquire a decent “bag” of bitcoin by the time “crypto winter” arrived in 2017.
Fast forward to today, and that bitcoin would be worth eight figures had I held it. But I did not. You see, in 2019, I had some bills to pay, and the Bitcoin price hadn’t moved in a couple of years.
Selling my Bitcoin seemed like the easy solution. After all, I reasoned, I could always buy it back. Well, I never did buy it all back. My family acquired some through kids’ trust over the years, but nowhere near the amount that I initially had.
This decision ended up being one of the most painful financial lessons I’ve learned over the years (and there has been plenty of pain!).
And the lesson is not just about Bitcoin. The lesson is about following your convictions. If you go back to my podcasts on Bitcoin over the past 7-8 years, you can hear it in my voice.
Throughout that time, I made predictions over and over—many of which have come to fruition already and others that we seem to be on the verge of.
So why, given my convictions, don’t I own much Bitcoin? Because I didn’t follow through on those convictions. I thought I could get in right before things started taking off. Rather than accumulating bitcoin along the way, I waited for just the right price—which never seemed to be low enough.
In hindsight, what difference would it have made if I bought at 3K, 5K, or even $20K at this point? If I believed, as I have predicted that bitcoin would hit $250K within the next 3 years, why would that matter?
There’s another reason I didn’t buy Bitcoin: it provided no tax benefit. I put almost everything into real estate and other tax-efficient investments. That’s not a bad strategy in general, but not carving out an allocation for something I believed in so much was just stupid.
The key lesson here is about being rational and following your convictions. Don’t get greedy and don’t always let the tax wag the dog.
Now, you might be wondering what I think about Bitcoin today at nearly $100K. Well, my stance hasn’t changed. I still believe Bitcoin is going to hit at least $250K within the next 3 years. So, in that regard, it’s still something I would buy if I had the liquidity (as real estate investors often do not).
The story for Bitcoin is getting better and better every day. And I think it’s very important for you to take it seriously if you are not. After all, Wall Street and Governments across the world have adopted it as a truly legitimate asset, and it may very well end up an asset stockpiled by the US treasury in short order.
You may or may not decide to invest in it, but not knowing about it as an investor in this day and age, is ill-advised. To understand why, listen to this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast.
And, I am serious when I say, miss this episode at your own financial peril.
