Set the scene in February 2020..where I was a couple months into my entry-level sales job after recently graduating from the University of Maryland (UMD) with a degree in Economics.
I was living at home with my parents (fun!) and just starting to make a little bit of money, so I took it upon myself to read some self-help books that touched on personal finance.
All of the books had one similar theme....don't hold cash.
And by cash, I don't mean the physical, paper bills with old guys on them. I'm talking about the (non-emergency fund) money that sits in a checking or savings account earning less than 1% APY.
The more I read and read, the clearer the message became...invest cash into assets and get your hard-earned money to work for you.
There are a ton of different asset classes out there and I certainly didn't know much about any of them. So, I started to research each asset category to figure out which ones made the most sense for my personal portfolio. Stocks, real estate, bonds, mutual funds, commodities, etc...I looked at them all.
But it wasn't until early March when I discovered a relatively new asset class, Bitcoin.
I obviously knew of Bitcoin from its wild run back in 2017 where the price shot up to nearly $20,000 per coin. Heck, I even owned some back then just for shits and gigs. But it was quickly written off as a "Ponzi scheme" after the price drastically plummeted due to a large amount of retail selling.
However, this new Bitcoin discovery of mine in 2020 was quite different ...
This was right around the time COVID-19 got introduced to the world and I knew government spending was about to go through the roof. In fact, reports show nearly 25% of all U.S. dollars were created in 2020.
Now having studied Economics at UMD, I know one of the most basic economic principles states, if supply increases, price decreases....and vice versa.
With the Federal Reserve printing more money (supply increases) and destroying the purchasing power of the dollar (price decreases), it made no financial sense to hold cash.
As I started to give Bitcoin another look, I noticed there was a lot of hype on the internet from the crypto community around this thing called a "Bitcoin Halving Event." - which was taking place on May 11, 2020.
At the time, I knew nothing about this event, other than it happens every four years and essentially Bitcoin's supply gets cut in half.
Using the same economic principle as before, I knew that when supply decreases, price increases.
This very quick overview of the macro environment and the retail buying hype around the "Bitcoin Halving Event" was enough for me to buy a small amount.
This was back in April 2020 when the price of Bitcoin was around $7,500 per coin.
My friends and family said it was a waste of time and told me I was crazy...and honestly, I couldn't blame them, since I still didn't know much about Bitcoin myself.
I only knew two things:
Holding cash is guaranteed to lose value - (money printer go brrrr)
Own investable assets - (put your money to work)
That being said, the best way for me to learn or focus my attention on something new is to have skin in the game, so I bought it.
I was a casual investor and still didn't fully grasp the idea, but I was certainly addicted to watching Bitcoin's volatile price movement during the spring and summer months of 2020.
I caught wind of the Bitcoin community and their outspoken belief in the asset as a long-term investment strategy. I started following the big name people on social media, reading more articles, and staying up to date with the news.
Weeks went by and I felt like a sponge, soaking up abnormal amounts of information just trying to understand this complex concept....until suddenly.....a switch flipped in my brain and everything started to click.
I fell completely down the Bitcoin rabbit hole and did absolutely nothing for the next few days (including work - sorry, boss) other than spend numerous hours reading, listening and watching everything I possibly could about Bitcoin.
When I put it all together and think about today's macro-environment, the evolution of technology, and sound money principles, it has become extremely apparent that we're still very early and Bitcoin makes for a great long-term investment strategy.
The price of Bitcoin, at the time of this post, sits at $39,000.
Want to learn more? Here are a few of my favorite starter-pack resources:
The Bitcoin Whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto
Vijay Boyapati's Bullish Case on Bitcoin
Michael Saylor's, CEO of Microstrategy, domain HOPE.com
Saylor Academy's free "Bitcoin for Everybody" course
NYDIG's Bitcoin 101 whitepaper
The Pomp Podcast - Anthony Pompliano, co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital
Ross Stevens', Founder of NYDIG, at the Bitcoin for Corporations conference
I've spent the last two years and hundreds of hours studying Bitcoin and the impact it will have on the future. The more I understand, the more conviction I have.....and therefore invest more money.
Thanks for reading....be on the lookout for my next blog post "Why is Bitcoin Worth Exploring?"------->
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