If there’s one thing you should know about me, it is my love for passive income.
Funny enough, there are so much passive income opportunities out there that I can even name. But you won’t find them if you’re not looking.
So, I’m repeating it: I love passive income, and I am always looking for new opportunities to invest in something that would fetch me good money in return.
I personally think that investing is something that everyone should do. There are so many benefits of investing that it makes no sense not to get started.
If you want to build wealth and financial stability, investing will get you there.
For starters, if you don’t invest and grow your money, you’ll actually end up losing money over time. This is because of inflation.
Our currency is under the curse of inflation. Check it, $1,000 in the 90s would get more things done than $1,000 today.
Inflation is simply the general increase in prices that happens every year and the decline in purchasing power of your money.
The rate of inflation can vary widely, but historically inflation has averaged to around 2%.
If you invest your money and, say, earn a rate of return of 7% on average, you’ll stay way ahead of inflation and increase the value of your money. That’s the genius behind investing.
Sure, you make money from internet marketing. But you see, the internet marketing industry is changing very often.
One day you might make good money with one method. Another day the same way might not work anymore. Then you’re stuck and might be broke if you don’t invest in something.
There are a hundred and one ways to invest and grow your money. You can use your internet marketing money to grow your wealth. As you work and as you scale up, you can increase your revenue over time.
But if you’re really serious about building wealth, you need to create an investment plan that suits you and your goals. I think the difference between the rich dudes and the broke ones is an investment.
There are many benefits of investing. If you want to create financial stability, grow your wealth, and stay on track for retirement, you need to look out for an investment opportunity.
Investing is very important. Don’t spend your money on unnecessary things, please. You don’t have to buy branded products or luxurious cars if you cannot afford them yet.
For now, find the things that will grow your money. It is better to start investing so you can have a passive income stream.
On my own end, I have been looking for ways that I can invest. And I got intrigued by cryptocurrency. I started to look into it, and I found it quite interesting.
Let me show you how I invested in Bitcoin (as a Print-on-Demand seller)
My Cryptocurrency Journey
It all started way back in 2017 when I came across XRP for the first time. XRP, which can also be called Ripple, was released in 2012 by Ripple Labs Inc., a US-based technology company.
I guess they were too tired to find a name for the currency, so they just named it after the company. Anyways, that’s not the point.
Ripple was created to be a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange, and remittance network. It was designed to enable secure, instantly and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks.
So, back to my story.
My friend told me about Cryptocurrency and recommended XRP to me.
At that time, I was gambling with it because I didn’t know so much about crypto investment.
I started investing in it in the middle of the year. At the end of the year, the price of XRP increased a lot. I made excellent profits from it. I felt like a pro-investor!
So, I continued investing in it.
In 2018, I traveled a lot, but I kept checking the graph. When I see the good news about the XRP, I bought more and made some profits.
But I must say that there were many times when I made a lot of losses as well. So, it didn’t feel like I was investing. It felt more like gambling.
Today it hits, and you make a good profit, tomorrow it plums down, and you see your chart go all red!
I couldn’t sleep well, and it’s not my thing.
Later on, the XRP crashed, and I lost all of my profits.
I felt really bad. But that didn’t stop me! I continued investing in crypto.
In 2019, I started investing in crypto by copying other people.
It’s called copy trading.
I started using the eToro platform for Crypto and US Stocks.
In case you are hearing that name for the first time, eToro is basically a social trading platform and multi-asset brokerage company that focuses on providing financial and copy trading services.
I had to be honest with myself. I don’t have the time to read charts and news on the crypto business. I would be losing if I invested all by myself.
So, I started using eToro’s feature that allowed me to copy other people’s portfolios. This way, I can support them.
I found out that it’s an excellent way because there are so many specialists on the platform. I have copied some of them and made over 48.93% profit last year.
My move to Bitcoin Investment
After my successful copy trading days, I decided to expand my investment. I started learning about Bitcoin (BTC), and I found the concept very interesting. Let me explain it to you in a few words.
Bitcoin is simply a type of money that is completely virtual. It is often described as a cryptocurrency, a virtual currency, or a digital currency.
Either way, it’s like an online version of cash. You can use it to buy products and services, but not many shops accept Bitcoin yet, and some countries have banned it altogether.
However, some companies are beginning to buy into its growing influence.
In October last year, for example, the online payment service, PayPal, announced that it would be allowing its customers to buy and sell Bitcoin.
The physical Bitcoins you see in photos are a novelty. They would be worthless when printed out in cash without the private codes printed inside them.
Bitcoin was first introduced in January 2009. Its creation is often tied to a particular pseudonymous name known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
But the identity of the person or persons who created the technology is still a mystery.
Anyway, Bitcoin offers the promise of lower transaction fees than traditional online payment mechanisms, and, unlike government-issued currencies, it is operated by a decentralized authority.
Bitcoin’s history as a store of value has been turbulent. Check this out. The cryptocurrency skyrocketed up to roughly $20,000 per coin in 2017.
But guess what? In less than a year, it was trading for less than half of that.
In its actual form, a Bitcoin is a computer file that is stored in a ‘digital wallet’ app on a smartphone or computer. This way, people can send Bitcoins to your digital wallet, and you can also send Bitcoins to other people very quickly.
Every single transaction is recorded in a public list called the blockchain. This makes it possible to trace the history of Bitcoins to stop people from spending coins they do not own, making copies, or undo-ing transactions. A massive amount of computing power verifies all bitcoin transactions.
I should say this too. Bitcoins are not issued or backed by any banks or governments, nor are individual bitcoins valuable as a commodity.
Despite it not being legal tender, Bitcoin is very popular and has triggered hundreds of other cryptocurrencies.
Why Investing in Bitcoin is not a totally bad idea…
When the richest person in the world gives his support to a virtual currency, you know it’s big business.
Elon Musk recently posted on Twitter that he thinks the virtual currency, Bitcoin, is a “good thing.” And I’m with Elon on this one. I think it’s a good thing too.
His tweets were followed by action as Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. This resulted in the value of Bitcoin rising significantly.
However, it doesn’t change the fact that Bitcoin can be very volatile. In fact, you can lose all your profit within a short period.
But it’s not totally bad…
Bitcoin is limited. It is not like cash which countries can print unlimited.
There are only a handful of Bitcoins to go around. In fact, there are only about 21 million BTC. This is what makes it pricey.
The value of cash you have today will be decreased over time.
With about $3 to $5, you can buy an in-and-out burger. But in the next 10 years, this amount of money might not be enough because countries keep printing more money every year.
The good thing about Bitcoin is that the value will remain the same because it’s limited at $21M BTC. So, it has a more stable value.
Also, transferring money between countries requires fees. Why do we have to pay those fees? Don’t even let me get started on exchange rate problems too.
But the idea of BTC is here to overcome these problems. Bitcoins can be transferred. No bank needed.
Zero bank means zero fees!
You can transfer BTC to other people on the other side of the world in seconds and with no fees. The value is not decreased overtime as well.
Whenever I go online to check out Bitcoin investors, I keep seeing that many of the most financially successful people in the world are Bitcoin investors. Elon Musk, Chamath Palihapitiya, and Asia’s richest man Li Ka-Shing invest in Bitcoins.
And I get it. Bitcoin has more benefits than regular currencies.
For one, Bitcoin has a lower inflation risk. Their respective governments control all world currencies.
At times, this leads to fluctuation in the cash value since governments keep printing more money.
When a currency loses value, its purchasing power goes down and leads to more money to acquire the products.
Bitcoin investors believe that the currency has a lower falling risk compared to other currencies. Bitcoin is a global currency that does not depend on government policy that can fail and cause hyperinflation or complete collapse of the currency.
Bitcoin is also portable. With the current major currencies, it isn’t easy to carry around large amounts of money without getting jumped.
Cash amounting to millions is risky to carry!
Even carrying a thousand grand in cash and I can’t take the subway. This is why Bitcoin investors prefer it to other currencies. With Bitcoin, you can easily carry around a million dollars worth of Bitcoin in a ledger.
Prices will keep on growing. Seeing the benefits of bitcoin investment, more and more people are ready to invest in bitcoin.
As bitcoin’s demand and value increase with more people than ever using bitcoin as the primary currency, bitcoin’s price will eventually grow.
Bitcoin has global authority. As the earliest virtual currency to meet widespread popularity and success, bitcoin has inspired many other cryptocurrencies in its wake.
As you may already know, there are dozens of cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. Many other cryptocurrencies are using new marketing tactics and present significant benefits to their users.
However, bitcoin is on the top because Bitcoin is one the backbone of almost all other cryptocurrencies.
Being the first player in the market, bitcoin has the ultimate advantage over other cryptocurrencies trying to make their way to the top. Bitcoin has proven to be a secure and reliable company, while others are still struggling to win people’s trust.
I invested in Bitcoin and ETH, and this just happened…
I have said quite a lot about Bitcoin and why it is a good investment.
After I started investing in BTC, I got interested in Ethereum (ETH) too. It is widely considered the second fastest growing cryptocurrency in the market.
Ethereum is also being used in many industries today. So, I think it is a perfect coin.
So, I figured that I could as well get a piece of it before it skyrockets.
I started using the DCA method for my investment to secure more profits.
The Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) is simply an investment strategy where you would have to divide the total amount you want to invest across periodic purchases.
You are doing to support a total sum of money in small increments over time instead of all at once.
I like this strategy because it reduces the impact of volatility on the overall purchase. It also removes much of the detailed work of attempting to time the market to make equities purchases at the best prices.
Such a strategy aims to increase your exposure to an investment asset slowly over time instead of all at once.
This allows you as an investor to reduce the risk associated with purchasing a highly volatile asset, like Bitcoin, on a day-to-day basis while gaining exposure to the long-term trends of the investment.
And indeed, bitcoin is very volatile. Bitcoin has at one time experienced a 35% drop within 4 days. That is crazy! Bitcoin is significantly more volatile than gold and the USD.
But with this strategy, you can take advantage of market downturns without risking too much capital at any given time.
When I started, I chose to invest a tiny amount daily. I invested $50 in BTC and $50 in ETH every day.
That’s $100 daily.
I choose to invest every day at the same time, between 12.00 PM to 1.00 PM EST, because the price of the Crypto is fluctuating.
In my opinion, monthly investing is not just enough.
So, when the BTC or ETH had a lower price, I bought it. When they reached a new high, I also bought them. It’s DCA. I practically spend just 1 minute a day investing in these two coins.
How much profit did I make?
Well, this article was written on Feb 17, 2021. I made over 30% in profits for both BTC and ETH. So far, so good!
Why you should use the DCA Strategy
I honestly would not recommend this strategy if it hasn’t been working for me.
For starters, it reduces the emotional component in investing. Emotions can be a very key part of decision-making.
The wrong feelings can lead to wrong decisions. I know this by experience. And for someone like me that often gets scared at the thought of losing my money, my emotions would always get the best of me.
But when you are investing mechanically, you will take the emotional component out of your decision-making.
You will continue on a preset course of buying a specific dollar amount of your preferred investment irrespective of how wildly the price swings.
This way, you will not bail out of your investment when the price goes down in a wild swing but rather see it as an opportunity to acquire more shares at a lower cost.
It also helps me to avoid bad timing. Since I have a fixed buying time, I don’t buy it every time. And when I do, I believe just $50.
If you invest your money all at once in cryptocurrency, there is the risk that you will invest just before a significant market downturn.
Imagine you had jumped into an investment just before the market downturn that began in late 2017. You would have ended up losing more money than if you had invested only some of your money before the downturn.
Of course, the other side of this coin is that you might also miss out on investing at just the right time before the market starts trending upward in a buyers market.
Sticking to your defined amount and timing is the best way to go.
My Final thoughts
I think I’ll hold the BTC for a long time.
Why?
Well, I’m not much of a seer, but I can see the future on this coin. And if I keep investing this way, spending $100 on these two coins every day, I would end up with substantial profits sooner than later.
I am exposed to low risk this way. Sure, it’s quite difficult to predict the price and get it at the lowest price. But I would keep learning all I need to get better results from my investment.
Lastly, I must say this!
I do not recommend you to invest in only the Crypto market. I don’t invest solely in Crypto as well. I also invest in the US Tech Companies, US Stock Market, China Market, etc.
Ensure that you do enough research and find more information before investing more.
All the best in your investments!
—Bank K.
