ARE THERE ANY ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS TO CRYPTO?

in #cryptocurrency7 years ago

I find myself...especially in these turbulent market times...seriously thinking about cashing out...taking my money and "going home"....

It would disappoint me greatly to see my current value dissipate into vapor due to technological glitches...government interference or some scandal that rocks the crypto world into extinction....after all...I've invested a lot of time and worry into this...I'd like to have something to show for it....

But...I hit the mental pause button and begin to think it through...

If I cash out all or most...as it stands now...the way this gets taxed... I would lose a good chunk to the government...which means two things...I am giving money away that I don't feel good about...and I have a lot less than I'd like in my pocket...

Secondly...and perhaps more important...what do I do with the money? Truth be told...while its a nice chunk...it isn't a life changing amount...would buy some nice vacations...allow a nice upgrade to my television...do some charitable giving or any number of other things that aren't necessities...

Then again...I could do the practical thing and pay off remaining balance of my mortgage...however...I'm at an age where the balance isn't extreme and the interest rate I locked in is low enough to tolerate....

Okay...so invest in something else....but what?

Over my life time I've seen multiple stock market highs and lows...I attempted a few years back to chase high yielding energy LLP's only to have 20% of my portfolio wiped out when oil tanked from $150 to $40 per barrel...here I was investing in something I thought was real...oil in the ground...only to still get rocked...

And I never thought the large natural gas company I invested in would go bad...after all...I truly believed natural gas was a better alternative than oil...so what could go wrong? Simple...they over leveraged...new technologies create an over supply....and the company teeters on bankruptcy....

Gong back in time...I invested in "emerging markets" before they emerged...(hard to believe at one time China was considered in that category)....only to have them go into hiding...who knew actual countries could go bankrupt!

So how about the good ol safety of banks...well...I 've seen CD bank rates go as high as 18% down to the current 1% levels...the current rates...and that's only good if you are willing to tie up your money for at least a year...hardly keeps up with what I spend on coffee for the year....

At one time I dabbled in real estate only to realize two hard lessons...I am not a landlord or handy man type...and even real estate has bubbles where I ended up losing $60,000 in equity when the market crashed back in the late 1980's....

Therefore...why not stay in something that I truly believe is revolutionary...has potential large gain possibilities...in some cases may provide some inflation proof protection...has a world wide market...and frankly...despite the heart flutters every time some news hits that causes prices to tank...is a lot of fun to be part of...

There I convinced myself...well not entirely...I did place some orders to sell a few things should they hit close to their old highs...after all...I would like that new t.v....

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If you have that sort of money I would buy A5 x11 miners and make your own mini farm. Great returns and lower risk!

Perhaps if I was younger and more tech savy...thanks.

Dont think you need to be that tech savvy for a miner! These loads if vids on youtube.

Perhaps look into it...close to retirement age anyway...

Also look at it like this! No big rewards are without big risks. smaller rewards are with little risk. Depends what return you want to try and gain.

Very true...and its all house money at this point...

The safest thing you can do is diversify, a boggleheads portfolio is very stable and can give you around 7% yearly. I only have around 10% of my savings in crypto, the rest is in a lazy boggleheads portfolio.

Will need to look up what that means..."boggleheads"...

Why would we need the stock markets when we have blockchain technology ?Bitcoin might not be the ultimate winner in the crypto space but blockchain technology is very revoluntionary and is here to stay. The Pandora's box was opened !

If it makes sense and money it will find its place...

As they keep saying: don't invest more than you afford to lose :) I personally don't think that the bubble will burst anytime soon, but it's going to be more and more difficult to make money here. Joining as early as possible is definitely the way to do it and risks are minimal.

If you bought Bitcoin when it was $100 - you could've cashed out when it dropped from $5,000 to $4,000 and still make a ton of profit. In the end, if you're early enough to get profits even after a crash, you're safe. If not, it's a risk worth taking in my opinion :) Especially if it's something you believe in!

Appreciate the insights.

What bubble? ;)

There's really no such thing as a safe investment any more it seems. The stock market is in the stratosphere somewhere and buying in at these levels in many sectors is asking for a big loss...energy sector you already explained (I lost some money in the Natgas market a few years back). CD's will probably never go above 2% yield again bc now most every developed country has a debt to GDP ratio of close to or greater than 100% so governments can't raise base interest rates too much or servicing the interest on the debt would be suicide in itself.

Precious metals maybe? I hold about 3-5% of my net worth in hard assets like that but then there's the security part of it (holding valuable assets in ones home or paying some depository to hold them).

Then cryptos (like you said)...the plug could get pulled by governments at any time and we'd have no recourse. Ugh.

That's a tough question. I have a lot of my money in stocks and bonds through my 401k and I have pretty mixed feelings about that. Sorry I don't have a clear, easy answer but I don't think there is one. I wish you the best of luck though :)

I appreciate your thoughts...I just need to confirm my thinking on occasion...helps to say things "out loud"...

Funny...bought the bag of silver coins in the 70 or 80's when the Hunt brothers were cornering the market and the world was coming to an end back then...don't think they have gotten back to that value since...do have some gold stocks..

Nice post...I gather from following your blogs that you sometimes have mixed feelings about what to do with cryptocurrency. Even if you sell the peak and buy the dip, you still lose the capital gains taxable profits.

Better to just buy the dips and hold...if you truly believe this is the next greatest singularity of our time. It's not about investing to make more money, it's about transitioning your wealth into the most usable and transportable form possible

Its slowly what I am telling myself...keep riding it until it finds its path...thanks for input...I have all I am going to invest into it...comfortable with that decision...just too wild a ride to risk anything more...

I dont understand why everyone has a fear of governments "pulling the plug" on crypto so to speak given governments are controlled by the banks and banks are set to be the biggest losers if crypto takes off mainstream. like bitcoin had a huge following for being used on the dark web and stuff like that and the government definetly wasnt down with that. what plug does everyone think the governments going to pull?
even if they made cryptocurrency illegal somehow it wont go anywhere. i mean weed is illegal and i can find that in less than 5 minutes.

I hear that...

Invest in to a old people house. Population is aging. There is less and less young people. Their goal is to go to Hollywood and to have movie lifestyle. Old people are dying alone. So they end up in the some of these places.

Good point.

I don't want to tell you what to do with your head or money. That being said, if you come to crypto for a quick payday then you might as well cash out now. There is plenty of insecure hands in the market that have no idea what they are doing - that is part of why the market acts like it does. So please, if you don't have any love or interest in the technology - get out - BUT, if you understand what you have invest in and see this in a bigger perspective - why go now? Personally I don't care what the market is doing now - I care how it's doing in 2-5 years from now. The current situation is actually healthy for the market.

Appreciate the firm advice...just struggling with the realities of a whole new investment market that has for the most part zero rules...since I have been around long enough and enjoy history I've learned that no matter how "good" a technology is or a stock or a government...things fail...hell...I remember when Digital computer was never going to fail...

Meanwhile...I do care what the market is doing now since it may be an indication of a larger flaw or change...in fact...a 50% drop in most crypto's value in a week's time is not just a little correction...and while I have no doubt the technology is part of the future...no one I know is clairvoyant enough to know which ones survive...and even if the technology survives...whether the coin itself holds any value since unlike a stock ownership in a company...what exactly are these coins once the intitial money has been raised?

I'm not in it for a quick payday...was lucky enough and bold enough to put some money into a future sounding technology that seemed perfect for today's digitized world...almost lost it all a few times...frankly...have been caught off guard how much it has grown based on the small amount I began with...so sure..I'm at an age where if it kept going at a similar pace...I might be able to slow down a bit from work... but as I've written in my other articles...I'm in it to stay...

A little reality check does not hurt now and then. I get what you are saying about the scary movements. I just think that it's important to remember that this is still a very small boat that rocks a lot without it necessarily means anything. When you hear the big investment firms going on about how unpredictable the market is - that just theater. They know fore sure exactly why it is that way - it's all down to size, and when the market gets bigger and therefore more stable, then they will start to stay in line with real investment fund money. But sure, the market as it has been for the last couple of weeks is a test of strengths for sure, HODL or FOLD - Personaly I hope that the Chiense pause on ICO's have a positiv effekt - it started to get a little too crasy I think, market could overheat from all the qucikly gained fundeds (due to ETH rapid price increase) being poured into even more speculatives coins, with a lots og great ideas but no real product. All in all - a rough couple of weeks, but honestly it was needed - and we are still above the market a couple of months ago.

I agree...if we make it thru this regulatory stage...sky is the limit as it will become "safe" to sell to retail public.

Yes im pondering the same, with how coin value relate to stock, and how the coin value is supposed to connect with adoption of the blockchain by users or market, especially if the coins are in the same time the product and the shares in the company, it really sound weird model, i dont see how it can really works out with all the expectation of coins value rising on exchange while in the same time being the base utility provided by the blockchain. .

Appreciate the insights...I also am wrestling more recently with talk of different countries possibly creating their own currencies... what that does to existing coins we have been buying and selling?..wonder if the magic coin will be one that connects all the different country coins together...

Beside the magic, even tomorrow all coins could be collapsing to zero without it to affect any sector of the economy at all

Its quite disturbing to me why people buy so much coins without having clear benefits in sight other than the coin rising because others buy it at higher price, while in the mean time all liquidity is being locked at high price without being really useful to anything

There is not even clear plan on market use, with actual numbers and targeting goal to integrate the real economy, with true insight on the market share thise crypto coins can take in which kind of companies or buisness, and how the trchnology really fit those markets

Its all hype and buzz and hope in the sky with all sort if pseudo magic how coin are going to solve all kind if problem just by rising price on exchange

Given that sort of market, its no surprise why it can all go down without solid justification in the same maner that it goes up without much more solid backing into anything

I hear you but then again...I got into it thinking it was just a cool sounding technology who's time has come with the new digitalized world...gradually as it increased in value...its become another investment for me...frankly...I have just as much faith in these coins increasing in value as I do the stock market continuing...finally...I see it as a potential to US dollars once things catch up with debt and interest rates...time will tell...

It all seems full of promise to help with child cancer, rain forest and idk what else, and lack of rigorous analysis of the real actor action leave all those promise open to keep the speculation going up, but im not sure how it iseven supposed to help anything, and how the teams behind coin repport and comply with such plan supposed to affect a bit everything :)

Not saying the stock market is doing much better, i guess global mentality is always into making easy profit trading stuff with zero ethics rather than actually trying to improve things outside of their portfolio value on exchanges.

Nothing is assured at this point even salvation is a risk we gotta take. Yet we believe in Jesus Christ, his death and his resurrection
2 things I must proffer..

  1. Diversify (check for other promising investment not forgetting, the more the risk involved, the higher the profit)
  2. Materialize ( obtain basic needs which can be transferable for cash when u need 'em)

Very good advice...thank you.

Happens daily

We are staying in... decided to just kinda observe the waves and wait to see what the next 3 - 6 months will bring :-) As you mentioned the TV idea as a little cash out reason, for us it might be something very practical like moskito-net in all windows and longlasting high quality ones ;-)

Very good...thanks.

Budd hold onto crypto stash. Thing will change
@rogerblu

Certainly are changing right now!

Perhaps consolidate your crypto to a few of the big coins with potential. My 'cryptfolio' breakdown is 60% bitcoin, 30% litecoin, 10% high risk/speculative/altcoins/ICOs...

Gold and silver, property, and the stock market should also be considered...

If you wanna win the race to financial freedom, have different 'types' of horses running the race for you!
P.S. The government(s) will always charge an entry fee for your horses to run, and they will ALWAYS take their cut when you decide when you 'pull a horse' off the track...

Thanks for the input...

It is why we are all here!!!

On earth?

I meant steemit. But I am always learning and willing to share my experiences and lessons learned while here (on Earth)

Good one...I missed it...thanks.

P5JoyHhd8RaLT9P4KrkNNvocrB56TQqTSe8ztQAExZUETLfAKCBY

Is this a private key to untold wealth? Or a encrypted code?

consider buying index ETFs of big nations (e.g. US, China, Japan, Britain,etc) when their index price fall below average, then hold on for some months or years after they rise (if not keep holding), as these nations can't vanish you will certainly gain after a period of time

Makes sense.

You should consider peer to peer lending. After almost 4 years, I'm still making 7% from it. Perhaps add it as another basket. I have two different accounts, one on lendingclub and another on prosper to further diversify.

I started to look into it and didn't follow through...this may be incentive I need...its been around that long? ..thanks.

Yeah, LC has been around for around 5 years I think? It's easy money. Basically, as the banks know, most people pay their debts. Therefore, the few that do not are balanced out by the majority who do. You almost always make money over all unless the entire system collapses. Then I won't be worrying about my LC account. I'll be worrying about my next meal. :)

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Stay in. Don't fold. Companies have spent millions to create a distributed decentralized application such as Bitcoin but they have all failed. Owning a piece of this technology is yuge. Sure there will be "crashes" in the future but I just don't see Bitcoin going away quietly into the night. Those new OLED TVs are really nice though.

I believe in crypto. Yes it is risky. But it just got started.

Very true...belief is important when prices start to fall rapidly...