“Deposit 200 USD”

‘Darn, Tom. Are you really doing this?’ I thought as I punched in the deposit order from my bank.

My mouse hovered over the BUY button for Ether, which was priced at about $2,140. ‘A few days ago it crashed to under $2,000, maybe I should wait,’ I thought.

I wish I could keep embellishing this tale of me sitting at the computer wondering if I should buy crypto for the first time.

The truth is, it wasn’t too difficult. It was sort of like jumping off a diving board as a kid. At first it’s terrifying, but in a matter of minutes you get over it and take the plunge.

The fact is, there’s a few big reasons why investing in Ether was a relatively easy decision for me. Here’s why I finally invested in cryptocurrency — please don’t take any of this as financial advice.

5% Of Your Portfolio Should Be For Play

“Should” might be too strong a word here, but you get what I mean. Here’s a fun fact: I have a little bit of money in the Philippines’ stock market.

I lived in the Philippines for a few years and am a huge fan of their popular fast food chain Jollibee.

So I bought a bit of their stock, and the stock of some other companies like BDO and San Miguel Corporation.

I purchased these stocks last year and I’ve let them sit in my foreign brokerage account for months without checking them.

Why haven’t I checked?

Well, I’ll detail that in my second point.

All I’m saying is, I enjoy putting a teeny bit of my portfolio into “High Risk Investments*.”*

Now, Jollibee isn’t exactly high risk, but it is high risk in the sense that I’m not an expert on the company. I’ve taken a hot look at their quarterly reports and know they’re present in a bunch of countries around the world, but that’s about it.

I know they deliver a great product, and are one of the Philippines “blue chip” stocks, and a bet on Jollibee is more a bet on the Philippines than a bet on the actual company.

For me, it’s the same thing with cryptocurrency. I am no expert on Ether and Bitcoin and all those other options. I’ve read one book called “Kings of Crypto” that was primarily about the rise of Coinbase.

Sprinkled inside the chapters, though, I learned a surprising amount about Ether, Bitcoin, Ripple, Binance, the history of how crypto’s been used, and the plight of Coinbase to legitimize cryptocurrency in the eyes of the US government.

There has been significant progress on all of these fronts in the last 5–10 years, and after finishing that book I realized it’s obvious blockchain technology is nothing short of revolutionary in the same sense the internet was revolutionary decades ago.

When you’re talking about putting 5% of your investable income towards a particular asset, I think this is all the knowledge you need.

Why? Because it’s a drop in the bucket. If you swing and miss big, you’ll only be out 5% of your portfolio. If you have $10,000 invested, that’s only $500.

Now you might say “Tom, $500 is a lot of money!”

I understand that, but at least you’re still packing $9,500 and you cut your losses pretty quick.

I’m Playing The Long-Game On Ether

When people say they bought Ethereum, like I did in my headline, what we really mean is “Ether.”

Ethereum is the technology that’s home to Ether, the actual cryptocurrency.

It’s just, everybody seems to call it Ethereum so I play along.

Anyway, why did I buy Ether at an all-time high?

Because I’m playing the long game on this. Over the next year as the price of Ether inevitably rises and falls like a cardiac monitor, I’ll keep buying it in little chunks of $50-$100 per week.

I don’t care if it’s at an all-time high. I don’t care where the support levels are on the graph. All I care about is years down the line. If I lose all my money that I invested, so be it.

I’m locked to Ether, ball and chain style, and I’m going down with the ship if it sinks.

And guess what? I’ll be all good with it since I’ve only invested 5% of my portfolio. You win some and lose some. Such is the game of life and investing.

The fact is, I believe in Cryptocurrency. I’ve seen enough people I respect and admire sing its praises. I’ve read enough about it to have a basic understanding of how it works and why it’s significant.

I don’t know everything, but my fingers are on the pulse of this movement at the very least and I like how it sounds.

My Crypto Investment Is Sort Of Like A Trip To Las Vegas

Ever been to Las Vegas? It’s a beautiful town. Every time I’ve ever gone there, I have some sort of a budget for my gambling. Maybe it’s all of $500.

I look at this sum as money I can afford to lose.

For me my investment in cryptocurrency is money I can afford to lose. If the ship sinks, I’ve only lost a little bit of my money. If the ship grows rockets and blasts off to the moon, then I’ll be really happy I invested.

That’s my thinking on this topic.