My phone is constantly ringing from friends and family asking me what I think about this coin or that coin, or if it’s a good time to get into Bitcoin or should I wait? Why is the market up? Why is the market down? What’s up with the volatility? While of course, nothing I ever say is financial advice, I’m never shy about giving my financial opinion. My answer to them may surprise you, but will also paint a picture of our mission here at CircleB.
A little bit about my background and backstory for context…
I am in my late 40’s and an IT professional by trade. Money, accounting, budgeting, and economics had always bored the heck out of me my entire life. I just wanted to know enough to get by, and hopefully be able to save a little bit for retirement at the end of the day. One thing that complicates this goal a bit, is the fact that I have eight (yes, 8) beautiful children, ranging in ages from 22 down to 8.
This relaxed attitude towards family finance took a sharp turn in the Spring of 2016. It is hard to forget the political powder keg that was brewing and the tension in the air with the upcoming election, and I vividly remember standing in my driveway and feeling the fear of what might happen to the economy, no matter which candidate might win in November, and suddenly the weight of having to feed TEN mouths, through whatever the future might hold, hit me like a ton of bricks. I begrudgingly admitted to myself that it was time to learn how money works, so that I might weather whatever storm lay ahead.
I happened to be traveling quite a bit for work that summer, so I downloaded any video or audio book that I could that had to do with money, banking, and of course this thing called Bitcoin that I had heard about in my IT circles a few years back. I soaked up as much as I possibly could on plane rides and boring hotel stays. As you can imagine, this led me from one rabbit hole to another, from the creation of the Fed, to banking and inflation, to gold and assets…and what the heck is “fiat”?
My point to this story is that I spent most of my adult life like almost all of us understandably do. We put our heads down, go to work, spend time with the family, veg out on the couch…and then rinse and repeat. We’re almost afraid to take our heads out of the sand for fear that we might not like what we see, or that it might be a “call to action” to deviate from the life that we are so comfortably living. It is literally like the choice between the red pill and the blue pill…do we REALLY want to live outside of the proverbial Matrix?
So, back to my original question…what is the single best investment you can make right now? In my opinion, the answer is…invest the time it takes to understand how money and banking work. Period. Full stop. The answers that you find might lead you down an entirely different path than mine, which is completely fine, but it is critical that you understand the actual problem BEFORE you can choose a proper solution.
The ending to the above story is that my research obviously led me to Bitcoin. BUT, (and this is a big BUT) it took me almost exactly a full year from the time I started researching, to the time that I purchased my first amount of Bitcoin. The foundation that that year provided has been truly, without a doubt…priceless. It has given me the conviction I need to sleep soundly at night with the investment choices that I’ve made, and I believe has saved me from the many pitfalls that are inherent to this young industry. It has prevented me from simply FOMO’ing into the latest “meme coin” of the day, or buying into so many of the false narratives that snatch up unsuspecting newcomers before they even have a chance to understand what is actually going on. It has given me a passion and mission like I’ve never felt before, and a desire to help anyone that is willing listen, to navigate what I believe is not only a once in a lifetime financial transformation…but a once in humanity, GLOBAL financial redesign.
I recently heard Michael Saylor say in an interview “I have yet to encounter anyone who has spent 100 hours learning about Bitcoin, have a negative view towards it.” I completely concur with his statement, but the point of the 100 hours isn’t to get you to “like” Bitcoin, but simply to understand the role it and other hard assets play in our monetary system, even if this particular one isn’t for you.
So, my professional investment opinion (and life advice) won’t cost you ANYTHING, except for maybe an episode or two of your favorite binge per week… Take the red pill, or should I say “orange pill”, and INVEST THE TIME to learn about how money and the current banking system work. Don’t let complacency prevent you from participating in what is currently going on, and even if your final decision is to not get involved at all, at least let that be a conscience and INFORMED decision that gives you the same peace of mind that it gave me. There is no doubt, especially in a post-pandemic world, that our financial system is drastically changing, for good or bad, and whether you want it to or not. Equip yourself with the knowledge that you need for you and your family to navigate this change as best you can, for it is a fact, that with great change comes abundant opportunity. I firmly believe that you will be glad that you did.
CircleB’s goal is to help you streamline your own due diligence process. I have taken all of the resources that I used in my year of research and boiled them down to what I found most useful.