Let's Crypto! 🚀 02/2023
Self-exploration and the reason I created Let's Crypto! Topics: A Short Story, Why I Created Let's Crypto!, Our 3 Monthly Content Pillars.
Welcome Everyone! 🧑👩
Hello all crypto enthusiasts; I hope you enjoy this month’s publication. If you have time to leave feedback, there’s a Poll at the end of the post. Please let me know what you like or think needs improvement. If you want, you can also leave a detailed comment. Enjoy!
Today’s Topics 💡
A story about self-exploration and money
Why I created the Let’s Crypto! Substack?
Our 3 content pillars
Crypto investor mindset
Crypto investing strategies
Crypto investment technologies
Introduction 👋
Let’s get personal for a moment. How well do you know yourself? How well do you know yourself as an investor? Whether you are interested in traditional or crypto investing doesn't matter; you need to answer these questions. It means the difference between success and failure.
A Short Story about Self-exploration & Money
When I was 21 years old, playing pool at a bar with friends, a light bulb went off in my head. I had been pondering the meaning of my life for a while. I didn’t know myself very well, and it bothered me. I didn’t know what color I liked, what foods I liked, or what clothes I liked.
You see, until I left home at 16, I was my mother’s shadow. Almost everything I did was done with my mother or for my mother. They were her likes and interests. Our family life was so chaotic and, at times, abusive that I didn’t have the luxury of thinking about myself. I had siblings to protect. Unfortunately, my mom didn’t know how to allow my individuality.
But her lack of skills wasn’t all her fault. She grew up as a poverty-stricken only child with the IQ of a genius and a mentally disabled mother. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Getting back to my light bulb moment playing pool in the bar, the epiphany that came over me that night was clarity about my life purpose. I wanted to know myself, discover myself, and ultimately become myself. So, for the next 18 years, I did whatever I wanted to do to understand myself better.
What does this story have to do with investing? I’m glad you asked. During those 18 years of self-exploration, I was always broke. I didn’t care about money; I cared about experiences. I had a negative relationship with money.
That negative money belief led me to pursue what I considered more noble endeavors, like living out of my small truck one summer so I could learn about permaculture and building straw bale houses at a workshop.
During the workshop, I met many wonderful people. I was invited to help build straw bale houses for a private Whidbey Island, WA community. For two months, it was a magical experience. Then the money ran out.
After each of my adventures, I would eventually have to return to work. I would always need more money. After 18 years of on-again-off-again self-exploration and travel, I had no better idea why I was here. What was my purpose? Of course, by then, I had figured out what colors I liked, what clothes I liked, etc., but the answer to the big question still eluded me.
After 18 years of being broke all the time and living in my vehicle so I could explore, I was tired. I remember saying, “If I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, I might as well figure out this money thing.”
At 39, I enrolled in an expensive stock market trading seminar in Seattle, WA. I was hooked! It was exciting, and I liked it. My Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science, plus my interest in numbers and technology, probably helped. Age 39 marked the end of my first journey of self-exploration and the beginning of my second journey—learning about money and finance.
Next month you can read about my second journey of self-exploration. This leg of exploration focused on money and finance. It eventually led me to bitcoin and the third leg of my self-exploration.
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Why I Created Let’s Crypto! 🧐
Toward the end of my first journey of self-exploration, I did a lot of writing in a journal. After pages and pages of putting my wandering thoughts into words, I found some clarity. I wrote a statement that eventually became my life purpose and guiding light for my second journey of self-exploration.
“My purpose is to fully understand how money works and how it operates in business, investments, and personal finance.”
This may sound like a strange life purpose statement, but it fit me perfectly. Here’s why. Growing up in my dysfunctional family, I repeatedly heard the story of my grandmother’s misfortune. My mother would say, “your grandmother was born with a silver spoon in her mouth but lost it all.”
You see, my grandmother inherited great wealth from real estate. The problem was my grandmother was intellectually challenged (or mentally disabled) with the IQ of an 8-year-old. She didn’t understand wealth or real estate.
When my mother turned eight years old, Grandma Myrtle had sold all her real estate to her conniving, no-good brother (William) for pennies on the dollar while her older sister (Julia) sat back and watched idly. Why did my Grandma sell everything? She needed money for living expenses like food and clothes because she couldn’t work.
She and my mother were abandoned by her family and left to survive on social security. It was terrible for them. My mom ended up marrying at 14 years old to escape poverty.
I share this story because this is why I avoided money for the first half of my life. I grew up hearing stories about our greedy relatives taking advantage of my grandmother’s disability and abandoning my mother.
I didn’t want to be like my relatives, so I developed an internal belief that people with wealth were greedy and insensitive people. During this period, I didn’t allow myself to have much money to avoid becoming like them. At the time, I was unaware of my unconscious decision to be broke, and it took years of rewriting my beliefs to turn it around.
The Let’s Crypto! Substack
During the second journey of my life, I embraced learning about money and became a successful accountant. I bought my first bitcoin nine years after starting my tax business. Six years after that, I retired.
Since that first bitcoin purchase, crypto investing has been good to me. It allowed me to retire early, support and educate a Nigerian boy through adulthood, and follow my passion for teaching others about crypto.
The life purpose that ushered in the second leg of my journey became:
“My purpose is to fully understand how crypto works and how it operates in business, investments, and personal finance and then share that knowledge with my community.”
I continue to operate under this expanded life purpose. Enjoy my Let’s Crypto! Substack. And if you feel inspired, share your story in the comments about overcoming negative money beliefs.
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Let’s Crypto Content Pillars 🎓
Each month I’ll provide a beautiful Substack newsletter with engaging content from our three content pillars. Occasionally, I may go wild and write something outside the box. When I do, that newsletter will be released separately from the regular monthly newsletter.
Pillar #1 - Crypto Investor Mindset
For us at Let’s Crypto!, the investor mindset is more than just a slogan. To us, mindset is everything! First, I’ll give a generic definition and then expand on it.
There are four distinct types of investor mindsets: Savers, Speculators, Investors, and Traders.
Savers are responsible. They are risk-averse and grow their wealth using safe strategies that preserve capital.
Speculators are risk-takers. They chase potentially higher profits by investing in risky, volatile assets.
Investors are patient. They avoid hype and mania by owning quality assets whose value appreciates over time.
Traders are calculated. They select assets to trade based on their risk appetite, available capital, and time horizon.
The definition above is a good starting place, but it’s missing some essential components. Investor mindset must also allow for managing your personal life as well as your financial life. They should support each other.
If your life is a mess, you can’t invest!
You can’t succeed at investing until you have all aspects of your personal life operating smoothly and supporting you. Because if your life is a mess, you can’t invest. Ask yourself, if I made changes in my physical, personal, and professional life, how would that support me in achieving my financial goals?
Don’t beat yourself up if everything isn’t perfect just yet. It takes time. Start small and keep moving forward. With the right attitude, you’ll succeed.
Pillar #2 - Crypto Investing Strategies
Similarly to our first pillar, I’ll start with a general definition and then expand on it.
What is an investing strategy?
An investing strategy is a set of instructions designed to help individuals make investment decisions to meet their short- and long-term goals. Strategies depend on various factors, including age, goals, lifestyle, capital, and mindset. Strategies are flexible and may overlap.
Why is it essential to have a strategy?
Investing strategies work like a handbook or a guide. They force investors to define their goals and risk tolerance and commit to a wealth-building plan. With tailored strategies that fit your personality, you’re less likely to make mistakes.
When crypto investors don’t have an investment plan with defined goals and strategies, they follow the herd and are led by their emotions.
Protect your money and sanity by defining an investment strategy that will protect you and give you direction. Here are a few ideas to consider:
Hodling (buy and hold)
Trading
Yield farming
Crypto Index Fund
Pillar #3 - Crypto Investment Technology
The crypto investment technology content pillar is one of my favorites. Since I’m a tech nerd, I enjoy researching technologies. I’m always looking for projects to better humanity or make me money.
One thing is for sure the crypto technologies that you choose will reflect your investor mindset and investing strategies. It’s all connected.
If you want to be a short or long-term trader, the technologies you’ll use will differ from other strategies.
For example, you’ll need technical analysis skills and software tools, and you might use Trading View.
If you’re into DeFi and earning yield, you’ll need Metamask and hardware wallets and use Dexscreener.
If you’re a value investor, you’ll need tools to explore individual projects’ health. Tools like Messari and Nansen.
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Thanks for Reading 📰
That’s it for this month’s edition of the Let’s Crypto! Publication. Before you leave, please answer the poll question.
Also, have you heard about our Let’s Crypto! Bootcamp? It’s a comprehensive training that will get you started on the right foot with your investing life. It cover’s the three pillars in detail, plus a whole lot more. If you’re interested, signup for the waitlist.
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Very informative! I like the 3 pillars structure.
Great post! Thanks for sharing some of your background.