Be sensible and follow all of the basic rules of investing. Many have got burnt fingers by not following some of the most basic common sense rules which apply to all forms of investing. Here are the six golden rules for investing in crypto.
1. Invest only discretionary money in cryptocurrency
The money you are using to purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the like must be money you can fully afford to lose. It must be discretionary spending money. You wouldn’t go to the races or the betting shop with your retirement fund and use that to gamble with. Cryptocurrency investing has to be treated in the same way. It is highly volatile. The number one rule is to purchase cryptocurrency with money you can fully afford to lose using only your discretionary spending money.
What is discretionary spending money?
That is up to an individual’s own priorities and personal circumstances. One person may consider money set aside for a holiday to the islands as discretionary spending but someone else may not want to risk that money in Bitcoin.
2. Assess the risk
As with any investment it is important to assess the risk. It is no secret that Bitcoin is volatile but if you abide by rule number one then there will be little or no change in your financial situation if the cryptocurrency market takes a tumble. Market volatility is not the only risk investors in some countries have to face. China imposed a blanket ban on all crypto transactions in order to stop all cryptocurrency related activities.
3. Don’t get greedy
Greed gets the better of a lot of investors. They see the value of their Bitcoin skyrocket and decide to use money which they should not be speculating with, for purchasing more Bitcoin. Having some form of exposure to the cryptocurrency market adds an exciting string to your financial bow but don’t try to get rich quick by diverting all of your money to Bitcoin and ignore other forms of investment.
4. Diversify
Spreading your risk helps minimize the risk of losing all your money in one go. Several investors lost all of their money in one major financial hit during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis when companies they invested their life savings with went under. They invested all of their eggs into one basket.
What has this got to do with investing in Bitcoin? Hacking is a danger with Bitcoin therefore having money spread among different platforms will reduce your chances of this happening.
5. Use different platforms
Hacking is a possibility which can see your cryptocurrency disappear. It is a good idea to invest your cryptocurrency among different platforms such as Blockchain, Binance, Blockfi. etc. That way if one of these platforms gets hacked you won’t lose everything in one go.
6. Find a safe place to store your password
This is important because many of these cryptocurrency trading websites will only allow you a certain number of wrong passwords and after that you will be permanently locked out of the site.
You wouldn’t want this happening to you.
There are several things which can go wrong in the crypto-market but with careful planning you can mitigate the risks.
Article by Robert Allen Stewart