What is the amount of money you can afford to invest and lose?
While this is going to be a very different amount for most people, I think that this is an important question to ask and have an idea of at a personal level, as it is part of building a strategy for the future. If for example you have one million dollars to invest, your portfolio model and spread across asset classes is likely to be different than if you have ten dollars. While percentages can be considered, things like fees also have to be considered and for small amounts, most are going to be squeezed out of traditional investments due to the fees alone.
I think that investing something directly changes the mindset and makes one feel more like an owner - this in general, not just on Hive. On Hive where it is possible to earn without buying, I think that those who only earn have a somewhat different relationship with the blockchain and community, with those who buy (even a small amount) somehow taking a different approach. Perhaps there is less of the "burn it all down" mentality when things go wrong, as there is a direct cost, not the loss of a potential gain.
This is a generalized view of things as an individual could of course understand that the loss of potential gain is a direct cost at a future point in time - or that earning HIVE through participation is owning HIVE through participation. But, there does seem to be some kind of psychological distinction made - at least for the people I have talked to about this.
When I bought for the first time back at the start of Q4 in 2017, I very quickly recognized the difference in my own mentality. After not knowing enough earlier in the year to buy, as well as not having anything to buy with due to family health circumstances - that decision to pull the trigger on what is a relatively insignificant amount, was a turning point. For me, that amount would have hurt to lose, but it wouldn't have hurt that much, just a smarting pain after a hard slap, from which I would recover.
And, I did get slapped, after seeing the purchase price go 500% up and then 95% down from the high - while I held. But in that time, my energy had changed, my focus shifted, my learning increased, my understanding broadened, the relationships I built evolved and my entire outlook on my own economic future looked brighter, even though I was essentially in the same position I had always been.
The difference I believe was that what had changed was my expanded view of possibility where things that seemed out of reach and perhaps more importantly, things I knew nothing about earlier, suddenly opened up to me. It is not that I could do anything immediately about them, but I could start building my position and mindset in a way that given the opportunity, I could make decisions and pull that trigger again and again. Small amounts here and there, pennies for most people.
Not only that, my view of Hive and all other holdings changed also, as I started to shift my focus further into the distance and rather than constantly being wary with a mindset of always having one foot out, I decided to put both in. I think that if one was to read post one of mine to today, they would likely see this evolution of thought threaded through many of my posts, not just the ones that are specifically focused on the financial potential of crypto or Hive.
I think that mindset is pervading and crosses the boundaries of where it may have first been acquired or applied. I have written about keystone habits that have a compounding spread effect on other habits too and thought patterns are the same. think enough in one area and it starts to effect not only the thoughts about other things, but change those habits.
One related keystone to this article for example would be building a savings schedule or at least, a mindset strong enough to consistently gather some capital, be aware of opportunity and pull the trigger when the time seems right. What I have found is that it is far easier to think one is open to pulling the trigger, than actually pulling the trigger itself, as one will always question whether this is the right time or not, whether there is a better opportunity out there, whether that capital can actually be afforded.
Why I think we should each investigate this personally is that all of this affects us personally and is something we have some chance to influence. We might not be able to change the entire economic conditions we find ourselves in, but we can start to change the way we approach them and if enough people choose ownership over consumership, the economic conditions do change. But to do so, we have to shift our individual minds first, rather than try to change the minds of others.
I think this is where the real investment is made, the paradigm shift is the precursor to much greater movement in the future and all it could take to put it in motion, is a little investment of what could be comfortably lost.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
