what does "don't invest what you can't afford to totally lose" mean?

https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@jrcornel/jim-cramer-is-the-latest-to-join-the-bitcoin-to-usd1-million-dollars-club

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@lordoftruth/bitcoin-trend-is-bitcoin-on-way-to-usd1-million

https://steemit.com/trevonjb/@trevonjb/video-bitcoin-going-to-usd1-million-in-2017

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@cryptonet/teenage-bitcoin-millionaire-predicts-it-s-value-crossing-even-usd1-million

You can easily find more predictions of pricing going to $1 million per BTC.  

Some predictions are more honest and also report that there is really no way to make this prediction other than guess.

Some are less honest and report BTC price going to $1 million in 2017.

I don't know what the BTC price might be in ten years.  I know for certain it won't be $1 million per BTC in 2017.


In the context of all the predictions of $1 million per BTC at some point in the future, the often accompanying comment "don't invest what you can't afford to totally lose" comes into focus.

Some of the money going into BTC "investments" is money that previously went into buying lottery tickets.

How much can you win with most lotteries?  Millions.

What do you have to assume about the money you spend on lottery tickets?  You are going to lose all that money.  

Buying cryptos has similarities to buying a lottery ticket.



Before you head off to buy your lottery tickets, my observation is crypto prices appear to be in a bubble.   Which isn't going to be the best time to be buying more tickets.  

Total market cap has run up from $10 billion to $100 billion in the last three months.  

There is no underlying rationales that can fully explain this magnitude of run-up in this short time frame, other than speculation and a bubble.

Look at the chart for total market cap on coinmarketcap.com. That is what a bubble looks like.

Do I know how the bubble will end and when it will pop? I don't have the faintest clue.

Cryptos could be another 10X higher in three months. Total market cap could be $1 trillion. And with another 10X jump in the subsequent three months, BTC would be $250K. If you put enough money at risk today, it could almost feel like you won the lottery if you get a 100X return in just six months.

But cryptos could surprise everyone, and be 10X lower in the next three months. In that scenario you just spent a lot of money on buying lottery tickets that didn't pay off.

Moral of the story - the money you are willing to invest into cryptos every month should be approximately the same as you are willing to invest into lottery tickets every month.  

Probably reasonable to put a bit more into cryptos than you put into lottery tickets since there are practical uses for cryptos that are developing.   This should help avoid a total collapse of an entire basket of cryptos.  But maybe not.  Who knows if the current cryptos will still be around in 10 years? Or will they be replaced with newer and better crytpos? That is an important difference between Gold and Crytpos. No one is going to invent a better a more functional Gold in ten years. There is a good chance that improved Cryptos will be invented and brought to market.     

There are some additional complex explanations of why buying cryptos is logical based on asymmetrical risk-reward curves. But it is all just big words that also explains why people buy lottery tickets.

   

Few are going to want to read about the potential downside of crypto prices that I just reported.   

I'm sure I'll get a few comments explaining why it is impossible for crypto pricing to go down by 10X from current pricing. Ever. FOREVER AND EVER!! Which is a very long investment horizon. LOL.   

But at the risk of being unpopular, I wanted to clarify that the phrase "don't invest what you can't afford to totally lose" are code words for "use your lottery money when you are buying cryptos".

Please upvote and follow if the post made you pause and think for a few seconds.   That was the goal.


To close, you can still believe that cryptos will have an excellent long term future and you can believe that price will be >10X higher several years in the future.  But  that doesn't mean that tomorrow is necessarily the best moment to "invest" more money into cryptos, if we are on the verge of bubble collapse before the next run up.

STEEM On !!





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