Bitcoin millionaire

[ddoc79]

I have a friend in Emergency Medicine who has been investing aggressively in cryptocurrencies since he received his first residency paycheck. I remember having a drink with him back in 2016 while we were in med school and he was so adamant that Bitcoin would eventually explode. I decided to go the stocks and bonds route. Fast forward 6 years and a couple days ago, he just passed the 1 MILLION DOLLAR asset mark. He is just 14 months out of residency. He has no plans to sell. He's invested somewhere around $300k into crypto and has had a $500k gain over the last few years. He has other accounts as well such as solo 401k and SEP IRA, but his portfolio is 80% crypto and 20% stocks and bonds. His risk tolerance is obviously very high. He's had days where he lost 40% of his portfolio, but never flinched...and now he's a BITCOIN MILLIONAIRE.

This is not me, this is actually my friend. He's in his low 30s. He sent me screenshots of his balances, so I know it's real. He drives a mid 2000s Honda Civic. Just thought I would put this out there in case anyone on here has had a similar experience and any feedback on how to cope with fear of missing out.


Edit: he was born in India with nothing to his name. He came to the US with his parents when he was a teenager and didn't speak English. He grew up sleeping on the floor of his parents gas station during high school. He doesn't even think his story is a big deal. But I remind him every time I see him, what he has done is a very big deal and most couldn't do it. I think his background influences his risk tolerance.

[VagabondMD]

There will always be people who swing for the fences and get wealthy. It is high risk/high reward and the antithesis of the WCI philosophy. You will not hear from the ones who fail with this investment approach.

[Lithium]

Best way to cope with FOMO is to tune out people like your friend.

[MPMD]

There will always be people who swing for the fences and get wealthy. It is high risk/high reward and the antithesis of the WCI philosophy. You will not hear from the ones who fail with this investment approach.

this.

i know an ER doc (also a real one, he also showed me the balances) who bet his entire nest egg on a single stock, at the age of 59.

he bought at about $4, company is now bankrupt.

it was a sure bet.

all that being said, OP good for your friend.

[Dewangski1]

Gambling and investing are very different strategies. That’s said, love to hear success stories and hope it changes his life.

[childay]

this.

i know an ER doc (also a real one, he also showed me the balances) who bet his entire nest egg on a single stock, at the age of 59.

he bought at about $4, company is now bankrupt.

it was a sure bet.

all that being said, OP good for your friend.

Ouch!

[TheDangerZone]

Investing in bitcoin for 4+ years and just now cleared a million? I would have thought he'd be much further along, to be honest.

We're all playing our own game. There's no need for FOMO if you don't feel the urge to compare yourself to others. He's probably kicking himself he didn't invest even more. He might be at 8 figures by now if he had.

[nycEMMD]

BTC is still early, crypto as a whole is still early, we've likely reached early majority during this bull cycle in the technology adoption life cycle but that's still early. You can still invest, you will still make money, you will still have much better returns than any other traditional investment at this time

[Notsobad]

My FOMO is nicely counterbalanced by FOLMS. Fear of losing my shirt.

seriously. My loss aversion prevents me from taking these big gambles.

[pysibal]

I have never heard someone tell me about their stupid investment failures. I have only heard people gloat about successes.

By the way, your friend could be a BITCOIN NOTHING-AIRE with the right systemic failure (government outlaws it, a better crypto comes out and devalues it, someone figures out how to hack/steal it leading to a crash in confidence/valuation, etc).

I like what they say about "playing not to lose." I'm trying to not get cheated, not go bankrupt, and retire at a reasonable time. There is no reason to participate in these high-risk games when the bottom end is so much more bad than the top end is good.

[jacoavlu]

Investing in bitcoin for 4+ years and just now cleared a million? I would have thought he'd be much further along, to be honest.

We're all playing our own game. There's no need for FOMO if you don't feel the urge to compare yourself to others. He's probably kicking himself he didn't invest even more. He might be at 8 figures by now if he had.

if you started in mid 2016 you'd have had to DCA about $180 per week into btc ($50k total investment) to have $1M now

[Zaphod]

this.

i know an ER doc (also a real one, he also showed me the balances) who bet his entire nest egg on a single stock, at the age of 59.

he bought at about $4, company is now bankrupt.

it was a sure bet.

all that being said, OP good for your friend.

wow, that is crazy, even crazier at that stage of life.

[Nysoz]

There will always be people who swing for the fences and get wealthy. It is high risk/high reward and the antithesis of the WCI philosophy. You will not hear from the ones who fail with this investment approach.

I’m probably one of the more aggressively invested and actively trading individuals on the forum. If I do fail, I do plan on sticking around to tell my tales lol.

There have been a few other people that are open with their stock trading past and successes and failures and how they’re all mainly indexers now.

[xraygoggles]

I have a friend in Emergency Medicine who has been investing aggressively in cryptocurrencies since he received his first residency paycheck. I remember having a drink with him back in 2016 while we were in med school and he was so adamant that Bitcoin would eventually explode. I decided to go the stocks and bonds route. Fast forward 6 years and a couple days ago, he just passed the 1 MILLION DOLLAR asset mark. He is just 14 months out of residency. He has no plans to sell. He's invested somewhere around $300k into crypto and has had a $500k gain over the last few years. He has other accounts as well such as solo 401k and SEP IRA, but his portfolio is 80% crypto and 20% stocks and bonds. His risk tolerance is obviously very high. He's had days where he lost 40% of his portfolio, but never flinched...and now he's a BITCOIN MILLIONAIRE.

This is not me, this is actually my friend. He's in his low 30s. He sent me screenshots of his balances, so I know it's real. He drives a mid 2000s Honda Civic. Just thought I would put this out there in case anyone on here has had a similar experience and any feedback on how to cope with fear of missing out.


Edit: he was born in India with nothing to his name. He came to the US with his parents when he was a teenager and didn't speak English. He grew up sleeping on the floor of his parents gas station during high school. He doesn't even think his story is a big deal. But I remind him every time I see him, what he has done is a very big deal and most couldn't do it. I think his background influences his risk tolerance.

My buddy during first few years of residency (2013-14) was buying bitcoin with his brother, who was an attending radiologist. They managed to buy 335 BTC total between both of them. He did sell some during the bubble in 2017, but still made out with multi-millions, obviously. It happens. It's just like any other investment: get in early and if it takes off, you are set. Tesla is another similar one, as is Ether.

In terms of FOMO: if you buy only one time right now, then yes it would be an example of fomo, and not a good idea. However, if you stick with a reasonable plan, such as monthly DCA going forward, that would be much better, and probably end up being a wise investment in the long run. But of course I'm not recommending that necessarily, since I don't know your finances.

[TheDangerZone]

if you started in mid 2016 you'd have had to DCA about $180 per week into btc ($50k total investment) to have $1M now

So this person is apparently 300k in with 500k gains. Does that imply the bulk of the investments are within the last year? Bitcoin a year ago was around 10k.