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Reflections on 2017 – 2020

Posted on by Bitster Money Mustache / 12 Comments

So I started to invest in Bitcoin after the summer of 2017. This was in the middle of the bull market and it was pretty hard watching the price go up and only afford the monthly buys when the salary hits bank account. I did have a small stash of stocks which I of course immediately sold for Bitcoin so there was a slight top heavy approach to my Bitcoin stacking.

However, it did strongly feel like I should go into debt and buy Bitcoin straight away and pay the debt off instead. I’m happy I didn’t do that because Bitcoin is not something you wanna buy with borrowed money, mostly because you are not going to handle the crashes, you will panic sell and dig your own grave. Only buy with your own money that you can afford to lose. This expression goes around a lot:

‘money that you can afford to lose’

Don’t get it wrong. It doesn’t mean you are likely to lose that money. It means that WHEN the market crashes you will have the stomach to keep going as normal. The crashes don’t affect your mood, you don’t panic sell. Quite the opposite – you will buy with watering mouth because you have longterm conviction and you realise the lower the price the more Bitcoin you can get. Current price / short term price never matters. Your time horizon for any kind of selling is at least 5 years so every market crash is actually welcome so that you can get as big a stack as possible.

However, don’t wait for the crash. When the salary hits bank account that’s when you buy. We have no way of knowing what the price will do and waiting for a crash is just another way of playing a trader, most of who will lose money anyway.

Emotionally, the first crash is the worst, even though on paper I ‘lost’ most money in the most recent crash. I’d say you need to experience large daily dips in price to get prepared for a long bear market (although a noob is never prepared for his first bear market) and you need to experience a true long term bear market with -80% style drop in price in order to get your zen and make you a true hodler. No way around it, everybody needs to suffer these emotions themselves in order to develop strong hands. But it will be worth it.

Cut Costs, Stack Sats

-Bitster Money Mustache

Resources

Bitcoin resources

Posted on by Bitster Money Mustache / 10 Comments

I’m just gonna start with this:

Bullish case for Bitcoin by Vijay Boyapati

BOOM, start by reading it.

It’s actually quite hard to put down a comprehensive list of Bitcoin resources as it also depends on how new you are to the subject. For example, when I was a noob, I found Andreas Antonopoulos content (Youtube, Podcasts) very helpful and listened / watched countless hours of him only. However, nowadays he’s nonexistent in my Bitcoin resources circle and I view his opinions a bit naive sometimes. But he was useful for me so he might be useful for you. Just remember that he is only the beginning, the rabbit hole goes a lot deeper.

Trace Mayer was a god among men. But turned into a shitcoiner early this year, cannot understand why. Maybe he gambled the money away, I don’t know. But pre 2020 content from Trace is golden. Watch it, listen to it, he was super. However, don’t check for new content from him, a compromised soul, a scammer.

Below I give a short list of Twitter accounts, Podcasts, Medium articles, Books that I recommend for your Bitcoin content. The list is not comprehensive and you shouldn’t take my word for granted, so better to just start somewhere and find / verify the good content by yourself + find a ton of new stuff I haven’t mentioned here.

Twitter:

@NickSzabo4 @adam3us @BitcoinIsSaving @bitstein @saylor @saifedean @jimmysong @TuurDemeester @giacomozucco @real_vijay @stephanlivera @MartyBent @matt_odell @danheld @BitcoinErrorLog @BitcoinTina @_ConnerBrown_ @notgrubles @100trillionUSD @StopAndDecrypt @dergigi @hodl_american @Breedlove22 @evoskuil @PrestonPysh

Podcasts:

Tales from the Crypt – Noded – Stephan Livera – Bitcoin Rapid Fire – Once Bitten

Articles, Books, Websites, Movies:

Nakamoto Institute

21 Lessons by Gigi

Hope.com (Bitcoin resources by Microstrategy)

Bitcoin For Everybody (free online course by Saylor.org)

Gradually, then suddenly by Parker Lewis

The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous

Human B (movie)

There you go! Most likely I forgot to list some awesome content but there’s plenty to do here already and you will end up finding the others by yourself. I’ll also update this page every now and then.

Cut Costs, Stack Sats

-Mr. ERB

About

Dear reader,

Posted on by Bitster Money Mustache / 5 Comments

This is a story of stacking sats to glory. Hopefully that is, as I’m not there yet. But a good way to the journey and confident to get there. I decided to take you along, let you know about the mistakes I made, the feelings I lived through, the feelings you might also get, and whatever else related comes to mind.

My journey started during the great bull market of 2017. I was of course a complete noob and made all the noob mistakes. Bitcoin is a hard thing to get, and even when you think you got your head around it, it will take another year to really get it, and even then you probably still don’t get it. Patience is needed. And motivation. You need to have genuine interest for Bitcoin to fall down the rabbit hole and come out victorious. Nobody can force feed this information to anyone and nobody can understand it for someone else. What you can do though, is spark an interest and hope that the person goes on to fall to the rabbit hole by himself. Or alternatively, just keep it to yourself. That’s also fine. Actually, that’s why this blog starts now (2020) instead of then (2017). I decided to keep it to myself, which seemed like an OK decision back then. But looking back to all the bear market drama, I’m regretful that I didn’t keep a weekly diary reporting it all: the feelings, hesitations, dedication, bad and good takes etc.

Stacking sats is a way to say buying Bitcoin. But it has a reoccurring ring to it. You stack sats every paycheck (for example) as opposed to buying Bitcoin with all you got. Stacking sats is a great meme but there’s little concrete evidence of what can be achieved and with what timeframe when you devote to stacking sats religiously.

A few years back I ‘found’ financial independence / early retirement sphere, the likes of Mr Money Mustache etc. Never had I thought one could live ‘free’ without the need for a monthly paying job. Never had I also understood anything about the markets and/or investing. I then became obsessed and read more or less everything related to the subject. I started to invest in stocks for the first time in my life. I was ~30 and thought why the hell had nobody told me about this stuff earlier.

After finding Bitcoin the two things merged. Financial independence and Bitcoin. Saving in Bitcoin. Frugality and stacking. I began to put aside 500€ every month and buy Bitcoin with it. This is a story of how it has been, monthly reports of where I’m at, where are we going, and eventually – victory.

The target is enough Bitcoin to declare myself financially independent – I have figured this amount to be 1 million €. Of course when that is achieved, the journey goes on. More will be stacked and Bitcoin will continue to appreciate. But that shall be the initial target and the point in time when victory will be declared.

Cut Costs, Stack Sats

-Bitster Money Mustache