Bitcoin’s volatility can be stomach-wrenching! Please make sure you can handle it! Here’s my story

00:01 Foric here based on the price of 00:02 Bitcoin, which is warranted. It's up 00:04 holding solid above 00:06 $111,000. But I just wanted to remind 00:08 everybody of the volatility of Bitcoin 00:10 since I feel like, you know, my job is 00:12 to be your personal sherpa to the top of 00:15 the Mount Everest of Bitcoin, which 00:17 let's call that a million dollars. Um, 00:19 and that's not going to happen soon. I 00:20 don't know, 5 years, eight years, I 00:23 don't know. It'll, you know, what I 00:25 always tell people is I think it'll go 00:26 up to between $500,000 and a million 00:28 dollars a coin in the next 5 to 10 00:30 years. So, um, you know, I think we have 00:32 a good shot of being a million dollars 00:34 per coin by 2030, but I don't know, you 00:37 know, maybe it takes longer than that. 00:38 Who knows? But here is my own journey of 00:41 the ups and downs of Bitcoin. And I want 00:42 you to hear this because I want you to 00:45 make sure that the amount of Bitcoin you 00:46 own is an amount that your stomach can 00:49 handle. Right now with Bitcoin at 00:50 all-time highs, there's not a single 00:52 person in the entire world who has ever 00:54 bought Bitcoin that is down on their 00:56 investment right now. Everyone's up. Uh 00:59 that means everybody who has not sold 01:01 while it's down is up right now. Which 01:03 means if you can't handle the roller 01:05 coaster, you can get off it right now 01:08 and get more for your ticket than what 01:09 you paid. You can literally do that 01:11 anywhere in the world right now because 01:13 Bitcoin is uh setting new record highs 01:17 every few hours for the last two days. 01:19 Okay, so here's my journey. So, I bought 01:22 my initial Bitcoin. Uh, so in 2017, the 01:25 price spiked up to 01:26 $19,000, which of course caught my 01:28 attention. It caught everybody's 01:29 attention. There's a ton of people in 01:30 the class of 20 2017 because, you know, 01:33 you pay attention when something does 01:34 that. Um, it had rocketed from like 01:37 $1,200 to like 01:39 $19,000 in a year. So, that gets 01:42 everybody's attention. I had certainly 01:43 heard of Bitcoin before that. It's just 01:45 I didn't have time to research it. I 01:47 didn't have time to study. You know, too 01:49 much going on. I assume the market will 01:50 shake out and something, some other 01:52 technology will win, which of course is 01:54 not the case with Bitcoin for all of the 01:56 reasons I've covered on numerous other 01:58 videos. But anyway, I did what everybody 01:60 does, which is you try to ignore the 02:02 noise in life so you can focus on the 02:04 signal and not the noise. Well, Bitcoin 02:06 had been the signal all along since I 02:08 first heard about it in 2014, but I 02:10 didn't get around to buying any until 02:12 2017. So, the price spiked up to 02:14 $19,000. Then it started coming back 02:16 down. I tried to make a purchase at 02:18 about $15,000 per coin. Uh but 02:22 thankfully my bank rejected it and so 02:24 and returned the money, which means by 02:26 the time it actually went through on a 02:28 second attempt, the Bitcoin was down to 02:31 $12,000. Uh then I bought some 02:33 additional Bitcoin at about $9,000. And 02:36 ultimately the Bitcoin I bought in 2017 02:38 and 2018 had an average price of about 02:41 $9,000. So, I am up more than 02:45 1,000% on all of that Bitcoin uh in 02:48 total that I bought uh in 2017 and 2018, 02:52 but it was not a huge amount of Bitcoin. 02:53 It was just I mean, it was an amount 02:55 that enough to matter, but not enough to 02:57 really be sort of game-changing. Uh 02:59 because again, I was new to it all. Then 03:00 I got super distracted and but in the 03:03 process of being super distracted, um I 03:05 had decided that if Bitcoin dropped, I 03:08 was going to buy more. if it dropped to 03:09 half my current average price at the 03:11 time, which was $9,000. Meaning, if the 03:14 price of Bitcoin dropped to $4,500, I 03:17 was going to buy significantly more 03:18 Bitcoin. Of course, I did not. The price 03:21 did drop. I saw the price drop. But when 03:23 the price dropped, of course, I 03:24 chickenened out because that's what 03:26 happens whenever you wait to buy more 03:28 Bitcoin later is when the price actually 03:30 does drop, people chicken out and they 03:32 don't actually buy the Bitcoin they 03:33 thought they were going to buy. Same 03:34 thing happened to me. So, I did not buy 03:36 the Bitcoin at 4,500 that I said I was 03:39 going to buy. Um, so but I held what I 03:43 had, which is important. It's important 03:44 to understand that I had Bitcoin that I 03:45 had bought at 9,000, 11,000, 12,000. Uh, 03:49 the cheapest Bitcoin I ever bought 03:51 during that time period was for 6,400, 03:54 which just I guess happened to be a 03:56 lucky purchase in 2018 sometime. Uh, but 03:59 the average price again when you 04:00 factored in the $12,000 Bitcoin and the 04:03 $6,400 Bitcoin came to an average of 04:05 about 9,000. But I did not buy the 04:07 additional Bitcoin that I was planning 04:09 to when the price dropped. But most 04:12 importantly, I did not sell any of the 04:14 Bitcoin I bought in 2017 and 2018. So 04:16 even though the price went down to 04:19 $3,200 at one point, and on paper I had 04:23 lost almost 2/3 of my investment in 04:26 Bitcoin. Um, now of course I should have 04:28 bought a lot more at 4,500 and I would 04:31 have been, you know, way better off, but 04:33 I didn't. And it is the same story. 04:35 Everyone everyone's story is the same. 04:38 They wish they had bought Bitcoin the 04:39 first time they heard about it. They 04:40 wish they had bought a lot more than 04:42 they ultimately did. And they wish they 04:45 had actually followed through on their 04:47 thought process that they were going to 04:48 buy more if it would if it was ever 04:50 significantly cheaper. And nobody buys 04:52 Bitcoin when they first hear about it. 04:54 It's always 2 or 3 years later 04:56 typically. Uh nobody buys as much as 04:58 they should have. Uh and then nobody 05:01 buys the additional amount they thought 05:02 they were going to buy when the price 05:04 drops. It's just human nature. My story 05:06 is almost verbatim everybody's story 05:08 that's been in Bitcoin uh a good while. 05:11 So anyway, the price did drop. I did not 05:12 buy more and but I still had that 05:14 Bitcoin with an average price of $9,000 05:16 and I held on to it. And importantly, I 05:18 held on to it even though the price 05:20 crashed all the way down to $3,200. I 05:23 did not sell. So to my credit, I did not 05:25 sell. Now, not to my credit, I did not 05:28 buy the additional Bitcoin I thought I 05:30 was going to buy or that I had 05:32 considered buying or that I told myself 05:33 I was going to buy, but I didn't sell. 05:35 Okay. So then the price recovers in 2020 05:38 and goes back above the price I paid for 05:40 it. At this point, I'm like, wow. Okay, 05:43 I've been super distracted 2018, 2019, 05:46 2020. Super distracted with politics, 05:48 public policy. I was deeply involved in 05:51 a, you know, massive, uh, political 05:53 race. I mean, it was just a gazillion 05:55 gazillion gazillion things were going 05:57 on. So, I didn't have time to focus on 05:58 anything else. And so, uh, so here we 06:01 go. It's 2020. It passes my initial 06:03 price and I'm like, you know what? I've 06:05 got to pay attention to this. I really 06:07 need to pay attention to this because 06:09 Bitcoin just seems to always keep coming 06:11 back and I've owned this Bitcoin in 2017 06:13 and 2018. I should have bought a lot 06:15 more. I didn't. Um, should I buy more 06:17 now? Well, then the price just kept 06:19 going up and up and up in 2020 and 2021. 06:22 And so ultimately, I did buy additional 06:24 Bitcoin. I bought some. I can't remember 06:26 if it was 20 or if it was uh early 2021. 06:29 But regardless, at various points, I did 06:31 buy more Bitcoin on the way up. The 06:33 price ultimately peaked at 06:35 $64,000 and then started coming back 06:37 down. Uh it ultimately flash crashed. Uh 06:41 so ultimately on its way down as it you 06:44 know peaked at 64, marched down to the 06:46 50s and then by the time it was you know 06:48 really sort of the the price was coming 06:51 down in the middle of 2021 06:53 uh the price uh in the the month 06:56 preceding up to my largest single 06:57 purchase had dropped uh to 54 thou I 07:00 think it was 07:01 59,500 and then it had dropped all the 07:04 way to a flash crash of $30,000. It was 07:06 up at for like $4ome,000, flash crashed 07:09 to $30,000, recovered to 07:11 $42,000, and this is on one day. On one 07:14 day, it went from either the high30s or 07:16 the low30s, something like that, crashed 07:19 down to $30,000, then went back to 07:22 $43,000, and then had fallen back to 07:24 38,300 by the time I actually made this 07:27 the largest single purchase that I made. 07:30 And I I posted the details of this uh in 07:32 written form uh right before I recorded 07:34 this video. Okay, so here I am. I 07:37 finally made a big additional purchase 07:38 of Bitcoin in addition to a bunch of 07:40 smaller purchases above that price and 07:43 some smaller purchases below that price. 07:45 But the largest single one-time single 07:47 transaction Bitcoin purchase I made at 07:50 that one time for 07:51 $38,300. Okay, so what happened next? 07:53 Well, the price a few weeks later 07:56 crashed, if you want to call it a crash, 07:58 it basically just marched slowly down to 08:01 less than $30,000 very briefly, making 08:04 me think, well, dang it. I thought I had 08:06 missed a flash crash that I'd never see 08:08 again, but it stopped at $30,000. Now, 08:11 it marched down to just under 08:13 $30,000. And had I waited, obviously, I 08:16 would have been able to buy more Bitcoin 08:18 for less. But again, that's the same 08:20 story of everybody's journey is, you 08:22 know, you can't time the market. It just 08:23 is what it is. So then after dipping 08:26 just below $30,000, Bitcoin marched up 08:28 by the end of 2021 up to 08:31 $69,000 before subsequently as the 08:34 result of a a cascade of human stupidity 08:37 that had nothing to do with Bitcoin. A 08:39 cascade of human stupidity dragged the 08:42 price from $69,000. It started marching 08:44 down. People who were leveraged up had 08:47 borrowed a bunch of money with uh to buy 08:49 Bitcoin, could not make their, you know, 08:51 debt payments. They started puking 08:53 Bitcoin all over the market, having to 08:55 force uh force sell Bitcoin they didn't 08:57 want to sell to meet uh borrowed money 08:60 payments and all that sort of stuff. 09:01 Anyway, and then FTX blew up because Sam 09:04 Bankman Freed uh defrauded a bunch of 09:06 people out of like $10 billion or 09:08 whatever it was. Anyway, so Bitcoin 09:10 marched all the way down to 09:12 $15,500. Um and again, I was holding on 09:15 to $38,300 Bitcoin. uh even the watching 09:19 the price of that $38,000 Bitcoin march 09:21 all the way to below 16,000. Um now I 09:24 was buying all the way down. I mean at 09:27 this point my conviction was high enough 09:29 that I think when this whole process 09:30 started in 2021 I had I don't know 40% 09:34 of my net worth 30 40% of my net worth 09:37 in Bitcoin maybe. I'm just I'm guessing. 09:39 And by the end of that period, marching 09:42 through 2021 and then 2022, I had 09:46 ratcheted that up to 60% of my net 09:49 worth. So, literally 20% of every dollar 09:52 I had to my name got dumped into the 09:55 market as it marched down in 2022 and 09:59 stayed low in early 2023. Again, these 10:02 are like gut-wrenching moves here. Uh, 10:05 but I was buying all the way down. I not 10:07 with the same magnitude of the purchase 10:08 I did at 10:09 38,300. Um, because I just didn't have 10:12 the capital to do a a one-time purchase 10:13 of that magnitude. But I was scrapping 10:16 together everything I could and finding 10:18 new sources of capital and freeing up 10:20 money I didn't think I could free up. I 10:22 mean, I was just doing everything I 10:23 could to buy Bitcoin. Um, so I did buy 10:25 quite a, you know, as much as I could 10:27 below 20,000, including a, you know, a 10:29 fair amount below 17,000, uh, in 2022 10:33 and early 2023. Uh, and then when it's 10:36 when the price started marching back up 10:38 and the banks blew up in March of 10:40 2023 and I saw that the banks, everybody 10:43 freaked out, stock market went down, 10:46 Bitcoin went up. Then I took my exposure 10:48 to Bitcoin from 60% up to 80%. And then 10:51 this year uh well then I slow sort of 10:54 slowly edged it up to 90 and then 10:56 ultimately 97%. Um as the price kept 10:59 recovering higher and higher and higher 11:01 I was buying in more and more and more 11:02 because my confidence level was higher 11:04 and higher and higher. Um including with 11:07 the election last year where a a more 11:09 pro- Bitcoin candidate won as opposed to 11:12 a less pro bitcoin candidate. And even 11:14 though look Bitcoin will survive 11:15 anything. Bitcoin went through the 11:18 presidencies of Barack Obama and then 11:20 Donald Trump and then uh Joe Biden and 11:24 now Donald Trump. Like Bitcoin can 11:26 survive anything. It can I mean it 11:27 doesn't matter. At the end of the day, 11:28 Bitcoin always wins. It's still nice to 11:31 have a favorable regulatory environment. 11:33 That's still a a uh a tailwind instead 11:36 of a headwind. It's nice to have 11:37 something pushing you forward instead of 11:39 blowing you back, even though Bitcoin 11:41 always wins in the end. Um but anyway, 11:43 so here we are. uh as it marched up uh 11:46 to 109,000 I was sitting at 97% of my 11:48 liquid net worth in Bitcoin. Then the 11:50 price dipped into the '9s and ultimately 11:53 into the 80s. When it went into the 80s, 11:54 I put another 2% in to take my total 11:57 Bitcoin exposure to 99%. And then when 11:59 it temporarily dropped into the 70s at 12:01 about $78,000 per coin, I put the last 12:04 1% of my liquid assets into Bitcoin. So 12:07 that puts me at a 100% Bitcoin 12:10 allocation for all of my liquid assets. 12:12 Now, as I've mentioned before, that does 12:14 not include an emergency fund that 12:15 Rachel manages that I have no legal 12:17 access to and no physical access to. Um, 12:20 it's just money that she manages just so 12:23 our kids still eat groceries and don't 12:25 starve in case my very uh high-risisk 12:29 appetite approach to things somehow 12:31 doesn't work out, which I think is 12:32 extremely low probability, but not 12:34 impossible. Nothing's impossible, right? 12:36 So, anyway, but for every dollar I 12:38 possibly could put in Bitcoin, I now 12:40 have 100% in Bitcoin. So, if the price 12:42 dropped tomorrow and people were like, 12:44 "Oh, aren't you going to buy more 12:45 Bitcoin?" My answer is, "Unless money 12:47 becomes available that I don't even know 12:50 existed, which did happen earlier today 12:52 when I discovered 12:54 $14,000 on a refund that I knew was out 12:57 there, but I had totally forgotten 12:58 about. Um, that showed up today. So, as 13:01 soon as I can suck that out of Trustmark 13:02 and into Coinbase and buy $14,000 of 13:05 Bitcoin on Coinbase Advanced, uh, which 13:07 I will do literally this the moment it 13:09 shows up in Trustmark, you know, unless 13:11 stuff like that happens that gives me 13:13 money I wasn't expecting or didn't know 13:14 was coming, I can't buy more Bitcoin. I 13:16 don't have any more US dollars to buy 13:18 Bitcoin. All of my expenses are paid for 13:20 with Bitcoin on the Coinbase debit card 13:23 or with the the payment on my 2026 Tesla 13:27 Model Y. I liquidate the bitcoin and um 13:31 move the money to uh bankd draft at 13:34 trustmark basically a day or two before 13:36 the payment is due. Uh because uh river 13:39 and coinbase which are the primary two 13:42 platforms I use do not have bill pay 13:44 yet. And um I tried to set it up on 13:46 strike with bill pay but uh Trustmark 13:49 requires a voided check in order to set 13:51 up bill pay. And the way Strike is set 13:53 up you can't get a voided check because 13:55 there's no checking account. It's just 13:56 bankdrafted. Um, so in as soon as 13:60 Coinbase or River rolls out bill pay, 14:02 then I'll put my 2026 Tesla Model Y 14:06 payment on there. And I I say the year 14:09 and the model because if you're in the 14:10 mood to buy a Tesla, the best one is the 14:13 Model Y. And specifically the 2026, they 14:17 upgraded everything in 2026. And the 14:19 2026 model is way better than 2025 or 14:22 before. So, that's why I throw in the 14:25 year and the model because all Teslas 14:28 are not the same. If you want the latest 14:30 and greatest, you got to buy a Tesla 14:32 Model 3 that's 2024 or newer or a Tesla 14:36 Model Y 2026 or newer. The larger one is 14:40 the Model Y. I'm tall. I'm 6'4 and so I 14:43 bought the uh 2026 Tesla Model Y. But if 14:46 you don't need the extra sort of 14:47 vertical height and extra just general 14:49 space, you can get away with the uh 14:52 Tesla Model 3, which is cheaper. And uh 14:54 if as long as you buy the 2024 or newer, 14:57 you're getting the latest. But anyway, 14:58 all that to say, Bitcoin's volatile. It 15:01 will reward you handsomely if you can 15:02 handle the ups and downs. A lot of 15:04 people can't, which means they buy it 15:06 when it's high because it feels 15:07 euphoric. It feels great. It's going up. 15:10 And then when it goes down, they puke 15:11 their Bitcoin all over the market. And 15:14 when you're puking your Bitcoin all over 15:16 the market, it makes the price fall 15:17 farther, which is good for people like 15:19 me who want to buy it as cheap as you're 15:21 willing to sell it to me, but is bad for 15:23 you because you end up buying $111,000 15:26 Bitcoin and then selling it at, I don't 15:29 know, $75,000 or $95,000 or whatever is 15:33 the lowest price that you just can't 15:34 take it anymore. You just can't stand 15:36 it. And so you throw your market, you 15:38 throw your Bitcoin up and you just can't 15:40 keep it down. So, if your stomach cannot 15:42 keep your food down, don't ride the 15:44 roller coaster. If your stomach cannot 15:46 keep your Bitcoin down, don't put it on 15:49 your on your assets because you're going 15:52 to end up losing if your stomach can't 15:53 handle it. If your stomach can handle 15:55 it, it'll uh reward you handsomely long 15:58 term, which has been my case. My my 16:00 average cost probably for all the 16:02 Bitcoin I've bought is somewhere in the 16:04 ballpark of $30,000. U now obviously I 16:07 have a bunch of Bitcoin. That's, you 16:09 know, an average price, not a bunch, but 16:11 I have some. That's an average price of 16:13 $9,000. That's up more than a,000%. But, 16:17 um, that it's even it's more than 1,200% 16:21 1,200%. So, I've got that original 16:23 $9,000 Bitcoin that's up 16:25 1,200%. But obviously, that's V that's, 16:28 you know, that has to be uh averaged in 16:30 with that single largest purchase I made 16:32 at 38,300 and a bunch of purchases uh at 16:37 prices higher than that. and lower than 16:39 that. So, if you average it all out, I'm 16:41 guessing my average purchase price is 16:44 low 30,000s, maybe 30,000, maybe 16:46 probably low $30,000. Um, which is 16:49 again, that means of all the money I've 16:51 ever put in Bitcoin, which is now 100% 16:54 of my net worth, it means my liquid net 16:57 worth is triple what it would otherwise 16:59 be. Um, now I've done other videos about 17:01 about why I own a lot less Bitcoin than 17:04 I have than I could have owned in the 17:06 past and primarily that was because I 17:08 spent the vast majority of the money I 17:10 had between uh 2015 and 2021 on politics 17:15 and public policy. I spent the majority 17:18 of the money that I made selling Bombgar 17:21 Corporation in 2015 uh 2014. the 17:23 majority of that money I spent in 17:26 politics and public policy between 2015 17:29 and 2021. And I'm thankful I did. I 17:32 wouldn't change anything. But the result 17:33 was I had a lot less money to buy 17:36 Bitcoin when I actually was ready to buy 17:39 a lot of Bitcoin, which was 2021 and 17:41 forward when my conviction was really 17:43 there to buy as much as I could possibly 17:45 get. I did not have the majority of my 17:48 net worth that um that uh had been spent 17:52 uh on politics and public policy between 17:55 2015 and 2020. Um so but for what I 17:59 still had obviously what I still had 18:01 that I had not spent on many numerous 18:04 efforts to change the world I have 18:06 tripled that. So it feels great to 18:08 triple what was left over even if you 18:10 spent the majority of it. Anytime you 18:12 spend your majority of your money on 18:13 something and then you triple the the 18:17 meager amount that's left, well, that 18:19 feels great because it's triple than it 18:20 would what it would have been. Um, and 18:22 since again the average is in the 18:23 low30s, I guess it's still right at 18:26 well, it's more than tripled, you know. 18:28 I don't know. I guess at 120 it'd be 18:30 quadrupled or whatever, but anyway. So, 18:32 it's let's call it tripled. Maybe 18:33 slightly more than tripled. Um, but 18:35 anyway, so I have a lot less Bitcoin 18:37 than I would have had if I had not gone 18:40 on numerous quests to change the world. 18:42 Uh, so I have a lot less than I would 18:43 have had if I had not done that. But I 18:45 have a lot more purchasing power than I 18:47 would have if I had attempted to make 18:50 back a portion of the money I spent in 18:53 stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities. 18:55 Anything else I could possibly have put 18:57 money in from 2021 and forward, I don't 19:00 think would have gotten anywhere close 19:02 to tripling my money with as low of risk 19:05 profile as Bitcoin is. Once you really 19:07 understand Bitcoin, you really realize 19:09 how low the risk actually is as compared 19:12 to stocks, bonds, commodities, real 19:14 estate, and things like that. So, I 19:16 continue to think Bitcoin is the best 19:18 asset in the world. uh it has more than 19:21 tripled my liquid assets and liquid net 19:24 worth over the last you know however 19:26 many three four years whatever it's been 19:29 and um but I want you to just understand 19:31 that 100% of the world can get off the 19:34 merrygoround right now if they're 19:36 feeling sick if you're feeling sick 19:38 because the volatility of Bitcoin is a 19:40 little more than you can handle you can 19:42 get off the merrygoround right now if 19:44 you can't handle it please pair back 19:47 your Bitcoin holdings to something where 19:49 you can handle anything. If your stomach 19:51 can handle anything, I believe Bitcoin 19:53 will reward you handsomely in the 19:55 future. If you can't, you will be puking 19:58 your Bitcoin all over the marketplace at 19:60 the worst possible time and at the 20:02 lowest possible prices. And many people 20:04 will love you for it because you're 20:06 selling them your cheap Bitcoin, but you 20:08 will not love yourself for it. So, make 20:09 sure you can handle it. We're at record 20:11 highs right now as I record this. We are 20:13 at record highs above 20:15 $111,000. And hold only the Bitcoin. you 20:18 know that you can handle that you're not 20:20 going to wretch up in the marketplace in 20:23 a downturn.