Money, Crypto, I dunno

[Bang*Bang**]

Howdy friends,

It's been a while, but I'm minimizing my social media presence and getting back to my good 'ol MCB roots.

Lurking through the old posts on here, looks like some jumped into some of the bullish trends since the 2020's.

Some probably jumped on the bullshit trends from back then too.

I'm curious if anyone has any lessons learned?

I've got some money sitting and doing nothing, which half of me thinks I should just pump into debts to offset interest, but it's not enough to wipe anything out, just enough to offset 1 year worth of minimum payments.

However, the other half of me wants to dance with the Devil by the pale moon light and gamble on crypto.

Yes, I am aware crypto is volatile AF. Yes, there seems to be nearly as many pump and dump crypto schemes as crypto currencies. No, I don't even know where to start with crypto trading and wallets... and yet, my optimist inner Romeo Montague is drawn to that Crypto Capulet like a siren song, as though the potential in the market itself is contemplating my name aloud from it'd balcony window.

It has me wondering,
"O Dinero, Dinero, wherefore art thou Dinero?..."

Or, in other words. What's been productive for you folks? What do people use to buy/sell Crypto? Doesn't have to be Crypto, I'm just pulled here because of it... and I've got a social media addiction to offset. So, yeah. Feel free to nerd out.

[Grendel]

I learned my lesson years ago (Friday 13 Oct 1989) when in addition to investing in mutuals I dabbled in bond trading. I got cocky and had bought some bonds on margin right before Black Friday and my chits got called in on that Monday. It cost me everything I had profited to that date plus another ~$10k which I had to take a loan to pay. Lesson learned if you do not have money to throw away and still survive do not play the market as an individual. From then on I have played the averages in investing staying away from the more speculative investments and shifting everything I can into investments that have hard assets (land). Getting close to retiring from working for someone else and while I will never have enough (in my mind) my wife and I should be good for what remains of our life, if not rich at least able to self sustain without anything from the government.

[Hellion360]

How much money sitting?
What percent interest are your debts?

[TwonTamal]

Highly dependent on your situation. There is peace of mind that comes with being ahead a couple of months on all your payments. Of course, if you are going to wipe out some of your debt with it, it should be the one with the highest interest rate first. With any investment, you should only invest with money that you are willing to lose and your optimal timeline for holding should be forever. Also investing, in my opinion, at least if you are going to be successful at it, requires A LOT of research. If you don't have the time to commit to extensive amounts of research, then a simple S&P500 ETF or Dividend Growth ETF may be ideal. I'm not saying it is right for your situation, and you are the only one able to judge your appetite for risk, but if you do dabble in crypto, the majority of them are shitcoins. Some may disagree with me, but the only one worthy of investment and has value is Bitcoin in my opinion, but what do I know?

All opinion, not investment advice.

[devilzcall]

Unless you only have a handful very specific credits, Interest on your debt will almost certainly be higher than what you could reasonably and reliably expect from an investment.

The vile thing about minimum payments is, that you are paying off barely more than the accrued interest. So your debt doesn't really go down and the CC company can make a lot of money off your back. The best move is to aggressively put money into your highest interest loans/credits, that'll snowball into less interest due and a chance to pay off the remaining debt faster.

Also, opinion on Crypto: The markets spiked because they're expecting trump to pass crypto friendly legislature (or rather abstain from regulation) but I only expect that to lead to more fuckery and exploitation, not in the everymans favor.

[Grendel]

You are so right, I have had people argue with me about paying off debt vs. investing the money. I am a firm believer paying off debt is like guaranteed interest from an investment (investing in yourself). Sure sometimes investment interest can be greater then debt avoidance interest but the debt is a known guarenteed value. Investments is a gamble.