SO Many Choices and Opportunities — Investing and the Art of "Doing Nothing!"
Between checking my email, checking a couple of Crypto sites, looking at my blog and doing a little "housecleaning" on my Hive-Engine wallet, I contemplated for a moment what an incredible cornucopia of investing choices we are faced with, every day!
And keep in mind that's just in the crypto space, which is a tiny tiny fraction of the overall financial market.
Those Fast Moving Markets!
Moreover, almost every single one of (particularly) the crypto-related offerings seem to involve a sense of great urgency and constant pressure to "take action" in some way or another.
Meanwhile, it feels like there's an entire generation of investors populating this new frontier, who are being indoctrinated into the idea that "investing" is a bit like living inside an old-fashioned pinball machine... while the multi-ball bonus is active! You have to constantly be doing something, buying/selling" something, swapping something, moving something... in order to be a "proper*" investor.
*What Should We DO??? How about... NOTHING....
The term "you snooze, you lose!" is often used in investing, but even that seems to have gone from meaning a matter of days to now meaning a matter of seconds.*
I tend to be a rather "slow" investor, meaning that rather than bouncing relentlessly all over the endless stream of opportunities, I often choose to... do nothing.
"OMG! My favorite token just went down 5%! What should I doooooo...?"
Nothing.
"OMG! My favorite token just went UP 10%! If I sell now and buy this other token, and then sell it and buy these NFTs — all in the next 15 minutes, of course! — that might work really well! What do you think?"
Nothing.
Steady vs. Wild and Jagged
I'll be the first to admit that I haven't had any remarkable "moonshot winners" that went up 3000% in an afternoon, primarily because I simply am not into chasing that kind of hype and pure speculation. Maybe I'm missing out on something... on the other hand, I haven't lost half my assets to some scamcoin or rugpull scheme I didn't consider because everything was moving so fast it was a blur and urgency/FOMO overtook common sense and critical thinking.
"Doing nothing" — that is, researching, getting to know, buying into an investment, and then just leaving it alone ("doing nothing") — almost seems like it has become unfashionable; antiquated.
Of course, I'm also getting old(er) and think a little more about preservation of capital than those half my age. When you're young, you have much more time on your hands to rebuild your wealth if you suddenly lose EVERYthing to an investment-gone-south.
The Quest for Passive Income!
Interestingly enough, when my Dad introduced me to investing when I was just nine years old, the concept that really grabbed my attention what that of passive income.
You work hard, make some money, save it up, invest it and get this thing (this was the early 1970's, folks!) called "interest," and when you build enough of that you end up with income without having to WORK! I thought that was absolutely amazing.
All these years later I watch the constant parade of investment opportunities go by, and I still find myself thinking about how any given investment will provide me with an ongoing income stream. My ideal investment is still one where I buy in and then pretty much do nothing!
Promises, Promises... and Sustainability
Getting back to my morning routine and bursting email inbox, I'm pretty sure my stable income stream is not going to come from some scheme that promises a 10,000% APY if I invest TEN MINUTES AGO!!!
*(Truth in disclosure: I own a small stake of recently minted xPOLYCUB tokens which are earning precisely that kind of return. But still...)
The think about promises of "amazing" investment returns is that they are seldom based in reality OR sustainability. The Cryptosphere is still very young, and only time will tell what a long-term sustainable passive income APY looks like. 50%? 30%? 20%? 15%? 10%?
I'm afraid my "crystal ball" is broken!
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your weekend!
*How about YOU? Are you a very "active" investor, constantly moving things around, buying and selling? Or are you more of a long-term HODLer? Do you hold for appreciation, or for passive income... or both? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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