My take on Crypto: Is it a smart investment?

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

Is crypto a smart investment? Crypto has been applauded and criticized depending on who you ask. It’s either the future of money or a digital casino with better branding. So which one is it? In today’s episode of the Intentional Money Show? We’ll be talking about cryptocurrency and whether it is a smart investment for you to be making.

Just a quick note before we dive in. Everything I share on this podcast is general in nature and does not take your personal circumstances into account. I’m not a licensed financial advisor, and nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken as personalized, financial, business, taxation or investment advice.

Before you make any financial decisions, please seek guidance from your accountant or a qualified licensed financial advisor who understands your specific situation.

So a great place to start today’s episode is by asking what is cryptocurrency? At its core, crypto is a digital asset that runs on something called blockchain.

Blockchain is a technology which is basically like a big spreadsheet that is shared across lots of computers. And once the block is verified, it’s permanent or at least very hard to change. The biggest crypto you’ve probably heard of is called Bitcoin. It was created as a decentralized alternative to traditional banking systems.

So basically there’s no banks or central authority looking across this currency. It’s just peer to peer transactions. So why is this important in traditional banking, large transactions?

So here in Australia, I used to be bank teller and any large transactions that’s over $10,000 need to get reported to a central authority who monitor financial transactions.

So the reason for this is to prevent money laundering, terrorism funding, tax evasion, and other criminal activity. Now, because crypto operates outside these traditional systems, arguably some people have used it for dodgy behavior. Governments obviously scrambling, trying to get legislation in place. But it’s still patchy.

So what you’ve got is basically a financial system without the guardrails of traditional banks. Now, when you think about crypto, you know some people have become really wealthy of crypto. Yeah, it absolutely has made some people rich. There are some people who bought Bitcoin for a few dollars and have turned it into millions.

And that’s the hook. Because crypto, especially in the early days, offered massive growth potential, and there’s very low barriers to entry because you can start really small. It feels like a really incredible opportunity.

But the downside is that it’s wildly volatile. Because prices can skyrocket overnight and crash just as quickly. A lot of people who are in crypto are trading in it, which means that they’re trying to play the market rather than owning it as part of a long-term portfolio. Which leads me to the question is crypto investing or gambling? If you treat it as part of a diversified strategy.

You are willing to wear the risks that come along with a risky investment, but you have it as part of a wider portfolio, then absolutely. It could be classed as investing, but if you are throwing money in and hoping that market will time so that you can make a quick buck, in my opinion, I think it’s gambling.

You might wanna, so what’s my thoughts on it? Look, I wanna say crypto is not a no from me. While I personally haven’t bought any directly yet. It’s not to say that I wouldn’t explore it in the future.

You need to go get your own financial advice. But if I was going to invest in, in crypto. It would be treated as something that I, buy a small amount of high risk, and I’d only be putting money in that I can afford to lose.

The elephant in the room is that most people are chasing the bright, shiny, sexy thing, hoping to become an overnight millionaire. While ignoring the boring money stuff that actually builds wealth. If you are sitting there thinking. I have no idea if my money is actually working for me currently. I’d love to invite you to check out my membership, the Intentional Money Membership, because inside you’ll learn the basics of long-term healthy money management, like how to manage your household finances in a calm way.

Inside you get three live calls a month and we have guest speakers. There are tools and templates all designed to make managing your money easy. The membership is about creating sustainable long-term wealth. So if you wanna jump on in and come join me inside the membership, the link is in the show notes for today’s episode.

Hopefully today’s giving you some things to think about when it comes to crypto. I would love to hear your thoughts, so make sure you send me a DM on Instagram clare_wood_coach and let me know what your thoughts are about crypto. I’d love to hear from you.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast aud