Little story about my investing life, if that's how you'd like to word it. Looking back ...
I'm in my mid-50s, so I've seen a lot of innovative ideas come down the pike ... hindsight is 20-20 and when I look back, I have to refrain from kicking myself because temporally speaking my life could have been quite a bit more "enhanced"
I can recall in a few instances a deep an memorable feeling that something I was looking at for the first time would be absolutely industry-disrupting and even world-changing. Here are a few examples of when I was internally "wow-ed" by a new product or innovation:
First I recall was Amazon. It was in the late 90s if I recall. The internet was relatively new. My wife and I loved going to the bookstore on Friday evenings to buy books and then read them for date-night with a treat. Amazon came along and sold at the time only used books but for quite cheap. The convenience of ordering a used book and having it mailed to your home made me think "Holy crap, this is going to drive all the bookstores out of business!" I think the stock price at the time was around $2. If I had just put a thousand dollars in at that time, it would be multiple millions of dollars now.
The second one was netflix. At the time, everyone went to blockbuster stores or the like to rent VHS movies for their entertainment. Netflix came around and would mail you your movies on DVD for a minimal fee. I remember thinking, "Holy crap, this is going to drive the video stores out of business!" When the internet got a little more robust, you could just stream your movies. I think that the stock price when I had that feeling was around $1.50. Had I put just $1000 into it then, it would be worth multiple millions of dollars now.
The next huge feeling of "This is going to revolutionize the world" was when someone handed me an iphone 3 for the first time. It had no keyboard, no keys ... and I thought that was lame initially. Then the person showed me "apps" and what they could do. I think at the time the app store had only a few dozen apps to choose from. After about 10 minutes of fiddling with it I could remember thinking "Holy crap, everyone on the earth will want one of these". IF ONLY I had purchased $1000 in apple stock in that moment ... you get the picture.
After a few more of these stupid non-moves of mine associated with a deep and impressive feeling of "this is going to be huge", I decided one day that if I ever felt that feeling again, I would act.
Well, that feeling hit when cryptocurrencies entered my awareness. Sending money over the internet quickly? cheaply? securely? That's absolutely revolutionary. It's as revolutionary as going from putting a stamp on your letter to your grandmother in Scotland to hitting enter on the email to that same grandmother. I instantly bought some and continue to buy and hold them.
Crypto is already being used in the real world, but it is still early. It will be used to send funds internationally through the world's SWIFT system. It will allow securities to be exchanged instantly throughout the world. It will be adopted by nations as their new currencies. It's just a matter of when, how, and which ones will be used. . . that's the tricky part.
It won't be bitcoin ... it is way too slow (transactions per second) to be used commercially. It's so huge right now because it was first and because it is well known. It will probably always exist but people theorize it will be a store of value like gold rather than a way for businesses, individuals, and nations to send money to each other.
Nations will create their own cryptocurrencies for their citizens. China already does. The US has it but hasn't enacted it yet. Call it a prophecy if you want, but the world will be cashless soon. And I don't think this is a good thing ... it gives absolute control of your money to the government. They will be able to turn your account off if they desire. They will be able to drain your account with a flick of the switch. They will know every penny you spend and what you bought with it. You won't need to declare taxes or file them ... they'll just do that for you. We will all be under their thumb.
I do think that some commercial cryptos are in the running for real-world utility both currently and in the near future. XRP, mentioned above, is one of them. I'm fairly certain this one will be extremely valuable in the future for multiple reasons I won't list here, but I'm happy to talk about it with anyone who is interested. It is one of the only ones that has given me that same "Holy crap this is going to be used everywhere" feeling that Amazon, Netflix, and Apple gave me in the past.
I'm not a trader ... I've done a little of that to increase my holdings (sell some of what I own when it spikes, then rebuy it when it falls), but I can't do much of that because it is not my talent. I like to get that feeling that something is going to revolutionize a part of the world, buy it, and hold onto it to see if it grows like the other assets I've listed above did.
Feel free to PM me if you would like to know more about what I've learned!
