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Guys, I tried buying Bitcoin and Ethereum a few days ago just for fun (and for educational purposes - I wanted to understand what crypto trading was and how it worked so that when I heard people talking about it, I wasn't completely clueless).
Anyway, I had about $40 in there and now they're down to $36 and I am so heartbroken! It's a negligible amount of money, for sure (and I'm super risk-averse, so I 'invested' this amount of money fully prepared to lose it), but it still sucks.
Now if I'm feeling this way over a couple of bucks (Canadian, by the way, so of even lesser value than you may be thinking), how are there people out there investing such large amounts of money (whether that's tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars) and seeing that number drop (by amounts that could make up yearly incomes for some people), and are completely okay?
Here's my hypothesis. Either 1) These people risking hundreds of thousands of dollars are so wealthy that this money is like pocket change for them. 2) These people are super optimistic and overly confident about a fairly unpredictable thing. Or 3) These people's mental health status must be just so absolutely phenomenal that nothing can faze them.
I only have about $20,000 invested in the lowest risk mutual fund (mostly income, very little growth) and even that gives me anxiety because while generally safe, still poses some risk.
I guess I'm wondering if I'm the one living my life wrong (and that I should perhaps be more comfortable taking risks - as we all know: 'no risk, no gain'), or are extreme risk-takers living their lives wrong? Will it come back to bite them in rear?
I think it's funny how we assess someone's success or failure only in hindsight. If someone invests their life savings and makes a fortune, we think they're a good decision-maker, but someone who invests their life savings and loses it all is an idiot.
How do we assess risk-taking attitudes in terms of virtue or vice?
