I don't remember when I first came across BTC but I remember it was around $15 when a libertarian type I followed online first brought it up as a possible way out from under the abusive central bank / fiat / debt-based monetary system adopted by all countries in the world today.
"That's cool," I thought, "Sounds like it'll go somewhere."
I learned more about it as time went on. Blockchain technology, the distributed ledger, total decentralization, it was all interesting. Bitcoin continued to expand in use and I continued to learn about it.
I didn't just learn about it though. I bought some. Yep; I bought in at around $400 and made some money selling at $450. Easy money you may think but I was a nervous wreck and felt quite pleased at getting out when I did.
When it passed the price of gold, coin for ounce, I thought it was wildly overpriced but wished I had bought more at $450 instead of selling. When it breached $10k I wished I had bought it at $1.5k. When it reached $45k I wished I had bought it at $20k.
You can see how this works.
The main thing I have learned from not investing in Bitcoin is that I have a poverty mindset. I am frightened of losses, so frightened that I pass on opportunities even when I am comfortable with the fundamentals.
The poverty mindset is not inherently bad. It keeps humans out of a lot of trouble by making risky behavior feel more dangerous than it is in absolute terms. When we are living hand-to-mouth or can't afford to lose the seed corn this is a good thing; while we pass up good opportunities we also avoid the majority of mortal risks. After all, no matter how successful you are dying just once is the end. There isn't a counterbalance for that.
This psychological habit becomes a problem when it treats non-mortal losses as mortal. If you have the spare money to spend on something and can stomach the entire loss, why fear the risk? So long as your basic needs are hedged against you can afford to be adventurous with other things.
I learned this poverty mindset from birth. My family was never poor because my parents wasted nothing and saved everything. They took no risks and carefully stored up everything they gained. This worked well for them but I adopted their habits without an intellectual or psychological framework that admitted additional approaches. It never rose above the level of a compulsion.
Escaping this mindset is an ongoing process. Recognizing that I am able to take some risks isn't a question of mathematics. Having actual savings in reserve helps.
As far as the "if only I had bought it at 'x'" cycle, knowing that I had in fact once bought it at X and then turned around and sold it at X + 50 goes a way to treating it. I would never have made the gains I dream of because I would have sold for a pittance. There's no point in looking back.
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