Most people wish they had bought BTC back in 2010 or 2011. Today, I want to share my story.

I actually bought BTC in June 2011 on a whim after reading an article about it and here’s what happened ...

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If you bought BTC that long ago, it is likely that at least one of these things happened since then:

A) You sold it way too early => extremely likely

B) You lost it => very likely
C) You got it stolen => likely
D) You actually held it all the time since => extremely unlikely

To me all of the above happened.

I bought BTC in June 2011 and I first kept it on an account on the now defunct Mt.Gox exchange. I also sold some at various times way too early when it doubled, tripled, quadrupled and more. I thought I was a genius.

No way would I have held until today. Back then I had no idea of the magnitude of the technology and its promises. Well, at least I didn’t *really* believe in it. I was skeptical and naively compared it to Second Life’s Linden dollar. What a mistake! Well, hindsight is 20/20.

I also became a victim of an early phising attack. In late 2011 I got an email with a request to reset my pwd and I presumably logged into Mt.Gox through a fake link in that email. By doing that, I revealed my account’s password. A day later all I held in that account was gone.

Remember, 2FA/MFA was not a (big) thing back then.

Before the attack, I played a bit with my Bitcoins, transferring them back and forth. I transferred some to a what you would call a paper wallet today but … later lost my private key.

I actually still hold some in another wallet (whose private key, fortunately, I still have) off the exchange but that’s just a fraction of what I once owned. So still a nice amount today after all of these parabolic gains but nothing big.

I was a naive and young lad in my late twenties. I enjoyed reading self-empowerment books like “The Richest Man in Babylon”, “The Millionaire Next Door”, “Think and Grow Rich”, and “Rich Dad, Poor dad”.

Back then, I made the commitment to myself to invest and become wealthy by the age of 40. Being rich is relative. I, coming from humble means, defined being wealthy as having assets of at least one million USD.

With that you can live a relatively comfortable life but most wouldn’t really consider that rich.

Anyway, BTC or crypto currency did NOT catapult me into prosperity. Instead, until 2017 nearly all the money and assets I had, I earned myself by grinding, working hard ...

... and studying for a top-notch job and invested the money that came in along the way by keeping my living expenses low and living well below my means.

No fancy cars and no house at an early, young age. To this day I hardly carry any debt.

In hindsight, believe it or not, losing my BTC and getting skimmed was actually a good thing. Had I effortless become rich, I’m sure I’d have lost it again. Life’s lessons and actually *really* earning all the money (by the means of labor!), make you value it much more.

Back then when the phishing happened I thought, wow, if it happens to me it likely happens to hundreds if not thousands of others. Dumbfounded and stunned by that incident, I defiantly decided to become a cybersecurity professional.

So in my late 20s and early 30s I studied hard and earned one professional certification and credential after another. I became a top-paid cybersecurity professional and with that I landed in an income range that earned me an amount of money I could have only dreamed of ...

... at the beginning of my professional work life. I actually hit my self-set target a few years early.

How? I lived well below my means and invested the money I earned into real estate that today pays me some nice passive income.

Also, my property appreciated massively. When I bought my guiding principle was: Location, location, and location!

So no, I haven’t won big with crypto yet (at least not until 2017). I haven't inherited any wealth either.

Eventually, I was lured back into crypto in 2017 and I decided to partake at that time for real. Intrigued by the technology of XRP & its protocol I invested a fair chunk of money in XRP (I still own lots of others like $BTC, $LTC, $XLM, $ADA, and more, but $XRP is my favorite).

In order to make sure not to make the same mistakes again, I’m keeping my private keys safe and in cold storage (remember: Not your keys, not your money!). Furthermore, to refrain myself from selling too early I put a big chunk of it in a timed-based escrow for 10+ years.

Possible that it won’t be worth anything that far into the future. However, there’s a good chance it will!
Anyway, that doesn’t really matter to me too much because I and my family are already well off. We live a stress-free life, have beautiful and healthy kids.

I consider myself to be truly blessed. Whatever comes now is just icing on the cake.

Good luck to you out there. Stay safe!

/thread end