1 year of HODL’ing down many more to go! Thoughts of a first time HODL’er.

A year ago today, I decided to put some extra money I had into Bitcoin. I know one year is rookie numbers compared to many of you guys. However, I think many would agree the first year can be the biggest hurdle. I just wanted to share some thoughts, and my journey as a first time investor/HODL’er. I hope other first timers who read this finds this helpful in some sort of way.

First I want to say, BTC wasn’t news to me last year. In fact I almost FOMO’d in 2017. I didn’t know a thing about BTC though, I just saw the 20k price. By then I thought I was too late. Then I just forgot about it and went on with my life.

When I started to hear people talk about BTC again in 2020 that’s when I decided to do some research into the basics of BTC. Between the finite supply and the halvings it was enough to convince me to throw some extra money I had into it. I guess call it a New Years resolution.

Probably the whole month of January 2021 I was in full research mode. With the research I concluded, I shouldn’t treat this as a get rich quick scheme. This is a long game. Like any investment, I knew to only invest money I’m willing to lose or sit on for the long term.

With the long term in mind I decided to go with a DCA approach from there on out. I bought sats with extra money I had every couple weeks and any strong dip in between I bought sats. I did that probably up until around April 2021 before things took a turn. By then my average has increased quite a lot as I obtained sats at 30k-50k price marks. At that point I had more sats than originally planned so I decided to “step away” and check back every so often looking only to buy the dips to lower my average.

There was many times I wanted to take some profits at 60k+ but I resisted the urge. I kept my focus on what’s to come in the future. We aren’t too far off from prices a year ago today. In my case, I’m near break even and I’m sure I’ll be in the red again as it has happened a few times throughout 2021. I’m not too worried as I don’t have intentions to sell any time soon.

TLDR: long story short for first timers. Do the research/homework for not just BTC but any investment. This can help you be less emotional about price swings and make you more confident in your investment decision. Obviously it helps if you only invest money you’re willing to lose or sit on for long periods of time. Those two aspects have made HODL’ing easier and less stressful for me. One thought as a HODL’er I have is what is the exit strategy? We joke about HODL’ing forever, but I think everyone should have a goal or exit strategy. Otherwise you may be leaving it up to greed to decide when to sell. I’m not trying to force HODL’ing on anyone as it’s not for everyone. For my situation and the type of person I am, I find it as the best approach for me.

I just thought I would share my journey as I thought it was a good milestone for me. It has definitely been a roller coaster of a year and it’s been fun. I can’t wait see more adoption in the years to come. Happy HODL’ing!