How Do You Invest In Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a new asset class as it doesn’t really fit in to any of the traditional investment models and it’s certainly not a stock. Some call it new money, others call it a gamble, the uninformed call it a ponzi (hilarious).

As we have covered on TBM many times, for us, it’s a long term savings account where we know exactly how the protocol works and we are able for the first time to own money ourselves via self-custody options.

Looking back over the last 4 years, I’ve made so many mistakes both before I got in to Bitcoin and during my involvement with it. However, with that experience, I think there are 3 main steps that I can summarise from this journey.

Step 1 – Overcome The Fear

Depending on where you are in the world and indeed, where you are in life, investing, buying or converting your savings to Bitcoin can seem like a scary step.

I get it. It’s unknown.

It’s a nascent industry and no-one really knows where it is going to end up but more and more people are getting involved as they start to realise the effects of inflation on their purchasing power.

The key here is to actually do some research first and up your knowledge so you at least have some understanding. How much research is up to you but if your basis for getting involved is based on FOMO from a tweet you saw then you may need to do a little more!

That’s why we set up this site so you can find what you need to get you started but there’s great introduction webinars from Jason Deane of the Bitcoin Pioneers and podcasts out there too. Get your information from different sources so you have a rounded view of what money is.

Once you make that first step though and decide to jump in, something will transform inside of you and you will have a different aspect on money.

Step 2 – Develop A Strategy

Everyone and their dog will say the basic principle of investing is “don’t invest more than you can afford to lose”. Depending on how far down the Bitcoin rabbit hole you are, this perspective has been known to change to “don’t keep in fiat more than you can afford to lose”!

That’s to say, get a strategy first that works for you.

You know your financial situation better than anyone but if you have spare cash at the end of the month after all the necessary survival expenditures then I know where I’d be putting it! If you are really not sure, then speak to a qualified financial advisor, do your research and plan accordingly.

Step 3 – Acquiring Bitcoin

Once you have your strategy sorted out, the next step is actually finding a place where you can buy Bitcoin!

To save you time, we have set up a page with plenty of options for you that we have used at TBM to get our grubby little hands on those sats!

The most common and easiest to use places to get Bitcoin are centralised exchanges if you don’t mind registering your details. There are other ways of acquiring Bitcoin that don’t require giving your details but there are risks associated with both so it’s up to you which methods you go for, depending on what you feel comfortable with.

If you don’t want to buy Bitcoin outright then you can go down the mining route and either buy your own mining rig or look for companies that run the miner for you.

After you have acquired your sats, you have various options depending on what your strategy is. You can earn interest on your sats or withdraw them straight to cold storage if you’re not planning on doing anything for a long period of time and just want to HODL.

Other Factors

Although these three steps are pretty simple in theory, there are other factors that come in to play to be aware of as you go further in your Bitcoin journey.

Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) articles will often sprout up with dubious content from mainstream media which are aimed to make you panic.

You will also see “influencers” and “moonboys/moongirls” spouting finger-in-the-air prices based on absolutely nothing, which are designed to make you FOMO in.

The common theme here is that your emotions are going to be tested to the max in the Bitcoin world. Watch out for the shitcoiners who rely on newcomers to buy their shitcoin so they can dump on you – don’t fall in to their traps!

Scams are rife in this industry due to scammers being able to take advantage of newcomers not knowing any better.

Bitcoin Security is something we are always preaching on TBM and we have a section dedicated to this on our site to keep your sats as safe as they can be.

In summary, research and knowledge is your friend with Bitcoin. There’s always something new to learn but the fundamentals of Bitcoin have remained unchanged with the known total amount of 21 million Bitcoins ever to exist.

It takes time to understand and some say it takes 1,000 hours to fully understand it. If you are going to base your research off one FUD article you read in some online rag then good luck.

However, when you get to a point that you feel a mindset shift after a few months of immersion, understand money and how Bitcoin challenges what we think we know, things will click. That’s when you know you are going to make it. Happy stacking!