I live in the United States which, obviously, has the USD as the medium of exchange. This being the case, at least for the foreseeable future, I am going to need some money in that for to live. At present, my landlord does not take BTC or LTC (she should if she were smart) nor does the electric company. This could change in time but we will just deal with the present.
After my monthly expenditure fund, what should I do with my money? This is a question that I have been pondering for a while. I have my investment monies that are in different brokerage accounts depending upon the purpose. Also, I poured a bit of cash into cryptocurrencies compiling what I feel to be a nice basket there. Outside of that, there is money that I was keeping in USD in different bank accounts. Is this smart?
I found there are two problems with being in cash (USD). The first is obvious. Even in an interest bearing account, the return is awful. The interest rates are so low that there is a good chance of losing to inflation. This situation is nothing new considering the Fed went to zero like a bazillion years ago. Hence a problem that many are dealing with.
Which brings me to the second situation. The USD is a depreciating animal. Over the most recent short term, compared to other currencies, the USD has dropped a great deal. Of course, this is the normal ebb and flow of currency markets. I really do not see anything different here from the past. The USD will rebound at some point compared to the EURO and GBP. However, the long term history mirrors the short term but not when compared to other currencies. When viewed through the lens of purchasing power, the USD is on a 100 year bear run. I believe this is one of the designs by the banks to extract value from the population which they, the banks, invest in appreciating assets. It really is a nice scheme they set up for themselves.
In the past, the only way to combat this was to switch from one currency to the other. While this could work, I think over the long term it was not an effective move since there were exchange costs plus the fact you were going into another currency that was created by a central bank. Hence, going into the GBP or JPY was not going to benefit one any more than being in the USD. I know people used gold and real estate as a hedge but, as we found out, those markets can be manipulated too. It seemed that the options were limited to the bad and the not so bad.
Fortunately, this is no longer the case. Today we have the world of cryptocurrencies which are not under the control of the central banks. We witnessed a remarkable run up from which many profited. At present, I would say there is still a speculative angle to the crypto world which has to be factored in. Wide price swings are going to happen. However, I think a case could be made that keeping cash in the USD is speculative and, while not as large, there are still price swings in that arena too. For those who do not believe this, the price for gas in my area of Florida went from $2.19 to $.259 in a couple days. This is a jump that makes the price increase in BTC the last few days look flat. As it pertains to the purchasing power of gasoline, my savings got smashed the last couple days. Will it rebound? Most likely since this is hurricane related. My point is that huge swings in purchasing power even with money sitting in the bank takes place. How much better off would I have been if all my cash was in LTC or BTC? I think I would come out further ahead of where I am at now.
Therefore, I made the decision to convert my savings to a cryptocurrency. This is not a speculative move meant to make money on a big run although I think that will happen. My main reason is that I do not see something such as LTC as currency that is going to decline. Contrast this with the track record of the USD which has a history of declining over time. Now I must say I am not a doom and gloom, end of the world, prepping in my bunker type person. The US government, in my opinion, isnt going to collapse, nor will the currency. The future will see more of the slow bleed perhaps at an increasing pace but still slow enough that people will not notice. Currencies are units of exchange. However, when they are held even for medium periods of time, they require a store of value. To me, being in something like LTC or BTC offers a better store of value over having cash. Yes I am at risk of a needing money during a pullback. This is where the volatility of crypto versus the USD could harm me. That said, since I operate in a manner where there is a good chance I do not need to dip into these funds, I feel I am better off using crypto for the possible appreciation while having the store of value that makes it a worthwhile risk.
I hope you find my thoughts here helpful.
If you liked this article, please give me an upvote and resteem it. I think it might be helpful for people to see that there are some of us who are using this medium to get away from the fiat currencies in whatever way they can.
Also, please follow me...I will be writing more articles about the crypto and technology and the implementation of it all. After all, we are looking to make the world a better place.
Awesome! To be candid, thats a great and wise decision you've made.
Crypto-currency rocks! STEEMIT rocks better!!!
Boost your steem power and get more upvote for your post via visit my post here. I just joined too...
https://steemit.com/steem/@mickyscofield/join-the-steem-follower-team-and-watch-your-steem-profile-grow
Agree with your point. That's, in my opinion, exactly the motivation behind buying gold and precious metals since thousands of years ago. However there are lot of risk(s) associated to cryptocurrency just like any other kind of investment which you do not mention here. Actually no one can guarantee you can get your saving back whenever you need it at the price you paid for.
That is very true and I do risk needing the money when the market is in a pullback. However, since it isnt priority money, more like a rainy day fund, I will only tap it if really needed. My monthly expenses are on hand. This money is for months 3-9 in terms of needed cash. If things go bad I would need it but it is not expected.
This is true if you put money in the bank to get 2% return annually and inflation is 3% yearly there no way you will get everything. It sad that the regular person does not realize this.
Even when the numbers are reversed...3% annual return and 2% inflation, that is almost standing still especially since food and energy arent in the government inflation numbers.