Couldn't agree more :) Risk tolerance is really important. Too many people invest more money than they can afford to loose because there is always this idea of "I'll get rich!". And yes, that can happen. But you might not want to bet your life savings on that. Personally, I only ever spent small amounts on crypto currencies. I bought 34 Ethereum for $10 for example in the Ethereum pre-sale. Then sold them for $500 (and could have made $8000 if I had sold them right now). Did the same with Storj, MaidSafe and a few others and by only spending $10 on each, I made thousands without any real risk.
So you really don't need to invest huge sums if you're an early bird. And new crypto coins are created all the time so you can always still be an early bird. I go for coins that actually add something new and useful to the table, like Ethereum, like Steem. Things that aren't just a cryptocurrency, but make use of the blockchain for something that adds value behind the coin so to speak.