update - 20/08/2025

Wednesday, August 20th, 2025: Lessons from the Crypto Battlefield

Earlier this month, I made my final loan repayment—a milestone that lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. For a moment, I felt free.

But the banking app wouldn’t let me forget. For two more weeks, it kept showing loan activity, like a lingering fart in an elevator trapped between floors. Each time I opened the app I was reminded of a struggle I thought I’d already left behind. When the loans section in the app finally vanished, it felt like a second confirmation: three years of commitment were now firmly in my rear-view mirror.

That discipline gave me something more valuable than just a cleared debt—it gave me proof. Proof that I could stick to a financial plan, never miss a step during the contract period, and come out stronger. It was a springboard into a new chapter.

Of course, I’ve made my share of financial mistakes. Crypto has been one of them.

Like millions of others, I thought I could outsmart the market with day trading. In reality, I got beaten up, chewed up, and spat out. I lost thousands chasing quick wins, not realising that patience was the real secret. Ironically, if I’d simply held my coins and dollar-cost averaged over time, I’d have been sitting on strong returns. Instead, I bled cash and even tangled myself in VPNs and shady platforms that locked me out of my own funds. It was reckless. It was desperate. It was me, still learning the hard way.

I won’t repeat those mistakes.

Today, I self-custody a smaller stack of crypto — not enough to lose sleep over, but enough to consider it diversification of my overall investment portfolio. I see crypto as long-term speculation, not a get-rich-quick scheme. Bitcoin, Ethereum, maybe Solana are the coins I’ll be holding onto for the time being —the big coins with real blockchains. No more tokens, no more gambling on hype. Just patience, discipline, and the awareness that crypto cycles repeat roughly every four years.

I won’t catch the exact bottom, but when prices crash—as history says it will—I’ll be ready to step back in, slowly. If the market proves me wrong, so be it. That’s the risk I accept.

What matters most is the bigger picture. I’ve gone from reckless trading to disciplined planning. From chasing highs and dopamine rushes to preparing for the long game. The same way I chipped away at that loan, I’ll build towards financial independence one careful decision at a time.

Crypto is no longer my obsession. It’s just one piece of a much larger puzzle. The real focus is my investor’s playbook—the strategy I’m building to grow wealth steadily and wisely. If I can stick to that plan with the same consistency I showed in paying off debt, then maybe, just maybe, I’ll look back one day and realise that even my worst financial mistakes have had a purpose. They shaped the investor I am becoming.

 

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