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Don’t Kick Yourself Over Money You “Coulda Had”
Back in 2018, the popular (yet somehow always in trouble) app Robinhood began offering crypto trading. In the months that followed, it also added support for additional tokens — including something called Dogecoin. Being curious about crypto, I threw a literal few dollars at each option. As a result, I ended up buying 756 Dogecoins for a grand total of $2.75. Today, as I write this, those coins are worth nearly 100 times that. Pretty cool, right? Well, it depends on how you look at it.
If you weren’t paying attention, you might assume that this inflation of Dogecoin happened slowly over time since I bought my $2.75 worth in 2018. But, that couldn’t really be further from the truth. Instead, the memecoin has straight up exploded in recent weeks, with a particularly ridiculous rise occurring over the past couple of days. In fact, when the week began, a single Dogecoin was worth less than a dime — now it’s up to more than 35 cents.
Given these massive swings, it’s easy for people to starting looking at Dogecoin or whatever else and think of it as a money machine: put in X dollars on Monday, take out 3X dollars on Friday. It sounds simple enough… but we all know it’s not. Nevertheless, it’s hard not to wonder what would if, instead of buying $2.75 worth of Doge on that day in 2018, I had purchased $100 or $1,000 — $10,000! While it may be fun to think about, I’ve found it’s not worth dwelling on. Furthermore, focusing on this perceived “failure” can be harmful.
Although I’ve found the entire Doge episode to be mostly entertaining while enjoying the benefit of actually having a bit of skin in the game, that’s not exactly the way a friend of mine has taken it. Apparently, he purchased some Dogecoin last year and made a tiny profit when selling it earlier this year. Unfortunately for him, had he held, he could be a millionaire right now — seriously. Coming to that realization is undoubtedly painful, but what does it help? Now, instead of enjoying the money he made, he’s too upset thinking about what he “coulda had.”
To be clear, what’s happening with Dogecoin right now is gambling, not investing. Like with any gamble, there will surely be people that make money — and perhaps even a significant amount of money — from this event while others lose money. Thus, you’ll need to decide: would I rather risk losing money I put in or risk “missing out” on making more? Personally, I’ve found it best to play the middle, setting levels on either side of even, allowing me to rejoice in the winnings or live with the losses either way. So, if you do feel like playing this latest Dogecoin game or whatever comes next, have fun… but don’t frustrate yourself by focusing on what you think could have been.
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