The Distortion of Money

Image by Javier Allegue Barros

Very rarely do you come across a youtube video that includes a discussion about a large number of important topics of our time. Each is then perfectly interwoven into the next to provide a holistic view of the broader topic for understanding and then action.

Complex problems can not be addressed through sound bite online news and aggressive social media platforms. There can never be a proper discussion on platforms that encourage conflict to attract views. This youtube video, has in my opinion, shown that it is possible to discuss complex problems and possible solutions to all things including learning, money, fairer systems, free market economics, truth and what lies ahead in the future.

The Distortion of Money with Jeff Booth

Jeff Booth is Entrepreneur and Author of ‘The Price of Tomorrow’. In this interview, he discusses the distortion of money, how Bitcoin can herald in a fairer system based on truth and a free market of ideas, and the transition from scarcity to abundance. Shout out to Peter and team from WBD for another fantastic podcast.

“These ideas of communism and free-market collide, and they’re both communism over time. And that sounds harsh, but it’s a control structure. There is no free market, if there’s a distortion of money, because everything else is on top of that distortion of money.” — Jeff Booth

Here is a comment from the video which I think is worth repeating:

“Came for the bitcoin got a lesson on how to be a better human. It’s what I love about the bitcoin ethos so much. It forces you to stretch and grow as a person. Jeff is a sage of a man I hope to be able to be half the man he is when I’m his age. Great interview Peter!”

DISCLAIMER

This publication is general in nature and is not intended to constitute any professional advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial or investment products. You should seek separate professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. Please also note our disclosure here

Came for the gains, stayed for the brains

Image by Hal Gatewood

There has been a lot of talk recently about bitcoin and energy usage.

The ESG narrative and how crypto mining is so bad for the environment. We even have the energy policy makers in the EU looking to ban POW crypto mining (let’s leave their last success stories out of this conversation for now … LOL).

What are the odds they are accumulating BTC themselves?

As a reminder let’s see how much energy BTC mining is used globally. Here is a link to an article that covers the results from The Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) Q3 2021 study.

It’s easy to get caught up in the 2 liners, on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, on why mining is supposedly so bad for the environment, but here is a lengthy conversations about the intricacies of energy and the role bitcoin is currently playing in actually solving some of our global energy problems.

Bitcoin Energy Markets with Shaun Connell

In summary, according to the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC), Bitcoin mining used 0.38% of the worldwide 50,000TW/h energy that is wasted due to inefficiencies. The Bitcoin and crypto mining industry is actually trying to solve problems and are in fact part of the solution. Many of us started in this space to fix a financial problem (gains being a small component of this), we have staying for far greater causes (the brains are here).

DISCLAIMER

This publication is general in nature and is not intended to constitute any professional advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial or investment products. You should seek separate professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. Please also note our disclosure here

The Bitcoin Gambit

**Update: If the YouTube videos don’t load please search on Rumble.

Firstly, apologies for the delay in getting of out our newsletter and blogs this quarter. We were waiting for the 2022 Bitcoin Conference before publishing. We wanted to highlight the best and most significant keynotes given during the conference.

Our number 1, really explains the power of the bitcoin network and why it is significant, number 2 is all about the asset, how to protect yourself from the fiat fraud and finally number 3 - the ESG narrative and shaping the future.

Number 1 - Jack Maller’s Announcement and the King’s Gambit

Many people that get into crypto and bitcoin will always talk about price. What they are actually talking about is the asset (the incredible store of value proposition) . Bitcoin is more than that, it is a new financial network that enables customers and merchant without middlemen.

Jack’s “Kings Gambit” keynote is the best I have ever seen on this topic!

Rumble video if below doesn’t work here

Bitcoin 2022 Conference - Jack Mallers

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Number 2 - Cult of the Central Bank: A Fiat Religion

If you don’t know what financial repression is then this is a great talk to understand how governments confiscate the wealth of their citizens in the form of inflation. He highlights how in 8 years he went from a $2000 salary to $20.

Our journey in the west is only starting, it’s time you understand hyperinflation and fast. It’s also worth noting his thoughts on CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) - they are the same flavour as fiat, so they will have the same properties… they will be debased and used against you.

Let’s just hope that some lesson can be taught and that people don’t have to learn the lessons of hyperinflation the hard way - only time will tell.

Rumble video if below doesn’t work here

Bitcoin 2022 Conference - Ricardo B. Salinas

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Number 3 - bitcoin: Revolutionary Youth Movement

This is is one of the comments from YouTube that perfectly sums up the video “This might go down as one of the speeches that is recognized as vital to this revolution ! That man's voice was cracking because he was afraid he was being compelled to tell the truth ! Going public is handing your company to government indirectly !”

“ESG is the real enemy, it’s a hate factory and when you think ESG, think CCP”

For me, the key take away from this keynote, is that we have have momentum, we have an asset that can protect our wealth and labour, it’s transparent, fair and inclusive. We need to be careful, regulation it’s almost always used as a tool to corrupt a movement and finally, we need to be sceptical of the ESG narrative.

Rumble video if below doesn’t work here

Bitcoin 2022 Conference - Peter Thiel

One point I would make at around the 6:48 mark is that Peter’s slide should be changed. You can remove the ETH logo and replace it with the Bitcoin logo now that we have Lightning.

Updated Slide

Lightning Network has enabled this!

The final piece I will leave you with is a quote form Cathie Wood during the conference. As she says, every single word is important:

“Bitcoin is the first global private (i.e. non government) digital rules based monetary system in the history of the world”

DISCLAIMER

This publication is general in nature and is not intended to constitute any professional advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial or investment products. You should seek separate professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. Please also note our disclosure here

Why are populations in dictatorships building crypto positions?

image by Ali Tawfiq

Would you be surprised if I told you that in the last 30 days we have seen significant growth in the visitor analytics to our site from the following 2 countries:

1. Australia

2. Canada

Now, I wonder why?

Could it be anything to do with: Locking away and preventing the movement of citizens, pushing policies to deliberately divide society, forcing people to take medication to work (or play sport), tracking their movements, threatening to kill their animals, using extraordinary measures against protestors and then freezing assets and bank accounts.

So big shout out to the fringe leaders in these great nations - who clearly missed their history lessons at school. Our "Black Face" Mr T was obviously even naughtier, he must have missed economics 101 (consequences and outcomes of communism) after he so eloquently spoke of his admiration of China’s Communist Party. I’d include you in on this one JA of New Zealand and all the companies like gofundme (your business model is dead).

Please keep up the great work, you are doing your citizens a wonderful service. You are opening up eyes like never before. They are spending the time:

• to read and understand the bill of human rights (google them yourself and have a read),

• to see how the current economy doesn’t actually work for them, how they work for currency that is a confidence game and inflation is actually a big deal.

• to question what freedom of speech really means (thanks Joe R for highlighting this one, and thanks too to MSM for showing us exactly who you play for)

• migrate away from social media platforms that don’t respect privacy and drive cancel culture

• to understand the importance of the right to protest (whether you agree with the protest or not, is not important - defending the right to protest is whats important)

• To understand Bitcoin and Crypto

“These nations do not have sleeping sheep, one by one the lions are being awoken”

Now for those of you are looking to build a position in crypto and don’t know where to start, here is a thread I wrote last week which will help. The story talks about “a guy”, but rest assured it does not matter if you are young or old, male or female, they, them, you are all included:

1/

There are 3 key ways to build a crypto position:

1. Take crypto as payment

2. Use defi yield tools

3. Follow the money

There are stories everywhere about #1 & #2 Nobody likes to hear about #3 To bad, today in this thread 👇, you will see how our guy made a start with #3

2/

Our guy was in his late 50s and had been looking for a way to get into crypto. He had a 5% portion of his speculative cash available to earn a little extra yield - ie the money he was prepared to allocate to highly speculative assets.

3/

The though of opening an exchange account, depositing money, deciding which crypto to buy and then moving all his crypto onto a hardware wallet or diversify risk by using multiple exchanges, was a step too far for him. But he didn't give up ...

4/

Being able to tell his grandchildren, even his son, that he owned some crypto sounded just awesome. What was more, he found a way to leverage the skills of seasoned crypto veterans, by copying their strategy. He could even add to his account monthly (or whenever he wanted).

5/

The product he went with in the end, didn't require him to have to pick an exchange - he didn't even know what that was, until someone explained, it was just a term for "where you buy crypto". - The exchange was registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in UK ✅

6/

So he followed the simple instructions from the PDF he received to open an account and then followed the process to verify his account. Initially he did not worry about depositing money: - He used a simple gift code to fund his account ✅

7/

Our guy had previously been very concerned that he knew nothing about crypto. There were so many of them, which one would he choose. Was there a way to copy the allocations of some industry veterans (like an index)? - There was, he could copy "Rational Active Allocation" ✅

8/

It was at this point, that our guy began smiling (I can see you smiling). There was one last question about diversifying risk that needed addressing. - The platform uses multiple exchanges (requiring multiple signatures from different people/orgs) to protect assets ✅

9/

So with all his concerns dealt with - he decided to purchase the Crypto Starter Kit (*) he had seen advertised. He did this straight from his phone (he could even use apple pay and his finger to checkout). After paying he received an email confirming his purchase with a PDF.

10/

The PDF included in the Crypto Starter Kit (*) had everything he needed to get started on his journey to owning his first crypto. The gift card (2 amounts available) was then generated and emailed to him to load onto his account to copy the "Rational Active Allocation" strategy.

11/

If you want to start a position just like our guy in the story, check out RAAINDEX here.

(*) We no longer offer this product, find out more here

Lastly, I dedicate this blog to all the dictators out there, the cover image of this blog has a bicycle - I suggest you get on it!

DISCLAIMER

This publication is general in nature and is not intended to constitute any professional advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial or investment products. You should seek separate professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. Please also note our disclosure here

How do I save each month - I have nothing left at month end?

There are many people that have started to question the main stream narrative and the “great resignation” is clearly a function of this. At some point the topic of savings / investments for the future will come along and the obvious next question is : How do I save/invest when I have nothing left at the end of the month?

Don’t worry, I often hear this question, and I hear it more than you think. Without going into all the detail in this blog, there is a book or audio book that I would highly recommend that you read or listen to. This will put you on a path to financial freedom and answer the question above.

In its simplest form:

“Pay yourself first”

For more on this, I’d highly recommend The Richest Man In Babylon By George - S. Clason (AudioBook)

DISCLAIMER

This publication is general in nature and is not intended to constitute any professional advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial or investment products. You should seek separate professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. Please also note our disclosure here

Market Cap vs TVL Analysis (data as at 17 Dec)

image by Zoltan Tasi

Our 16 selected DeFi projects “Mcap/TVL ratio” average is down at 0.15 from last month 0.28 (i.e. $0.15 market cap for every $1 (TVL) value locked. The Mcap/TVL ratio (using fully diluted Mcap) is also down from 0.65 in Nov to 0.37 as at 17th Dec 2021. I have included a new diagram to reflect this data over time below.

Currently, at these Mcap/TVL ratios (Mcap & fully diluted Mcap), there has never been a better time to accumulate defi projects since this data set started in Feb 2021 - remember to DYOR!

The following 3 projects have below average ratios (ie the best three projects) at 17th Dec and we’ve included the data from Nov as reference: $LDO, $BAL and $CRV. 

$CVX, $MAKER, $AAVE and $COMP are all worthy mentions, with historically low MCap/TVL ratios.

Projects less than the average have usually performed better than their peers - DYOR

Data as at 17th Dec 2021

From a market cap. perspective, $UNI is still out ahead, with $CRV making a challenge in difficult market conditions. Of interest here is the only project with an increase in Mcap was $CVX - 14.43% increase from November 2021.

Market Cap - observations (UNI & CRV)

The TVL chart (as at 17th Dec) shows the continued strength of $CRV, $MKR $CVX and $AAVE, however it is definitely worth pointing out the growth in TVL of following 3 projects $MKR (+95.6%), $UNI (+56.3%) and $CVX (14.8%) since early November 2021.

TVL Chart - observations (MKR & UNI)

DISCLAIMER

This publication is general in nature and is not intended to constitute any professional advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial or investment products. You should seek separate professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. Please also note our disclosure here

Financial Goals - How do we set them? (3/3)

image by Chiara Bonetto

With the what and why done, the next step is the how do we set financial goals.

If you haven’t read part 1 & 2 of this blog series, see links below:

• Financial Goals - What are they? (1/3) and

• Financial Goals - Why set them? (2/3).

Okay, so how exactly do we set financial goals, these 6 handy steps will help:

Prioritise

Figure out what your priorities are and write them down. PS paper works best and do it away from your phone and PC. I like to start with the long term goals first (think 10-15 years), I then look to break these down into 2-5 year goals. After that these 2-5 year goals are broken down to <2 year goals.

Once you have this list of short term goals, define at least 3 task to complete for each goal (<2 years) and make sure you complete 1 task for each within one month.

Categorise

Categorise your goals into short, mid and long-term goals. Also consider using a high, medium or low priority or 1/2/3, with 1 being the most important. Just remember to keep it simple.

S.M.A.R.T

Apply a SMART goal strategy. In other words, ensure they are specific, measurable, agreed, realistic, and time bound - see part 1 of this blog series for more on SMART (here if you missed it).

Budget

Create a realistic budget. Understanding what’s coming in and what’s going out, then work it to address your goals. Use your budget to plug leaks in your personal finances.

Automate

This is a key step to achieving your goals, make sure that you allocated to your goals automatically. Directed payments into a separate account/s (such as saving or investment account) or (debt or mortgage payments) via standing order or direct debits to address the first priorities in your list of goals.

Monitor

Review your progress regularly to ensure you are hitting your milestones and benchmarks. If you don’t hit your targets, take some time to re-evaluate what went wrong and how to improve.

In summary, defining your goals drives you to take action so your chances of achieving them increases. Once you’ve charted your course to achieve them, you set yourself in motion toward a successful outcome.

For the observant out there, you will have noticed the subtle change in blog image from the first part to the last part in this blog series. This is how I like to think of goals. When you start, you only know so much about the journey (i.e. what you see and know to be true will change). The further you go, the more you learn and the closer you get to your ultimate goal (in the 2nd image you will have to navigate around the boat ahead, you did not know this when you started - image 1). In addition to this, if you need to get to a certain destination, just starting will get you there much sooner (over planning and over thinking keeps you from starting). Once you are out at sea, you can correct course. Do you really want to be the one that never leaves the harbour? Just like in the 3rd image - once out at sea, the destination will become clearer and you will see all the obstacles … Just START!

This blog series is dedicated to “das fibonator” 

DISCLAIMER:

This publication is general in nature and is not intended to constitute any professional advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial or investment products. You should seek separate professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. Please also note our disclosure here

Financial Goals - Why set them? (2/3)

image by Chiara Bonetto

We hope you enjoyed our first blog on financial goals, if you missed it, here is a link to Financial Goals - What are they? (1/3)

“A dream without a plan is just a wish”

With the what ticked off, let’s dive into the why. Being successful with money, having financial stability and security for your family is extremely difficult to achieve if you do not set financial goals. Deciding how you are going to arrange your finances to achieve the life you want for your family and yourself, requires you to align your actions with your goals and financial objectives.

Here are 5 key reasons to set financial goals and how they’ll help you achieve the success you’ve planned:

Gives you direction

Defining financial goals helps you define what you are trying to achieve and what success looks like. Your unique goals allow you to set course for the end goal, allowing you to make key changes to your and your families circumstances along the way.

Gives you a plan of action

After you have defined your goals and have direction, it’s a lot easier to create a realistic plan to achieve them.

So for example, you have a long term goal of paying down your mortgage in 10 years. Start by breaking this down into smaller targets along the way. You could set a yearly target of paying down an additional 10% per year. This can also be broken down further into a monthly target. These smaller goals and milestones will help guide your financial decisions. So if it’s increasing your family income or cutting back on unnecessary expenses, these goals and milestones help you determine the methods that would best support your efforts in reaching them.

Gives you focus

Simply having goals helps you to keep your mind on the prize. Many don’t set goals because they fear failure, but failure is a necessary step to success and offers important lessons. Overcoming difficulties on your journey provides the focus and motivation to keep moving forward and keeps you on track.

Allows you to track progress

With a clear destination defined, it’s much simpler to keep track of all the milestones you should be achieving along the way. Being able to show this progress also gives you motivation to keep moving ahead. In addition to this, highlighting where you have missed targets will give the opportunity to make changes, reprioritise or devise an alternate plan or strategy.

Provides accountability and increases chances of success

Accountability leads to responsibility, it’s up to you to achieve them. Owning your financial goals will in the long term contribute to them being achieved. Make sure you record your goals and regularly revisit them, it also helps to keep them prioritised. Ask someone in your family to checkin with you regularly to discuss your defined goals - this will drive accountability even more. 

The long and short of it is this, setting financial goals provides the clarity needed to build the kind of life you want for you and your family. If you don’t define the outcomes you want, your journey towards financial freedom (if that’s your ultimate goal) will be significantly more difficult. 

The goal of this blog was to cover off the why of financial goals. Look out over the next few weeks for the final blog in this 3 part blog series where we cover the how to set financial goals. 

This blog series is dedicated to “das fibonator” 

DISCLAIMER:

This publication is general in nature and is not intended to constitute any professional advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial or investment products. You should seek separate professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. Please also note our disclosure here

Financial Goals - What are they? (1/3)

image by chiara bonetto

Christmas is just around the corner, before you know it, we will be in the new year!

At the beginning of the each year, most people are asked by their employers to work on their personal goals and objectives to ensure that they are aligned with the corporate goals and objectives.

Just like corporations, you should ensure that you to have set your own goals and objectives. I will focus on financial goals, but you should also regularly look to create and review family, health, career and other personal goals. 

Paying off debt, starting a dollar cost average (DCA) savings plan (see DCA blog here) or even just putting something aside for that special holiday, a few infinity fiat currency units today (dollar, pounds, euros) can add up to a lot of scarce money (gold, silver, bitcoin) down the road. 

If you do not know where you are headed, where do you start walking towards?

So to ensure you end up where you want to be - you will need to set specific financial goals.

What are financial goals?

They are the specific goals and objectives created by you when it comes to your personal finance. They are therefore unique to your personal and family situation, with defined targets for you and your family to achieve over the short, medium or long term.

Examples of financial goals include:

• Saving $30k for a new car within 2 years

• Having 6-month of emergency funding within 18 months

• Earning an additional £1000 per month for a year

• Paying off your mortgage 10 years early

• Become financially free within the next 5 years

One thing you will notice is that the above financial goals are all SMART goals. The SMART acronym stands for:

• Specific - This means that objectives must be clear, for example it must state that an individual needs to make more money, reduce waste, reduce environmental impact, increase sales etc.

• Measurable - an individual must be able to measure whether they have met an objective. ie needs to specify an amount. For example, an individual may want a £10,000 increase or a 25% decrease.

• Agreed - its important that all family members are aware of and agree with the family financial goals, this will give objectives a much better chance of succeeding.

• Realistic - Objectives must be realistic. For example, earning and extra $10000 a month to start with on a basic of $1000 a month salary isn’t realistic, maybe starting with an extra $200 is more realistic, and you can build up to the $10000.

• Time-bound - Objectives must have a time limit, for example 6 months or 1 year.

The goal of this blog was to introduce a few examples of what financial goals look like and secondly to introduce the SMART framework for defining goals. Look out over the next few weeks when we cover part 2, why financials goals are so important to set and finally part 3 - how best to set financial goals. 

This blog is dedicated to “das fibonator” 

DISCLAIMER:

This publication is general in nature and is not intended to constitute any professional advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial or investment products. You should seek separate professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. Please also note our disclosure here