A Bitcoin blunder built my bathroom – Melani Nathan’s Money Matters!

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Bitcoin built my bathroom. Alright, a local builder did but my Bitcoin earnings financed it. A few months before the renovations we were expecting our first baby and buying our first home. Suddenly our money needed to grow… and quickly.

Melani Nathan
Money Matters! BizNews journalist Melani Nathan takes you on a journey of money blunders and welcome discoveries. Got a money story to share? Write to her at [email protected]

We had been saving for baby for a while and had put our money into a rather traditional unit trust. Then we started reading about Bitcoin and digital currency. Its value was soaring, but I struggled with the concept. I felt like a child trying to understand what or who gave pieces of paper and metal such value.

How does blockchain give digital ones and zeros value? At the time Bitcoin was all the rage in magazines and on TV. I met a very wealthy man who was energetic and passionate about Bitcoin. He urged me to get in while I could still afford it. I decided to dive right in, even though I had no clue. The clincher was that he seemed to have more wealth than anyone I had ever met.

After some research, I chose a platform, opened a wallet, and sent our money into the binary code abyss. At first, we obsessed over our digital dosh, checking on it multiple times a day. After a few weeks I realised that watching our money was like watching the pasta pot… boring, stressful and futile.

I uninstalled the trading app. And focused on packing up our rented home.

When we had moved into our new house, I was sickened by the bathroom. I could not live with the pink tiles and mustard yellow flowers. The bath was literally a pain in the butt; you had to sit on the plug to use the hand-held shower. It had to go.

Read also: The comeback currency: Bitcoin on radar again as Covid revolutionises economy

To top it all, Bitcoin was in the headlines again, for all the wrong reasons… Men in dark glasses and hoodies were sounding concerned as they discussed the dramatic decline of various virtual currencies. My stomach was in knots. My clueless gamble was going to cost me dearly. I had let my emotions get me into this mess. I had heard it countless times: “Don’t trade on your feelings.”

I lay awake at night watching Bitcoin dwindle, afraid to let my fear drive me into another financial blunder. Eventually exhaustion forced me to rid myself of Bitcoin. I bit the bullet (pardon the pun) and sold every last byte.

I got an email to confirm my hurried transaction at 2am. My gut untwisted itself and my conscience let me off the hook. I was too afraid to read how much money I had lost and sheepishly asked my husband to look. “We get rid of the pink peonies,” he announced. For a moment, I was confused. “We have peonies?” I could not believe he was teasing me about my biggest ever money mistake. Then it dawned on me… Those awful tiles in the bathroom were covered in peonies!

Now, every time I walk into our bathroom, I’m reminded of my Bitcoin blunder. I am reminded that risks sometimes hold rewards and that emotions can indeed save your investment bacon. I learned the hard way, that I should never put money into something I don’t understand. As Bitcoin surges in value, I’m not tempted to buy again. It still makes me nervous when I see the logo of my ex-trading platform.

  • Melani Nathan is a journalist at BizNews.com. Got a Bitcoin story, or another money tale, to share? Write to [email protected]

Read also: The pros and cons of Bitcoin trading

Melani’s Bitcoin bathroom: Before the transformation.

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