Once upon a time in America, owning your own home was the holy grail of the American Dream. Houses were expensive, sure, but with a steady job and a fixed-rate loan from the bank, you could plan for your future and expect to have a place to be in your retirement, even if you had to cut back financially in other ways.
That was before the hollowing out of the US job market made it increasingly difficult to get and keep a good paying job, or banks began marketing ‘refinancing’ so people could live off ‘excess equity’ in their homes, or that banks started selling subprime mortgages to allow people to buy more houses than they should have been able to afford, sustainable as long as interest rates didn’t rise!
And then the subprime market crashed and undermined the entire economy, an event from which not only has the world not yet recovered, but another crash appears to be on its way. It’s no wonder that, according to some reports, 64% of Americans no longer think owning their own home is a good investment. There has been some recovery in the housing market, but at least some of that movement has come from wealthy people buying properties they intend to rent: the Rich Dad Poor Dad strategy of buying properties to rent is no longer a path to move up, but just another way for those who are already rich to keep accumulating a lot of money.
On this July 4th weekend, at least one person no longer has to worry about their house due to an early and smart investment in Bitcoin. The new owner reports on Reddit:
2 years ago, for the price of 1 monthly payment on my 30-year mortgage, I took a bitcoin gamble and bought 300 bitcoins from a friend. I paid off my mortgage yesterday and have taken the whole family out to celebrate the 4th. I just wanted to say thank you to the Bitcoin community. It’s amazing to feel debt free this Independence Day.
PS: I still have many more coins that I managed to collect over the last few years.
Happy Independence Day fellow Bitcoiners…
Edit: Instead of paying the bank every month for the next two decades, I’m going to put it back into buying more bitcoins. It feels so much better than paying the bank.
This person took a chance on Bitcoin when it was even more unknown and underdeveloped than it is now, paying just $6 per bitcoin, and now he’s reaping the rewards.
Is this a possibility for the many people who are currently struggling with housing and other financial problems? Probably not. However, it may be for some. Despite a series of high-profile scandals, Bitcoin is still seeing a surge in adoption judging by the number of wallets out there, more and more companies are putting up “Bitcoin Accepted Here” signs, venture capitalists continue to invest every With increasing amounts of money going into Bitcoin startups, banks are beginning to investigate Bitcoin more seriously, both as a threat and a potential tool, and even China and Russia are moving away from hawkish stances.
The Bitcoin trend is positive, so it is very likely that people who invest now will make big profits. The only reason I’m saying that most people won’t benefit from this is that most people won’t take any chances. It is important to note that nothing is certain here – investing more in Bitcoin than you are willing to lose is never a good idea. That being said, for some bitcoiners, like the redditor above, Bitcoin could save the American Dream.
