By now you've probably heard about bitcoin and its road to instant riches. The cryptocurrency has risen from practically nothing a couple of years ago to over $9000 per coin today. Its value has increased nearly 900% this year alone. I won't go into detail about what bitcoin is or how it was invented by one man out of practically thin air. You can read about its origins here. Needless to say I'm kind of an old fart and have not jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon which is probably just as well as that train left the station months ago. I'm perfectly satisfied with the unfashionable way of wealth accumulation such as real estate and stocks.
But that doesn't mean that plenty of other people aren't willing to jump on for that heady ride. Today in the nurses' break room, I saw plenty of envious eyes as one young tech savvy nurse held court. He was extolling the virtues of his bitcoin investment made a few months ago when it was less than $2000. He was throwing out terms like Mt. Gox and ethereum as the other nurses hung on his every word. He was already talking about cashing out and retiring on his newfound bitcoin wealth.
I could see the sad resignation in the other nurses as they realized they had missed the investment of a lifetime. They all talked dreamily about how wonderful it would be if they could retire right now. How smart that young nurse was to invest in something that could allow him to stop working at such a tender age. Soon somebody piped up and said, "It's not too late!" Sure it is currently about $10,000. But who's to say that it won't double again in the next few months.
As their breaks finished, they headed back to work, shoulders slumped, as they had to face the reality that they missed their chance at stupendous bitcoin riches. They'll just have to retire the old fashioned way, with hard work and diligent savings. As the religious writer Nathan Whitley says, "The pain of regret is far worse than the pain of discipline."
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