Neverland or Nomadland for older crypto investors?
There’s no end to it, question after question. Just because I know a little bit about crypto and write a weekly column about it, suddenly I’m an expert to the women and men on the street.
What should I buy? When should I buy? How much can I make? What will the price be in five years? And increasingly it is older people who are asking me these questions… as well as the teenage mates of my son.
Naturally, these questions rise ascendant when the market is going to the moon or whatever, but what it really comes down to is the magic internet money tree and how skint people are. Humans love easy money because it’s generally so hard to make.
We all know a huge storm is brewing as furlough ends and the Greatest Depression looms, where the printing of money is a long-term Ponzi scheme that has lasted for centuries. Everybody knows what’s going on, but nobody knows what is going to happen.
Across the Atlantic, President Biden is trying to bring in a New Deal to save America and the film Nomadland wins Oscars because it portrays elderly American people on the move as modern-day frontierspeople who seem to have created an Arcadian community.
Well, if you read the book, great journalism by the way, the one thing the book focuses on and the film steers away from are the conditions for older people when working temporarily at Amazon, how easy it is to break bones doing manual labour… and not be supported in any way by your employer.
This isn’t mentioned in the film, more the opposite stance that Amazon is a shining beacon of decency that offers an opportunity to non-digital elderly nomads. Everybody knows what’s going on, but nobody knows what is going to happen.
Opportunities running out
No surprises then that those who are growing old are looking at ways of surviving and with employment opportunities running out for the over-50s, interest rates at pathetic levels and likely Covid survival, it’s no surprise that crypto investment and seemingly invincible profits look attractive to the aged and wise among us.
This, however, is dangerous thinking. Financial management is difficult for anybody, not least those who are older and not as rich as they thought they might be. Scammers lurk behind every burning bush.
As for an alternative life on the road in the UK, there isn’t enough space or long enough roads for any type of land for nomads here. The Thames Valley Police stopped all that with the Battle of the Beanfield all those years ago… and there’s never been much love for Old Age Travellers, let alone New Age or Old Age ones.
So, there’s no escape from potential poverty or any freedom if you’re unlucky enough to be ageing without benefits. No wonder that such a dismal prospect could be countered by crypto profits is attractive.
Reality has to be faced
Jesus, this is a depressing column, sorry, but sometimes reality has to be faced and the signs have to be addressed. Everybody knows what’s going on, but nobody knows what is going to happen.
So, my advice to older people who want to put money into crypto is to step lightly, read and watch, listen and learn. Don’t ask people like me all the time because I do NOT offer financial advice and I don’t want to be responsible for anybody losing any hard-earnt money.
But the questions keep coming and they won’t stop. For those who know this world, it would beg the question that such questions from the elderly might mean it’s time to sell and cash out some crypto.
Others would say that the older generation buying in might push up prices, but, you guessed it… everybody knows what’s going on, but nobody knows what is going to happen.
Monty Munford is a tech journalist and the Chief Evangelist and core contributor to the Sienna Network project. He also runs his own crypto podcast https://blockspeak.io
He WAS a keynote speaker/emcee/moderator/interviewer at prestigious events around the world until Covid destroyed his conference speaking career… until 2023. He has spoken at more than 200 global events.
He was previously a weekly tech columnist for Forbes in New York, the Telegraph in the UK and continues to write regularly for the BBC, The Economist, The FT and… City PM.