Dear Reader, |
Apologies, my wife snuck up behind me. I panicked and I sent out my least email with the wrong links. |
"Glenn Robert Short, what the hell is this?" |
Margaret was standing in the kitchen doorway, holding our bank statement. And she had that look. The one I've learned to fear in 42 years of marriage. |
I knew exactly what "this" was. |
The $2,500 transfer to Coinbase. The one I'd been hoping she wouldn't notice for at least another month. |
"Well," I said, trying to sound casual while my coffee suddenly tasted like sawdust, "I can explain." |
"You better." |
Here's the thing. Margaret and I made an agreement three years ago. After I lost money on some penny stock tips from my brother-in-law, we decided: no more speculative investments without discussing it first. |
And buying Bitcoin definitely qualified as speculative. |
"You promised," she said, sitting down across from me at the kitchen table. "We agreed. No more gambling with our money." |
She was right. I had promised. And I'd broken that promise. |
"This isn't gambling," I said weakly. |
"Really? Bitcoin isn't gambling? Glenn, you called it 'digital tulips' for five years!" |
Also true. |
I tried explaining about Trump's policies, about corporate treasuries, about mathematical scarcity. But the more I talked, the more it sounded like I was making excuses for being an idiot. |
Which maybe I was. |
"So you spent $2,500 on internet money because some podcast told you to?" she said. |
"It wasn't a podcast. It was research. And my nephew. And—" |
"Your nephew? Glenn, he's 28 years old and plays video games for a living!" |
This was not going well. |
Then I remembered something. I walked over to my desk and came back with Bryce Paul's book. The one that had arrived yesterday. |
"Look," I said, setting it down between us. "Before you decide I've completely lost my mind, just let me show you something." |
Margaret looked at the book suspiciously. "Crypto Revolution? Glenn..." |
"Five minutes," I said. "Just give me five minutes to show you what I learned." |
She sighed. But she didn't get up and leave. Which in 42 years of marriage, I've learned counts as victory. |
I opened to the chapter about Bitcoin as digital property. Started reading her the part about scarcity, about how there will only ever be 21 million coins. |
"It's like owning a piece of digital Manhattan," I explained. "They're not making any more of it." |
"But it's not real," she said. |
"Neither is most of our money anymore. When's the last time you saw actual gold backing a dollar?" |
That got her attention. Margaret lived through the inflation of the 1970s. She remembers what it felt like to watch prices double while her savings stayed the same. |
I showed her the section about corporate adoption. Tesla, MicroStrategy, even some pension funds buying Bitcoin as treasury assets. |
"These aren't tech companies gambling," I said. "These are serious businesses protecting shareholder value." |
We spent the next hour going through the book together. The part about government money printing. The chapter on why Bitcoin can't be hacked or shut down. The section about position sizing and risk management. |
Margaret asked good questions. Why Bitcoin instead of gold? How do you actually store it safely? What happens if the government tries to ban it? |
The book had answers for all of them. |
"This Paul guy," she said, flipping through the chapters. "He's not some internet huckster?" |
"He's interviewed CEOs of major crypto companies. Been doing this for years. Built a following by giving practical advice, not promising people they'll get rich quick." |
She read the section about only investing what you can afford to lose. About treating it as insurance against monetary chaos, not a get-rich-quick scheme. |
"You only put in $2,500?" she asked. |
"That's it. Money we won't miss if it goes to zero." |
She was quiet for a long time, reading about Trump's policies and American leadership in financial innovation. |
Finally, she looked up at me. |
"Well," she said, "what do we do now? Should we buy more?" |
I nearly choked on my coffee. |
"You want to buy more?" |
"I didn't say that. I asked what we should do. There's a difference." |
She was right. Again. |
"According to Paul's book, we should learn more first. Understand what we're buying before we buy more of it. Maybe dollar-cost average in small amounts over time instead of making big bets." |
Margaret nodded. "That sounds more like the Glenn I married." |
She kept the book. |
Been reading it every evening for the past three days. Yesterday she asked me to explain what Ethereum does. This morning she wanted to know about something called "smart contracts." |
I'm not sure where this is headed. But I do know one thing: having your spouse on board makes everything easier. |
Even crypto investing. |
Stay sharp, |
Glenn Short |
P.S. Margaret asked me to tell you that if you're married, show your spouse the book before you buy crypto. "Trust me," she said, "it'll save you a lot of grief." She's probably right about that too. |
P.P.S. If you don't have a copy yet, you can get one for $3 here. Apparently it's good for both crypto education and marriage counseling. |
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