Mid crypto crisis

This blog is by Carly Barnes, Relationship Manager at EasyEquities & Deputy Chairperson of CN&CO. And all round rockstar human.

It’s my birthday this month.

Maybe some of you still celebrate with cake and/ or Tequilla. Let’s face it I probably will too.

And while my soon to be 36-year-old self has started getting excited by eye cream that costs more than my rent; I think I’m in less crisis about getting close to that number that begins with a 4 than I thought I’d be. What I am seriously struggling with, as I look for ways to maximize returns in my portfolio, is Crypto and whether I should have more or any exposure to it. The Gen Z’s are dying to have a go at me right now, I can feel it.

Hear me out.

When I first started investing and was discovering how to best select the shares or ETFs I wanted in my portfolio, I got a lot of guidance from some classic investor heavyweights like Warren Buffett. One thing he stood by was choosing companies to invest in that you, at the very least, understood. You know how they make their money; you understand the product or service they offer and how it stands out against competitors. You might have a sense, based on general trends, as to what kind of demand there is and will be for that product or service in the market.

That gave me a lot of comfort and the confidence that I could in fact, understand enough to make an informed decision without dissecting detailed financial results with an online thesaurus and Investopedia.com open in the tabs alongside it.

Enter Crypto. An invisible currency that is managed by no one but regular people like you and me. I’ve watched countless YouTube videos, read articles, chatted to the smart and the streetwise, and I still don’t 100% get how that works.

On the flipside of that, Crypto has had some mind-blowing moments in the last 10 years, both good and bad. I get, based on the general performance of this new asset class, that there’s merit in owning some in your portfolio. So I do. About 3% invested in the EC10, which is a bit like an ETF that tracks the top 10 performing cryptocurrencies. This more diversified, lower risk option helps me sleep at night and is the Captain of the Football Team in my portfolio – for now.

I’m not totally converted. But I also can’t get into Drake, or baggy jeans that don’t go all the way down to my ankles, or make up contouring, or Tik Tok. And I’ll be damned if I end up saying things like: “What? A taxi that you can order from your phone that picks you up from wherever you are? What rubbish.”

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