Latest / The Curve / TCW94: Bitcoin’s $90K Surge and Buffett’s $300B secret.
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to the Curve Weekly, the podcast that keeps you up to date with all of the money
- 0:04business and stock market too.
- 0:06Brought to you by the Curve's research team, it's the latest insights on what's happening
- 0:09in the stock market, companies, other money-related news so that you can stay educated and
- 0:14ahead of the curve.
- 0:15You can thank us later for sounding smarter than those finance bros you think it's in our
- 0:18party.
- 0:19So Vic, okay, I don't know if anyone else did this at school.
- 0:23At our school, there was this, it was like a time capsule thing where you wrote a
- 0:29letter to your future self and Vic and I were just getting coffee before the record.
- 0:33She was like, I got my 10-year, sorry, I got my 10-year capsule and I was like, but you're
- 0:43at school like 20 years ago.
- 0:45I was like, oh my gosh, I'll say a lot hasn't changed, to be honest.
- 0:50Can you read some of it, please?
- 0:54It's so funny, just the stuff that you thought was important back then and like.
- 0:59Yeah, it starts off it goes, I'm writing this letter in the study at 6.40pm on November
- 1:05the 12th, 2006, but it's literally 18 years ago, November, I know, I've just watched
- 1:14the news.
- 1:15Of course you had, which at the moment is about debating whether to build a new stadium
- 1:20where to raise the drinking age to 20 or well, World War Three in the Middle East is
- 1:24going on.
- 1:25In fact, that you're writing a time capsule and you list the current events.
- 1:31If you compared that to mine, that is so funny.
- 1:33I feel like they must have told us to or something.
- 1:35No way.
- 1:36And then it's like, goes on, being like, I'm sitting two scholarship exams, did I get them,
- 1:40did I go to Christchurch for university, and then it goes, whatever I choose, I hope
- 1:46it was a good one.
- 1:48And then it goes, am I successful?
- 1:51Did I achieve my 10 year dream, which was do a degree work at PWC in live in New York?
- 1:57I mean, you did two of the three.
- 2:00If I'm not anywhere near that dream, hopefully I'm happy, no matter what I've accomplished.
- 2:05I was like, oh my god, little, little, the best part, love life.
- 2:10What do you mean, did you just write love life, love life dot dot?
- 2:14At this time of my life, I haven't had a boyfriend for a year.
- 2:19So cute.
- 2:23And then it goes, I'm pretty lonely at the moment and have been effed over by so many
- 2:27guys.
- 2:28Has that changed?
- 2:29Oh.
- 2:30I know.
- 2:31I just want to be like, don't sweat it.
- 2:32You'll be fine.
- 2:33Oh.
- 2:34You'll get me a big hug.
- 2:35And then it goes, favourite song, promiscuous girl, by Ellie Fatardo.
- 2:38What a banger.
- 2:39Mary J. Blige.
- 2:40Wow.
- 2:41There's some bangers.
- 2:42All you may take away is the fact that I've been out of school for nearly 20 years.
- 2:46Yes.
- 2:47That's kind of, that's quite the most loving part.
- 2:49I think it was like, are you happy with what you've accomplished?
- 2:53I never would have thought I'd be doing this, but I am very happy with what I've accomplished.
- 2:57Yeah.
- 2:58Yeah.
- 2:59So, I think of any of us spoke to our 18-year-old selves, you would be so proud of everything
- 3:06that you'd done.
- 3:07Yeah.
- 3:08It also makes me think, like, next time I write something, talk about your feelings, not
- 3:11like what's in the news.
- 3:13But isn't there just so on-brand for you?
- 3:15Like the fact that my, if we read mine, it's probably like, I'm grown.
- 3:19I'm in a study, and I...
- 3:21But it's a good reflection of like, what, if I was to do that now and read it when I was
- 3:2856.
- 3:29We should do that.
- 3:30We should do that.
- 3:31And we should write down investments.
- 3:32Okay.
- 3:33Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 3:34Now, we're going to talk about crypto, because this is one of those things that probably,
- 3:39if we were 18, we would be telling ourselves to put a lot of money in.
- 3:42Definitely.
- 3:43Just to finish on that thought.
- 3:44Yeah.
- 3:45How quickly those 18 years have gone.
- 3:47You know, when we always say like, investments should be five years or more, that seems like
- 3:51a long time, but oh, my goodness, it's so not.
- 3:55I think the days and the weeks can sometimes feel like they go slow, or like the months,
- 4:01but if you zoom out, out, out, school feels like not that long ago.
- 4:05Like a lot has happened since then.
- 4:08It's, yeah, I know what you mean.
- 4:10I know you hate it when I say it, but like, I honestly think, well, but I cannot be,
- 4:13obviously.
- 4:14Oh, God, God, God, God, Lord, do you know what I'd like to do?
- 4:18I think we should try and get AI and look at ourselves when we're 80, because a lot of
- 4:22the stats say when it comes to investing, imagining yourself in like 10 years or paying
- 4:29yourself in 10 years.
- 4:30So for example, like giving $10,000 to someone, you know, in the future, it's almost comparable
- 4:35to like a stranger.
- 4:36That's how hard it is to connect the idea of future you or whatever.
- 4:40That's actually a really good psychological thing.
- 4:43You just have it on your screen, Saber.
- 4:45An old person.
- 4:46Yeah.
- 4:47Yeah.
- 4:48Wow.
- 4:49You put it on your, oh my God, make your like visa or a mastercard, you do a card, a photo
- 4:53of old you.
- 4:54Are you joking?
- 4:55But then you don't spend.
- 4:56Do you mean old you as in you in 80 years?
- 4:57Yes.
- 4:58And like, every time you go to pay, you're like, oh, I mean, let's try it.
- 5:01Yeah.
- 5:02I'm always here for an experiment.
- 5:03I feel like it's probably going to make me want to go get a photo of yourself.
- 5:09Life is so short.
- 5:11And I, it is so easy to get caught up in the small stuff, you know, you feeling lonely
- 5:16at 18 or the things that you were worried about, it's everything so fleeting.
- 5:21We had someone in the community in the investing club say, you know, ask the club, what advice?
- 5:26What advice.
- 5:27I loved that.
- 5:28What advice would you give your 20 year old self because she's 24 and she's just like
- 5:33she'd love to know from older people in the club.
- 5:35And I was like, for me, I think it's spending money when you're that age is so unimportant.
- 5:44You know, you think it's so important and you think, oh, but I have to go to this dinner
- 5:47or I have to go on this holiday, but in the scheme of things, it's like those people
- 5:51are still going to be friends with you.
- 5:53You're still going to be able to experience life, but you don't have to say yes to everything
- 5:57or feel, feel like you can't say no to things.
- 6:00But for me, there's like stuff I spent money on at that age, which felt so important.
- 6:05I make a wish I just invested that.
- 6:08Well, I think the feeling of community and being a part of something and belonging is the
- 6:14number one thing.
- 6:15I mean, even you writing about feeling lonely at 18, like we all are such a natural human
- 6:20emotion to feel.
- 6:21And I remember that podcast we did with Dr. Rebecca Ray.
- 6:25She was raising the curve of 99 self sabotage people pleasing and sitting boundaries with
- 6:29Dr. Rebecca Ray.
- 6:30And she spoke a lot about that feeling, the innate feeling that you need of connection
- 6:35and being amount like amongst people.
- 6:38And yeah, I think that was a really good episode for me to think about the idea of saying
- 6:42no to things, putting boundaries in place.
- 6:45Anyway, the reason we were going to talk about Bitcoin is because it has been app solutely
- 6:51on a tier.
- 6:52So I remember when we were speaking about Bitcoin and we were talking about it, it's like
- 6:56peak.
- 6:57And it was when one Bitcoin was worth 65,000.
- 7:00Yeah.
- 7:01And now it's more than that.
- 7:02It's like, I mean, recording this, it's nearly at 90, but I feel like it's a gone up
- 7:06to 19 hours.
- 7:07I feel like by the time this comes out, it probably might be even like a hundred.
- 7:10Okay.
- 7:11Can we talk about this?
- 7:12Because I'm feeling left out.
- 7:13We invested in Bitcoin when was that like we bought it in like March 2023.
- 7:20We sold it all in May 24, but coin had gone off about 40,000 to 65,000 and we were like,
- 7:27let's sell it.
- 7:28We made a couple of thousand.
- 7:29It's pretty good.
- 7:30Yeah.
- 7:31How much would it have been now?
- 7:32It would have been even double that one.
- 7:33It's 30.
- 7:34It's gone up 30%.
- 7:35So we would have we we sold our holding the 5,000, we would have had six and a half.
- 7:43I mean, six and a half, oh, it's really, it's quite interesting.
- 7:50Because when we talk about investing and not just jumping on the bandwagon when things
- 7:53are doing well, I am absolutely need to sit on my hands right now because I want to
- 7:58buy because I still think it's going to keep going up.
- 8:01Like I think there's you need to change your mentality of like when you read a headline
- 8:07of something doing really badly, that's when you need to be like, oh, is it a good time
- 8:11to buy?
- 8:12Yeah, but I know that I want to buy, oh, damn, but the thing is I believe in Bitcoin and
- 8:17I wish I'd bought when it wasn't like me flooding when you when you when that was doing
- 8:22really badly and you were like, oh, okay, I'd still like the company.
- 8:26I think it's got legs, let's buy it.
- 8:29You know, rather than when something's doing well, it's kind of you want to do the opposite
- 8:33of what?
- 8:34It's hard.
- 8:35It's hard.
- 8:36Trust me.
- 8:37Trust me.
- 8:38I want Bitcoin now.
- 8:39How do I stop myself from buying it?
- 8:40Well, you can buy a little bit if you want, but make sure it's in a diversified portfolio.
- 8:44You don't want to put everything in Bitcoin because just how quickly it's gone up.
- 8:47That means there is a lot of risk.
- 8:50The thing is, if you own a shit ton of Bitcoin and it's gone up and it's now worth an absolute
- 8:57truck load, how do you not sell out at this point?
- 9:00Because I'd just be so excited.
- 9:02Yeah.
- 9:03I mean, you could take some profits, take a little bit out, leave a little bit of, yeah.
- 9:06Doesn't have to be so all or nothing.
- 9:08But then what if we are sitting here in a couple of months time, it's gone up another
- 9:1450%.
- 9:15You'd be like, damn it, why did I sell?
- 9:16That's why I think I want to get a little bit now.
- 9:20Also this company that we spoke about in the recycle has done way better than the Bitcoin.
- 9:28Damn, at the time I knew I should have invested in that.
- 9:32Victoria Harris, you are a genius.
- 9:34No, this was put forward by someone in the community.
- 9:37Oh my God.
- 9:38I never heard of this company, Amy.
- 9:39Did you invest in it?
- 9:40No.
- 9:41Damn, I had a nice, we feel better.
- 9:43It's for context.
- 9:44So this is a company called MicroStrategy, which it was basically where we did a deep dive
- 9:48in the Investing Club.
- 9:49They do analytics and insights for companies, but then a huge amount of their assets or
- 9:54the things that they own.
- 9:55I'd Bitcoin.
- 9:56It's like a Bitcoin proxy.
- 9:57So we've Bitcoin as well, it does well, but it has, it's crazy.
- 10:02Like Bitcoin, it's done better than Bitcoin, so this year, Bitcoin's up 100% and that's
- 10:10up 400%.
- 10:11400% who is the genius that put this forward in the club, what else is on your list?
- 10:19Do you need a job?
- 10:20Do you want to go work at the curve?
- 10:22It's pretty hard to hear that kind of thing and not at least put a little bit of fun money
- 10:27into stuff like that.
- 10:28Yes, you want to have your long-term strategy, but I love the idea of having 20% that
- 10:32I just can fluff around with stuff like this and if it does well or if it doesn't, it's
- 10:36not going to super.
- 10:37It's not going to affect me.
- 10:38Anyway, what else is, what do we want to share with Bitcoin?
- 10:40Is there anything else to like talk about there?
- 10:43It's just done fantastically well and it's all due to Trump.
- 10:47So he's, and we've spoken about this, before wanting to make the US kind of the crypto capital
- 10:51of the world, but stocks have also done well.
- 10:54They had their best week in 2024, so the best week this year and this year, the stock
- 10:59market's on track to do its best year since 1995.
- 11:03We had someone in the investing club when we put out the Bitcoin stuff and she was like,
- 11:09Oh, that's massive, funny story.
- 11:11My partner bought about $200 worth of Bitcoin in 2012.
- 11:15He totally forgot he had it until he received an email in 2021.
- 11:21He decided to keep it and it's now worth $61,000.
- 11:24New Zealand dollars.
- 11:25I've got the worst memory ever.
- 11:27Maybe I should do that, just throw money into it.
- 11:29I will fully forget about it, honestly, like I can't remember where I put my phone
- 11:33two seconds ago.
- 11:34Can you imagine?
- 11:35I just have all these accidental investments.
- 11:37That would be quite good.
- 11:39Have you watched the Martha Stewart documentary?
- 11:41No, but I've heard you talk about it.
- 11:43It's weird as it's on Netflix.
- 11:45So I came into the office the other day and I was like, I saw Martha Stewart.
- 11:49This is such a big moment.
- 11:51And he runs like, oh my goodness.
- 11:52I was like, wow, that's a reaction that I kind of didn't expect.
- 11:55And I forgot to say documentary, so no, I didn't see Martha Stewart.
- 11:59I saw the Martha Stewart documentary.
- 12:01I didn't realise she was a stockbroker.
- 12:03She was one of the first female stockbrokers on Wall Street.
- 12:07She built an incredible business, Martha Stewart Living,
- 12:10which listed on the New York Stock Exchange for around $2 billion.
- 12:14So she was worth about $1 billion and 2001.
- 12:19She was like the first actual self-made billionaire.
- 12:23Like she came from nothing.
- 12:24Like her whole cooking and being a housewife and all that came from the fact
- 12:28that they couldn't afford groceries.
- 12:30So they had to be in the garden and get a lot of produce from the garden
- 12:34and cook that way.
- 12:35But it all came crashing down because she got accused of insider trading.
- 12:40Which I had always thought she had been acute,
- 12:43that's what she was put in jail for.
- 12:46But it was actually she lied to a federal agent.
- 12:51Like the conviction wasn't inside a trading if that makes sense.
- 12:54They just kind of wanted to take down a really successful woman.
- 12:58One of the takeaways was just like the juxtaposition of,
- 13:00here was this perfect housewife that was making billions of what she was doing.
- 13:06And the business that she was running was making money how?
- 13:09So it was like TV shows, magazines, it was cooking, it was like living, it was like entertaining.
- 13:15So she had made a lot of money out of almost sensationalizing,
- 13:20you know, everyday woman's tasks in the home.
- 13:23Yeah and then her marriage broke down because her business was booming
- 13:26and there was infidelity.
- 13:28I think there is just that juxtaposition of building such a successful business
- 13:34of something that should not be in that world.
- 13:37Another key takeaway was that you can't have it all.
- 13:41Yuck, I wanna have like why can't I?
- 13:43Like I think she put a lot of pressure on herself to be quite, quite perfect.
- 13:47Then people seeing that she wasn't so perfect just kind of ridiculed her.
- 13:50Like it was quite, quite horrible.
- 13:52The biggest takeaway was like she was a boss lady
- 13:57and throughout the whole documentary,
- 14:00there's this undertone of her being a bitch.
- 14:04And it's quite ironic what people say about her,
- 14:09they would never say about a man.
- 14:10Just because she is confident, powerful and no bullshit,
- 14:15that's taken as a bitch.
- 14:17Like she built an empire and built the billion dollar business
- 14:20by based on the skills that she masters a child to help her family eat.
- 14:26And if she were a man, she'd be considered very powerful, very successful, very confident.
- 14:35What do you expect?
- 14:36She's been had to like really fight for where she is and put it with a lot of bullshit
- 14:42and live in such a masculine world.
- 14:44I don't like it.
- 14:45The reason I'm torn about it is because whilst I've learned a lot about
- 14:51how important it is to, like directness is actually a really different thing.
- 14:56Like being direct is completely different to being rude.
- 15:01Yes.
- 15:01And I've really had to unlearn that.
- 15:03I would say one of, we went to this Google event a couple of days ago
- 15:07and it was a diversity and inclusion and equity like in AI.
- 15:11And it was fascinating, it was such an interesting conversation.
- 15:14But one of the things that this guy said was having respectful disagreements.
- 15:21And I was like, I love that because there's a fine line between feeling like you're being direct.
- 15:27You can be direct and you can disagree.
- 15:30That doesn't mean you're being combative.
- 15:31It just means that you're, and so I think it's relearning what it looks like
- 15:36to be men and women in positions of leadership
- 15:41and allowing people to adopt that in whatever ways like natural for them.
- 15:45100%.
- 15:46And there will be people that are arrogant dicks and bitches.
- 15:50Like, yeah, yeah.
- 15:51But just, yeah, it's not that's not everyone that's powerful,
- 15:55or every female that's powerful, or yeah, anyway.
- 15:57So it's like, I just thought it was quite an interesting takeaway.
- 16:02Now I know we've spoken about this.
- 16:03We've touched on this briefly.
- 16:05But more and buffer, one of the best investors of all time
- 16:10is now sitting on the highest cash balance he has ever had.
- 16:14$300 billion.
- 16:16$300 billion is a lot.
- 16:18But what percentage of his portfolio is that?
- 16:20So he's got an investment company that's worth $1 trillion.
- 16:24So about 30%.
- 16:28Now the fact this is the highest amount ever,
- 16:31excuse me, because why is one of the best investors of all time sitting on,
- 16:37put it having his cash in the bank rather than the stock market?
- 16:41Particularly when it's going so well.
- 16:42Yeah.
- 16:43I was interviewing one of our investors actually for the Investing Club.
- 16:48Yeah.
- 16:49She said the exact same thing.
- 16:50She said, I am fascinated by the idea that Warren Buffett has so much in cash right now.
- 16:55So my portfolio is reflecting that too.
- 16:57She said she had about 30% in her offer portfolio and cash.
- 17:01So term deposits, high interest savings account,
- 17:03not just sitting in a transaction account, just to preface.
- 17:07This is not sitting in a zero-interest situation.
- 17:09It's still earning something.
- 17:10Yeah, I don't really know what to take from it,
- 17:12because on one side you're reporting all this news about how amazing the stock market's going
- 17:17and the S&P 500's best week in the whole year.
- 17:22And yet one of the best investors in the world is not really investing.
- 17:27You know, it could it mean that he's waiting to make a big investment or do you think that it's?
- 17:31When I was a portfolio manager, not in any realm, the same as Warren Buffett.
- 17:36You're trying to say you're Warren Buffett.
- 17:37I mean, load would love to run one day.
- 17:40Imagine that was my letter.
- 17:42So has your performance better than Warren Buffett's?
- 17:45Anyway, I would be holding cash for my clients because I would think that in the future,
- 17:52I could I want to have ammunition of cash to deploy into stocks when they fall.
- 17:59It's so dramatic.
- 18:00But you know, I want to deploy it on the front line.
- 18:05But no, you get what I mean because you don't want to be all invested, investing everything.
- 18:09Have nothing in the bank and then the stock market falls and you go,
- 18:12oh gosh, I want to buy all these things because they're cheaper.
- 18:15So that is what he's doing.
- 18:17He is not investing because he will want to have ammunition for when the stock market falls
- 18:23that he can deploy.
- 18:25But what you said about me saying, oh, there's all these great stats.
- 18:29The stock market's doing so well.
- 18:30He's a long term investor.
- 18:32He doesn't care that it's the best week in 2024.
- 18:35But isn't that then to the point of like, okay, if he's investing for a long period of time,
- 18:39why has he not got that money invested?
- 18:41He doesn't something else.
- 18:43I reckon he would look at the last, even the last four years, we've had three out of them
- 18:49that have the stock market's done over 20%.
- 18:51That hasn't happened for a long, long time.
- 18:54Like, the stock market over the last couple years has done fantastically well.
- 18:58Way better than its long term average.
- 19:01So he's like, you know what?
- 19:03All these companies I've invested in have done really well.
- 19:06I'm going to sell out of them and sit and wait for a better entry point or better prices.
- 19:11So he's trying to time the market, which is literally the opposite of what you say here in this
- 19:15in terms of the purchase.
- 19:16No, but he times it at a very long term way, if that makes sense.
- 19:21You have to rotate your portfolio every now and then.
- 19:25You know, you don't just invest in a whole bunch of things at 10 in year one
- 19:29and then sell them all in your 10.
- 19:31Or is there a chance that he's got another couple of things he's looking at?
- 19:35He has made a few other investments, which we've spoken about in the Western Club.
- 19:38It's just something to keep in mind.
- 19:39There's going to be ups and downs in the market.
- 19:42And there's been a lot of ups lately.
- 19:45So Warren Buffett, yes, he probably does try and time the market a bit more than we do
- 19:50because he's an expert and he has money to make for clients.
- 19:53But you saying this scares you?
- 19:56Doesn't mean you're going to make a decision, right?
- 19:58You're not going to go and sell out because he's holding heaps of cash or I...
- 20:01No, no, no.
- 20:03I just want to have a bit of fire in my ammunition as well.
- 20:07You want some stuff to deploy?
- 20:08Yeah, I want some stuff to deploy.
- 20:10So you might actually try and hold more in cash in case you want to deploy?
- 20:14Is that what you're saying?
- 20:14No, I'm going to keep investing.
- 20:16Don't get me wrong.
- 20:17But I also am conscious that I want a little bit more in my savings accounts.
- 20:23So I'm going to take that from my spending.
- 20:25So you're not decreasing your investment amount.
- 20:28You're just going to try and decrease the spending of what you're...
- 20:30Like things that you don't necessarily need to spend money on.
- 20:33So you have more surplus in case you want to invest in.
- 20:35Exactly.
- 20:36Yeah.
- 20:38The Airbnb CEO has announced he refuses to have one-on-one meetings
- 20:43because they often turn into therapy sessions.
- 20:46Oh, you mean one-on-ones with his employee?
- 20:48With his employee?
- 20:49But it is, though.
- 20:50Can you remember when you were young and you would get drunk at work drinks
- 20:53and you'd try and sit down your manager?
- 20:54Oh, yeah.
- 20:55You're like, hey, just really?
- 20:56Well, also, I think it's just like...
- 20:58Fucking annoying.
- 21:00Like even when we catch up for coffee.
- 21:02Oh, it's like how are you feeling?
- 21:04Oh, I know.
- 21:05You know how like it is.
- 21:06Also, how funny?
- 21:07It would be someone working for him.
- 21:08He'd be like, oh, god.
- 21:09It would be until we're in one-on-one.
- 21:11Yeah.
- 21:12Okay, hey, before we finish,
- 21:15we've had some voice notes come through to the hotline
- 21:17and I really want to listen.
- 21:18So Emily, our producer, has...
- 21:21She said, don't listen to these in advance.
- 21:23So I haven't actually listened to them.
- 21:25Oh, my gosh.
- 21:26I know. Hold on.
- 21:27Let's open them up.
- 21:28Yeah, so funny silly story.
- 21:31When I bought my first apartment a few years ago,
- 21:36I assumed that my rates would be included in the body corporate.
- 21:41I didn't really think about it.
- 21:43And then clocked it 18 months later.
- 21:47And I had quite the hefty rates bill
- 21:50because it was not included in the body court.
- 21:53Big oversight from me,
- 21:55big learning curve as a homeowner,
- 21:57spent quite a while paying back Auckland Council.
- 22:02But now we do it for you.
- 22:03So go, go me, it has a happy ending.
- 22:06Yeah, Fred, bloody hell, it's impressive.
- 22:08Oh, so on the house or the rates?
- 22:10So hold on, so what was she meant in?
- 22:12So rates is what you pay in New Zealand
- 22:15to the Council for, like, parks and...
- 22:18Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 22:19Like all that kind of stuff.
- 22:20It's determined on the valuation of your house.
- 22:22It's a payment that you make each quarter each year,
- 22:24but it's like, as property prices go up, your rates go up.
- 22:27And it's a freaking killer.
- 22:29Really?
- 22:30Oh, I hate it.
- 22:32I feel like it comes around every week.
- 22:33How much would they bet?
- 22:34Mine, I like 4000 a year.
- 22:37Holy.
- 22:37Yeah.
- 22:38Wow, okay, that's quite a lot.
- 22:40I think if you're either in that situation,
- 22:44I would suggest contacting the Council
- 22:46and saying what's happened,
- 22:47and be like, can I say a payment plan?
- 22:48You might be getting charged interest.
- 22:50So just explain the situation,
- 22:51and I'm sure I don't know this for certain,
- 22:54but that we are able to help in terms of sorting you out.
- 22:57You wouldn't be the first person that's...
- 22:59You've been in a bit of financial difficulty
- 23:01or, you know, forgotten to pay them.
- 23:03And yeah, all right.
- 23:04Now, I'm not sure if this is a curveball
- 23:06or what's going on, but I'm just going to play it.
- 23:07Hey, ladies, I love your podcast.
- 23:10When I was about 21, I was following winter seasons
- 23:13from Northern Hemisphere to Southern Hemisphere.
- 23:15As living in New Zealand, we're going to America.
- 23:17At the time, I was living in Colorado
- 23:19very high elevation.
- 23:20You go up, do you feel pretty sick a lot of the time?
- 23:23But as any 21-year-old does,
- 23:26they go to the bar and that's exactly what I did.
- 23:29Having a good night with my friends,
- 23:31drank too much.
- 23:33Decided to walk home in the snow.
- 23:36Could have died if I'd passed out in the snow.
- 23:38That's very common.
- 23:40Got picked up by the police.
- 23:41I don't remember any of this
- 23:42because I was fully blacked out.
- 23:45Got taken to the police station
- 23:46and then the hospital to get my stomach pumped.
- 23:49Work up in hospital.
- 23:50Absolutely horrified.
- 23:51What have I done?
- 23:52I was okay, thankfully.
- 23:54Got home to a plethora of medical bills.
- 23:58We're talking about, I think it was about $8,000
- 24:01in US dollars at the time,
- 24:02which isn't much compared to what a lot of other people
- 24:05have had.
- 24:06But I was 21.
- 24:07I did have travel insurance,
- 24:08but because I had blood alcohol,
- 24:12a blood alcohol level of whatever it was,
- 24:14they wouldn't cover me.
- 24:16So that really, really set me back financially.
- 24:19I paid them off eventually,
- 24:21but it's all, I guess, back to insurance.
- 24:23And yeah.
- 24:25Oh, wow.
- 24:27That's quite sad.
- 24:28I mean, congratulations.
- 24:29She had travel insurance.
- 24:30Honestly, I cannot stress enough
- 24:34how important travel insurance is.
- 24:36Like, you just have no idea of
- 24:38the cost of what bills you'll get.
- 24:41Like, how much more expensive they are.
- 24:42Also, you don't want to be stuck in like
- 24:45in some country that won't treat you
- 24:46because you don't have travel insurance.
- 24:48Like, you just, your poor family
- 24:50doesn't want to have to deal with that either.
- 24:51It's just so incredibly important.
- 24:54And I know it seems like the last thing you want to pay for
- 24:56when you've just paid for flights
- 24:57and accommodation and all of that,
- 24:58but it is so incredibly important.
- 25:00Also, though, reading the fine print.
- 25:03I know they send you big documents as well,
- 25:06but like, chuck that shit and chat GBT.
- 25:08True, actually.
- 25:09Keep points.
- 25:10Things I need to do.
- 25:11Because I wouldn't have known that either,
- 25:13especially at that age, I wouldn't have known.
- 25:14Also, it just sucks when you think you've done
- 25:16all the right things,
- 25:17like you've got travel insurance and blah, blah, blah.
- 25:19And like, I mean, everyone's drunk too much before.
- 25:21Yeah.
- 25:22It sucks to think that probably took years to pay back.
- 25:26Also, a really good reminder of how great it is
- 25:30to put money away for your emergency fund.
- 25:32Yes.
- 25:33Just constantly because you're always going to have
- 25:35shit that goes wrong that you don't know about.
- 25:37Yeah.
- 25:37So if you're always contributing,
- 25:39even if it's a small amount into your emergency fund,
- 25:42then when shit like this happens,
- 25:43it's not going to set you back for years
- 25:45because you've already been planning towards it.
- 25:48Okay, one more.
- 25:49After coming out of a five-year relationship,
- 25:52where he ended up owing me around $10,000.
- 25:56I was feeling a little bit vulnerable,
- 25:58but then also feeling like I wanted to get rich quick
- 26:01and I was out of pocket.
- 26:02So I saw a lot of people posting about Bitcoin.
- 26:06And I thought, this is my chance.
- 26:09I don't want to miss out on making some money.
- 26:11I sold my car, had $5,000, a little bit more sitting there.
- 26:15I was earning around,
- 26:18maybe $20 an hour while studying as well.
- 26:20And I messaged someone that had been writing about Bitcoin
- 26:23on Facebook that I met through a mutual friend.
- 26:26He said, yeah, sure, come over.
- 26:28I'll help you.
- 26:28Show me a few long-winded YouTube videos.
- 26:32And I said, look, you know what you're doing.
- 26:34He said, invest $5,000 and the fees
- 26:37that the platform will charge you will be a lot less.
- 26:38So I thought, okay, saving money.
- 26:41Transfer the money into Bitcoin,
- 26:43then into this platform.
- 26:45Three or four weeks later, I looked in the platform
- 26:49and actually being closed down due to who knows what reason.
- 26:55When I asked him, he said they needed to do this
- 26:58so they could start their own bank and sent me another platform
- 27:01to invest more money in.
- 27:02Turned out, it was actually a scam.
- 27:05And when I did go to a reporter,
- 27:06it was another scam website as well
- 27:08that asked me for more money to try and investigate
- 27:11and get some of the funds back.
- 27:14Yeah, no more Bitcoin for me.
- 27:18Okay, I was hoping throughout that
- 27:19that it was going to be good ending.
- 27:20She's like, and I doubled my money.
- 27:23I think this is a really good curveball to end with,
- 27:25particularly because we've talked about Bitcoin.
- 27:27And it's such, I mean, the reason that when we talk about
- 27:31what is a spicy investment
- 27:33or something that's really high risk,
- 27:35lots and lots and lots of chilies,
- 27:36cryptocurrency is up there, it is unregulated.
- 27:40So when you're investing in Bitcoin,
- 27:42not only do you need to make sure you're on a legitimate platform.
- 27:45Yeah.
- 27:46But do not sell something like a car to go in and invest.
- 27:50If you're like, oh, there's so many things in that.
- 27:53I'm like, firstly, don't invest in what you don't know.
- 27:57Like, do your research.
- 27:58But she tried, someone came round and was like,
- 28:00this is, you know, she wasn't just like,
- 28:02willy-nilly chucking at it.
- 28:04Yeah, I think there's also, like,
- 28:06investing is not about get rich quick.
- 28:09Like that you just, you can't, like, that is not investing.
- 28:14That is, that is gambling.
- 28:15That is you are hoping to make money quick.
- 28:18You're hoping to put money on black and
- 28:21double your, double your earnings.
- 28:23Like, that's just not investing.
- 28:24Investing, you need patience.
- 28:26You need to take a long-term view.
- 28:29Like, you cannot, anyway.
- 28:31Sorry, she's probably like, okay.
- 28:32She's like, if she wanted to do that, do $1,000.
- 28:38You know, don't put your entire life savings in anything.
- 28:42Bitcoin, or like, the most boring stock either,
- 28:44that doesn't even move.
- 28:45Like, don't put it all in one thing.
- 28:49That's the whole idea of don't put all your own eggs in one basket.
- 28:52If you drop the basket of eggs, the eggs go over,
- 28:54you have no eggs for breakfast.
- 28:55Like, you've got to be really putting money in different places
- 28:58so that if something like this happens,
- 29:00it's not the only place you're money sitting.
- 29:02Yeah.
- 29:02But also, like, you'll absolute us whole of an ex-boyfriend,
- 29:06boring 10 grand.
- 29:07Yeah.
- 29:08Like, that's just, oh god, it gives me the heavy GBS,
- 29:11because like, at the time, when you lend money to someone,
- 29:14particularly if you love them,
- 29:15of course you're soon they're going to pay you back.
- 29:17And I also think, oh, I want to give you a hug,
- 29:19I'm sorry, that all happened.
- 29:21And I hate that it's probably put you off
- 29:23like, making assumptions,
- 29:24but I hope it hasn't put you off investing all together,
- 29:27because there's learnings from that,
- 29:30which can put you in a much better financial position going forward.
- 29:34But also just, there's a lot of bad people out there.
- 29:37And I think just like stick to the experts and don't...
- 29:41Keep your wits about you when it comes to money.
- 29:43I think that...
- 29:43If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
- 29:45That's what my dad said.
- 29:47It's just, I think the thing to remember with stuff like this
- 29:50is making money quickly.
- 29:53Investing is the opposite.
- 29:54You should think of investing as the opposite to that.
- 29:57It's not a golden ticket to all of a sudden we have to work.
- 30:01We'll have a whole lot of money.
- 30:03Yes, there's people that make extra money on meme stocks and Bitcoin
- 30:06and things, but that is in literally anomaly.
- 30:08Yeah, that's like the exception, not the rule.
- 30:11People like Warren Buffett,
- 30:12who are multi-multi-billionaires,
- 30:15they've made money from putting away small amounts,
- 30:19consistently and regularly and taking that long term outlook.
- 30:23Can I just say, though, I'm not going to say what her name is,
- 30:26because obviously this is, you know,
- 30:29we want you to feel like it's a safe space to share.
- 30:32But thank you so much for sending that in,
- 30:34because I think that it's such a good learning, you know,
- 30:37and by you sharing that and telling other people
- 30:40on the same with the situation with like the rates
- 30:43and not really realizing about it,
- 30:45like the more we talk about these things,
- 30:46the more we share those experiences.
- 30:48And a number of people that have probably gone and checked their rates
- 30:50and gone and checked their Bitcoin,
- 30:51and made sure that it's a legit platform.
- 30:54Yeah, it will be very, very thankful for you sending that in.
- 30:56So thank you so much.
- 30:57We will put the link to our curve hotline.
- 31:01It's just you can send a voice note and like,
- 31:03that if there's anything you wanted to share,
- 31:04like an experience, something you learned,
- 31:06a question that you have,
- 31:08it's really cool to go through and listen to.
- 31:09I want to give her a little curve cut all.
- 31:11Oh, cute.
- 31:13I love that.
- 31:17Thank you so much for listening to the curve weekly.
- 31:19Make sure you hit the subscribe button to stay up to date
- 31:21with all the many business stock market news.
- 31:23And if you like what you heard,
- 31:25we would love a review.
- 31:26Thank you.
- 31:27Yes, we would love a review that if you did hate it.
- 31:30Please don't leave one if you hated it.
- 31:33No, but in all seriousness,
- 31:34could you please leave a review
- 31:35because it really helps other people find
- 31:36our cute little podcast.
- 31:38And we hope you have a good week
- 31:39and see you next Monday.
- 31:40Bye.
- 31:41Bye.
- 31:42That's great.
- 31:43Yeah.
- 31:44See you next Tuesday.
- 31:45Well,
- 31:47see you next Tuesday.
- 31:48I mean, Monday.
- 31:50No, actually though.
- 31:51New episodes out every Tuesday.
- 31:56Okay, quickly, the curve was created to empower
- 31:58and educate you about investing,
- 31:59but we are not financial advisors.
- 32:02Our platform exists for educational purposes only
- 32:04and it doesn't provide personalized
- 32:06investing advice for your individual needs
- 32:07and should not be relied upon
- 32:09to make an investment or financial decision.
- 32:11And always remember to do your own research
- 32:13before making any investment or financial decision.
- 32:16We're here for any knowledge and support you need,
- 32:18but the final call is always yours.
- 32:20And thanks for being here.
- 32:21You got this.
- 32:22Yeah, we know you got this.