I feel terrible for my friend and fellow Dad, “Jarren”. (not his real name)

Recently, we caught up over coffee. And even though it was only 10am in the morning, he was already on his 4th cup of the day…

To put it nicely, he was a zombie. And that’s because he hasn’t fully slept through the night in over 4 months…

Ouch.

You see, he has two young kids (one is 3, the other is ~6 months old). And both are waking up multiples times per night right now. Which means, he is waking up multiple times per night too.

As a fellow Dad, I feel his pain.

I’ve certainly had my fair share of sleepless nights dealing with sick kids who can’t fall asleep or stay asleep. And I know that after just a few nights, I become a zombie too.

So…I can only imagine how much of a zombie I would be if I was didn’t get a solid sleep in 4 months straight.

Luckily for me, waking up in the middle of the night is the exception. Not the norm. Even though just like Jarren, I also have two young kids (one is 3.5, the other is 9 months old now).

So, why is one of us getting good sleep while the other is a zombie?

I believe it comes down to different sleep strategies (or the absence of one).

Nature vs. nurture

Sure…there is certainly an element of “nature” at play. I’m not discounting that maybe my kids are just naturally better sleepers than Jarren’s.

But, I’m much more on team “nurture”.

I believe the main reason my kids consistently sleep through the night, while Jarren’s do not, is because of a difference in strategy around sleep training.

You see, my wife and I have nurtured the sleep skills (ie. sleep training from Taking Cara Babies – highly recommended). And we’ve stuck with it, even though it required some short term crying it out.

So now, when my kids go to sleep each night, I feel confident they’ll stay asleep all night and not wake up until 6:30am – 7:30am the next morning!

However, Jarren has adopted a different strategy. For one reason or another, he doesn’t want to do sleep training with his kids. And in my opinion, this is why he is paying the price of feeling like a zombie.

Why am I telling you this?

I believe it’s vitally important to have a strategy when it comes to sleep. Teaching your kids how to fall asleep on their own, and how to go back to sleep when they wake up in the middle of the night, is a super power!

Similarly, I believe you need a strategy when it comes to bitcoin.

So today, I’m going to show you mine!

For what it’s worth, the strategy I’m going to show you has let me take two different 1.5 year long mini-retirements (when each of my kids were born so I could just focus on being a Dad). It’s the same strategy that is accelerating the path for both my wife and I to both plan for early retirement. And it’s the same strategy I’ve used for over 10 years and have no plans to change anytime soon.

Best of all, it’s a simple strategy that I believe any parent can adopt right away. Actually, it’s so simple that it’s just two words: ACQUIRE / RETIRE.

Let’s dig in below!

Part 1: Retire

Let’s work backwards from the ultimate goal.

For most fellow parents, I believe the reason you are busting your butt at work for 40 hours a week is to provide for your family and to build up an emergency fund to protect against future uncertainty. I know that was my goal.

So then, ask yourself, what happens if money is no longer a problem?

Maybe not “I have a golden toilet” type rich, but let’s imagine that for the next +10 years, you know with 100% confidence you’ll be able to buy groceries, eat out at restaurants, pay for your house, go on vacations, cover your kids tuition bills, etc.

Would you still keep working?

When I ask this question to fellow parents, the overwhelming majority tell me they’d take a break.

This is the ultimate goal of my ACQUIRE / RETIRE strategy: to be able to NOT work (if you don’t want to) while still being able to afford the costs of life.

Of course, some of you reading this might think, “I love my job…it gives me purpose!” And to that, I say, “Great! By no means do you have to retire, but having the option isn’t a bad thing either.”

So now, imagine instead of going to work, you get back EIGHT hours a day from Monday through Friday. What would you do with that time?

Maybe you’d take your kids out to explore museums and parks. Maybe you would start writing that blog thats been inside your head. Maybe you would learn a new skill like woodworking or cooking. Or maybe you would exercise more.

The possibilities are endless!

But in order to make any of this a reality, you have to understand it doesn’t come from just continuing to do what you have been doing. Put another way, just going to work and collecting a paycheck is not going to put you on the path for early retirement (or even a mini-retirement).

So how do you get on the path for early / mini retirement? You guessed it – you are going to need some bitcoin in your long term portfolio.

So let’s talk about that next!

Part 2: Acquire

When bitcoin finally “clicked” for me, I had two realizations.

a) the name of the game

First, I realized the name of the game was to simply acquire bitcoin. While this sounds obvious, I can’t tell you how many parents I know who tell me they grok bitcoin, and yet…don’t own any yet.

How much bitcoin you’ll need is nuanced. At end of the day, it’s different for everyone based on where you live, how old you are, how many kids you have, what your current financial situation looks like, when you want to retire, etc.

This might sound crazy, but Blackrock recently put out a report that they think the ideal bitcoin allocation is 28% of your portfolio (link).

While nearly 1/3 of your net worth tied up in bitcoin might not be realistic right away, owning ZERO bitcoin is also not going to work. Why? Life is going to continue getting harder for you and your family.

b) trading bitcoin is a fools errand

Second, I realized that trading bitcoin (ie. buying today, selling tomorrow, repeating over and over again in the short term) was a fools errand.

That’s because it would require spending lots of time watching minute by minute price charts. And since bitcoin trades 24 hours a day, it would mean needing to watch price charts AROUND the clock.

No thanks.

And even if I did successively “buy low and sell high” and make some gains in the short term, then I would incur a hefty tax bill (short term capital gains takes away roughly 1/3 of your gains).

No thanks.

Finally, bitcoin is very volatile in the short term. Roughly a month ago, it was up to $73,000. It then proceeded to drop down to $57,000. And now, it has rocketed back to $66,000. And if you miss out on a few key moments when bitcoin is going up, you are going to miss out on the majority of the upside.

No thanks.

So…how do I acquire bitcoin?

I keep it straight forward – I simply buy bitcoin when I have some extra money (ie. the amount I would’ve either put into a savings account or used to buy stocks instead just goes to buying bitcoin).

As an example, let’s say that after paying all my bills this month, there is $1,000 extra that we don’t need and plan to save. Old me would’ve bought some index funds (ie. SPDR). New me just buys $1,000 worth of bitcoin instead.

And then, I just HOLD it (ie. don’t sell).

Boring, right? But boring is good!

As an example, back in 2013, I first bought bitcoin when it was only $500 range. I’ve held on, and now, that $500 initial investment is worth $66,000. Not bad, right?

Boring is also good because it let’s me focus on what really matters – being the best Dad I can by spending more time with my family.

Conclusion

Buy bitcoin (to get the upside). Hold bitcoin (for the long term).

That’s the whole strategy!

If you can do these two things, I believe you’ll find yourself moving along the path for early retirement. Just like what has happeneed for my family. And just like it has for many other families too who simply buy and hold bitcoin as part of their long term portfolio too.

Next time

Among bitcoiners, “HODL” is a term you’ll hear every day. Simply put, it means “hold on for dear life”. What that really means is…DO NOT sell your bitcoin!

Why? Because you’ll need bitcoin to achieve the ultimate goal…early retirement.

Sounds easy right to just hold, right? In theory, yes. But in practice, this is incredibly difficult thing to do. Next time, I’ll tell you some war stories about HODL’ing bitcoin as the price was rocketing…as well as when the short term price was tanking.