It’s impossible to walk a block in Park Slope without seeing parents and strollers. And one particular brand, Uppababy, seems to dominate this part of the market.

Why is that?

As a new Uppababy stroller owner myself, I now understand. And more importantly, due to this understanding, I also had an “ah ha” moment why bitcoin is being adopted left and right.

Let me explain.

One small step for man. One giant step for mankind new parents.

Jackson, my son, was at the end of 2020. In addition to being in a global pandemic, a winter baby in New York City presents unique challenges. That’s because it is not trivial to strike the right balance between going out for much needed fresh air vs. staying safe indoors until the weather is nicer and COVID restrictions are lifted (ie. living within our comfort zone).

However, with only a <800 square foot apartment for our family of three, staying indoors for too many days in a row makes all of us feel stir crazy.

Starting month two, after Tiffany and I had a better sense of Jackson’s feeding / sleeping schedule, we psyched ourselves up to venture out. Mind you, we’re still playing it safe with COVID so we aren’t going to neighborhood coffee shops, eating at restaurants, or to see friends in their apartments. Basically, we’re left with outdoor walks around the neighborhood.

Strollers are tools

The Uppababy stroller has been exactly what we need. Put another way, it is a tool that gives us confidence going out, dealing with uneven sidewalks, navigating leftover snow on the ground, going “off roading” in the park, etc.

It’s not only a tool. It’s THE right tool for the job.

If you really think about it, we’re surrounded by tools – from strollers (to push a baby around during a walk), to carriers (so we can body wear a baby around the house), to portable diaper change stations (so we can take care of poopy diapers on the go).

Each one solves a specific problem we have. And by using these different tools, it allows us to live a little more of a cushy lifestyle.

Tools evolve and get better

You can’t really compare the Uppababy against the crappy stroller that I was pushed around in as a kid.

I remember my Dad needing to tilt the old school stroller on the back two wheels to go over most uneven sidewalks or bumps. And if he didn’t see a bump or didn’t tilt the stroller at just the right angle…it would get stuck and I’d get jostled around. Not comfortable, to say the least.

Even though I look back and think how crappy that stroller was, I bet at the time, my parents thought, “this is the best thing since sliced bread”…just like I do right now with the stroller I own.

Go forward another 10 years…and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are robo-strollers that push themselves around. Maybe it’ll even levitate like baby Yoda’s “stroller” in The Mandalorian.

This is to be expected. Tools evolve. And improve…or something else better will come along to take its place.

Money is a tool

Having established how important tools are for new dads, let’s shift over to talk about one of the most important tools that makes the world go around – money.

Without getting too philosophical, as a tool, money is:

• the “thing” we earn by working at a job
• and the “thing” we use to pay for products (ex. strollers) or services (ex. child care) (referred to as medium of exchange)
• and when there is an excess of the amount we make vs. spend, the remainder amount should hold its value over time so that later on, we can still afford to buy the things we want / need (referred to as store of value)

In the past, money came in the form of shells, and then beads, carvings on wooden sticks, and shiny rocks. And for a long time, it was gold. Now, for all intents and purposes, money is the US Dollar / Euro / RMB / other types of government backed paper that we hold in our wallets.

It has evolved many times. And it will continue to change form when something better comes along.

At first, this was unsettling that government backed money, the only form of money I’ve known, could be disrupted.

But then you realize that of course it will. Money has already changed forms. Multiple times. And of course, it will again. As the saying goes, “change is the only constant”.

I believe that bitcoin is that tool, that is here to displace (whether partially, or entirely) every government based money.

Bitcoin is money

At the highest level, bitcoin is a new form of money. I know, that sounds far out there to put on paper. If you are like me, then your monkey mind is probably shouting “scam”, “pyramid scheme”, “fake magic internet money”. I was like that too. But just hear me out first.

Bitcoin is money. And money is a tool. So really, bitcoin is a tool.

It’s worth repeating: bitcoin is a tool.

Why?

Something happens when thinking about bitcoin as a tool. For whatever reason, it seems to get rid of the monkey mind for a second, right?

Of course, I’m not saying you should get rid of that nagging feeling and dump your life savings into bitcoin, but for now, first think about bitcoin through the lens of a tool, similar to how you think about a stroller as a tool.

Practically speaking, a tool is used to help solve a problem.
Thinking about bitcoin as a tool helped me see the problem it was solving. Which then led me down the rabbit hole of how big the problem was. Which then helped make sense why so many people are adopting bitcoin as money. And that gave me more conviction that bitcoin matters.

As a tool, bitcoin attempts to solve a nasty problem that the current form of money (ie. government backed dollars, Euros, etc) cannot fix. And each day, it is proving that it is a better tool for the job.

The problem with saving money

Our current form of money (ie. US Dollars, Euros, etc) is great in many ways. It’s convenient day-to-day as a medium of exchange to buy goods and services.

But it has a big problem. And it particularly affects new parents.

The big problem is that the money (in the form of US dollars, Euros, etc) we store in a bank is steadily losing value. It is not holding up as a “store of value”. 

The reason is due to “inflation”. And unfortunately, inflation is part of the foundation of how our money system (ie. government backed money) works.

That means, inflation won’t be going away.

On one hand, it may not feel like there is a lot of inflation because a gallon of milk and loaf of bread roughly cost the same as it did last year, and the year before that.

But, for the bigger ticket items like school tuition fees (up 213% for public school since the late 1980’s), doctors visits (up 908% since 1980), buying a house (up 413% in the US since 1980), etc… we are seeing the nasty effects of inflation.

Inflation is a problem. But the real REAL problem is that these expenses are rising FASTER than you are getting pay raises.

As a new dad, I’m sure you are hyper aware of new expenses already. And you know there will continue to be new expenses around the corner that you need to budget and save for.

We’re caught between a rock and a hard place.

On one hand, the money we are trying to save is losing value, while on the other hand, there are also more expenses (that require money) that we need to budget for.

This is a losing battle.

Bitcoin and inflation

Bitcoin addresses the problem of inflation head on. Instead of losing value over time like government based money, it is designed / engineered to become more valuable. It is deflationary instead of inflationary.

To truly appreciate a deflationary form of money, you’ll have to really go down the “what is money” rabbit hole. Along the way, you’ll learn about the impact of a fixed supply, game theory, Austrian vs. Keynesian economics, and more. And when you piece it all together, you’ll see that bitcoin is really deflationary.

Practically speaking though, as a new dad, all this means is that you’ll be rewarded for saving your hard earned money in the form of bitcoin. That’s because in the future, the bitcoin will be able to buy more than it can today.

Here is deflation in action.

• in 2010, it cost 10,000 bitcoin to buy two pizzas
• In 2015, a group sushi dinner cost ~10 bitcoin
• In 2021, a Tesla Model 3 costs only ~1 bitcoin (price of bitcoin as of this writing is ~$55k USD, price of a top end Performance Model 3 is ~$50k USD).

As you can see, the purchasing power of bitcoin is increasing over time.

This matters.

By viewing it as a tool, I was able connect the dots that bitcoin helps me plan, save, and pay for future big ticket items for the family.

And to take advantage of it, all I have to do is buy and then hold. Which is exactly the game plan I’ve implemented. Next time, I’ll share more about this simple and effective strategy.

But for now, it’s time to put Jackson into the Uppababy and go out for another family walk!