crypto and divorce… some lessons learnt

Hi everyone

I've been going through divorce in the past 1-2 years and there were some crypto related lessons that I learnt in the way I thought could be interesting for others here as well.

About me: I'm a stereotypical "investor" of the 2017 bull run. That means I got in in December 2017 at the height of the bull run, bought a bunch of hot altcoins (neo anyone? Probably my worst decision, lol) and then got burnt through 2018. But I stayed in and that means 2019-2021 was the first real bull run I experienced.

In 2021 my wife and I separated which severely affected the crypto investments:

The good: I had a lot of extra expenses that I had to cover, lawyer, taxes payback was a pain, new apartment, alimony and so on. crypto absolutely saved my ass and made me able to pay these bills.

The bad: I just kick myself because at the end of 2021 I could clearly see these expenses coming to me in 2022. I even calculated how much I'd probably need. But instead of just selling enough crypto to cover these costs, I thought "nah, I'll just sell whenever I need the money". Like everybody else I thought BTC would for sure go up to at least 100k… I thought I'd rather sell at 100k than at 60k. Which means I was forced to sell in the past few weeks at ridiculously low prices compared to a year ago.

Neutral: I always remained honest about my investments. That might be costly compared to some shady "lose it in a boat accident" advice, but I'm free to use my crypto however I want after the divorce. I knew, I'd have to give her half of it, either in cash or crypto at some point. But because she knew about it, my ex wife also decided to keep the investment in crypto so at least if we have another bull run, she and my kids will still benefit from it. I gave her a little crypto 101 to make sure she is aware of the risks.

I hope there's no next time as in another divorce but some of the lessons still apply for similar situations:

• if you know you'll need the money in the next few months, crypto is not the right investment

• I bought at the very top of the previous run but TCA all the way through until the next run. My average buying price was way lower due to that.