RE: Why I Decided to Start Trading! (and this steem account)
Be careful. #1, you're still a minor, and #2, most of your mistakes are made in your first year(s) as a trader until you know more about what you are doing. Many financial planners say to never risk more than 2% of your portfolio on any one item. Crypto-curriencies may be in their infancy like IBM stock or Berkshire-Hathaway, but you still have "flash crashes" and pump-and-dump schemes, and nobody knows yet how the U.S. government is going to react to "Bitcoin millionaires" (but there is a bill in Congress that gives dark foreboding).
Take profit often, especially if you have yet to "pay back" your parents for your initial investment. Everything looks good on paper or in the exchange until it all crashes. Once you've paid your parents back 3x (the standard for stealing), and can maintain a basic living on your own with your trades, then you can present yourself as a success. Until you reach 18 and can live on your own, your parents can still "pull the plug", and it's fully within their parental rights to do so.
#2, don't blow all your new wealth on conspicuous living. Do NOT get the Ferrari. Or the 5-star hotel room to live in. You are 17 - you can still do anything! So do get the "backup" or "weekend" job like mowing lawns or retail work or 9-to-5. You just don't care about only working 29 1/2 hours a week because it's not your major source of income. Get the real-life experience to not turn into a "new rich" jerk. (And watch out for the golddigger women out to take your wealth away from you.)
Haha I really liked the advice at the end there, thanks for the insight! yeah I know going behind my parents back wasn't the most respectful thing to do but I was thinking about my future and where I want to be in ten years and thought about my decision for a whole week. But at the same time I saved and made all the money in my college fund so I thought if it's my money who's the government or anyone else to tell me to keep it locked up.
Also I've already learned the lesson of diversity through a risky investment putting my whole portfolio in CRB which is in its infancy and holding onto it for too long past its peak on its upward trend ( will make a post about that later) and then loosing 50% of my portfolio. Just yesterday I made back all my losses from that!
I've also read a whole bunch of books about becoming wealthy and maintaining that wealth a book that really taught me a lot is Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam which I first read when I was 12 and got the idea ingrained into my head by text and my father that you should diversify your total assets with indexfunds, roth IRAs, maintain a good credit, invest in rel-estate and stay frugal until you are truly rich (to me this means deca-millionaire) and always stay humble. Thanks for the comment and the good advice.
Most financial advice books written today are too "old". Any book that says "maximize your 401(k) in your salary job" needs to be dropped into the trash can. Today's world, especially for the US middle class, is almost back to the bad old days of the Guilded Age (1890-WWI) where you could make it as an independent entrepreneur - until the government-backed monopolies crushed you. So watch out for those guys, and diversify, diversify, diversify. Diversify as if the Mob is about to send "Knuckles" Malone to your apartment or house for a "discussion", followed by finding out all the legal bank accounts in your name are mysteriously drained dry the next day. The Real World is not nice.