Ep316: Cristiana Tudor – Only Invest What You Can Lose in Bitcoin

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community we know that to win an investing you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it. This episode is sponsored by a Stotz Academy's online course how to start building your wealth investing in the stock market. I wrote this course for those who want to go from feeling frustrated, intimidated, or overwhelmed by the stock market to becoming confident and in control of their financial future. Go to my worst investment ever.com slash deals to claim your discount now. Fellow risk takers you may notice I look slightly different today because today is New Year's Eve. We're recording this on that New Year's Eve. It's almost noon time in Bangkok, Thailand and I'm about to have lunch with mom and all of my friends and family here in Bangkok. Again, I'm your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz and I'm here with featured guests. Christiana tutor. Christiana? Are you ready to rock?

Cristiana Tudor 01:05
Yes, I am. Thank you so much for having on. Hi, everyone.

Andrew Stotz 01:09
My pleasure, and we're looking forward to learning from you. So I'll introduce you to the audience. Christiana tutor is a successful social media coach, whose goal is to empower women of any income level to start and scale their business to the next level, through effective branding, storytelling and social media coaching. She incorporates mindset coaching within her programs and helps her clients break out of old patterns, transition into a healthier emotional state and shift into positive thinking. Christiana, take a minute and Phil any further tidbits about your life.

Cristiana Tudor 01:53
So, you know, I feel so fortunate to do what I do every single day to support me, globally. And you know, I am incorporating everything that I've gone through, to help other women succeed, because I have always thought that whatever happens happens for a reason. And what happens, in my case really helps me have a better understanding of how I should support me because it's not just about storytelling, genuine storytelling, social media content, but it's also about how are you going to go about your business and yourself, right, as a woman, because you need to succeed. We all know, the financial aspect is very, very important, especially because when you're starting down, you'll need one and maybe you don't know what resources you have available. And so very important to have a clear understanding of how you can make money work for you, while you get that peace of mind to focus on what your

Andrew Stotz 03:14
beautiful, Alright, so, without further ado, I'm going to ask you that question. Now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one ever goes into their worst investment thinking it will be tell us a bit about this. Tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it and then tell us your story.

Cristiana Tudor 03:33
No, no, I started working as I was developing myself as a professional. So you know, I got some some fun out there, but I got an MBA and I got some financial losses, but I never got education in terms of investing. So I thought I should start investing because you know, putting your money into a bank account is not going to do a lot for you. due to inflation and other considerations for fun. Okay, let me make money from so I should invest. So well. Easier said than done. I invested into bitcoin, which apparently isn't that bad, right. But the problem is that I didn't know. I hadn't taken into consideration the fact that Bitcoin just like real estate and some other types of investment. For under tax, always black. What does this mean? It means that every time you get something like you haven't been Gain, you joy, you get taxed. I didn't know that. And so that was one asset. And then the second problem was that COVID. So you know, when to bad. And then next morning when I woke up, I have lost.

Andrew Stotz 05:30
So just just to understand that you lost everything and what the price of bitcoin collapsed overnight.

Cristiana Tudor 05:38
Yes, you've collapsed overnight. And there was nothing like to do to say anything. So you just, I have lost everything. So even afterwards, the price went up. But I have lost everything.

Andrew Stotz 05:58
And when How did you feel when you saw that price?

Cristiana Tudor 06:02
Ah, I'm going to be very honest with you. I know that the sky has fallen on me. And I was thinking, yep. Well, that, that this is the easiest way to play.

Andrew Stotz 06:19
And just one other question about that. So what did you do when you saw that?

Cristiana Tudor 06:28
I'm very honest with you. Because there is no reason why I would, you know, fabricate anything. I was in shock. But the shock was so huge that I couldn't even think so I didn't know what to do next. Besides the fact that I was shocked. I didn't know what to do. Because I was aware that I have lost everything. And the problem, even worse, because no, we were in the middle of it. And you know, having was so crucial. And company that I was working for the time was not doing well, at all, and so condemning my savings were vanished. And the company that I was working for at the time, was not doing very well. So I have to grow my business. And so what are we going to do? What we're going to be on our critical thinking, critical thinking, and my glasses that I have taken, your finances and economics never taught me anything about investment strategies. You know, I just I, it took me a while to really accept, because I was in the denial mode for a while and then you know, I needed to accept that. And after I did, that have knocked everything back. Okay, I just said, I'm not gonna sit here and complain, I need to do something. Right. So why did I started educating myself to the various tax brackets out there. So I learned that the tax bracket that's always effective, don't need to get back every time you withdraw, again, from the tax deferred, which means you are deferring your taxes on the game. You're still paying, but not every year, you can delay and, you know, taxes, but they are tax deferred. And then whatever is going on there is tax free. Or educating myself around this and started learning more about the tax free investment vehicles that we use to you know, repair the massive damage.

Andrew Stotz 09:31
So let me summarize a few things that I take away from this story. When I got originally started this podcast, I started to group the different interviews that I did with different people into different categories of mistakes. And I found that there was six categories that were common. But the most important category of all, the number one most common mistake was that people failed to do Their research. So clearly, in this case, you didn't know that much about Bitcoin. So but you decided I'm gonna put my money in this and give it a try. The second most common mistake is failed to properly assess and manage risk. So part of the process of investing is understanding the risk, which is hard to understand, you know, because everything is you're guessing. But to try to separate one of the lessons I've learned from my years with this podcast, as well as in my career in my life is that you want to separate the the research that you do, from the upside research about what the potential is, and the downside research what the risk is, when you separate it, it helps your your mental, you know, mind to break it apart. And then, and in this case, part of assessing and managing risk is making sure that you're investing a portion of your money, but not all of your money in any one particular asset. So that was clearly a second one that was, you know, a tough one, you know, that you suffered the consequences from now, there are some other ones, but I think those are the kind of the two that are pretty critical. And I think that also, you know, one of the things about Bitcoin, as well as these types of currencies and that type of stuff, is that, you know, they're highly volatile. And that's exactly what you found out. And of course, for many investors, they may put a portion in, and then they, if it goes bad, they may just leave it and say, I don't need to worry about it. In three years, let's see what happens. But if you're putting in the money that you know, you need, you know, then it's a lot harder. So there's a lot of emotion involved. Those are some of my takeaways, but anything that you would add to that, yes.

Cristiana Tudor 11:56
So I would add, especially to the last portion that you that you mentioned, because you know, when you're investing, you don't need to invest your money, that you're not ready to lose, I mean, but it's very important to understand how much you should be investing out of whatever you are gaining money. So don't invest 80%. And then something happens in the Oh my God, my bank account. They pay yourself first, which means 10% of whatever you're getting per month to be allocated towards saving and investing towards a tax investment. Next, if you're doing the math $2,000, or whatever that is, right 200 savings, because that way you make money work for you. While you'll have like peace of mind, and you can focus on whatever you'll have to focus on. So it's important to understand how money works, understand that dynamic is not just an investment, just like I did. When I needed to go to Spain to be strategically rather than emotional just because, oh, I'm thinking that it's gonna grow, but then I can do the money and do things with them. It's not, because look what happened like COVID came? Yep. All right. So it wasn't something that I was in control. So you need to consider all these things, and max out the tax strategy. And you can just do your research in your own country and identify which investment vehicles fall under tax free and maxed out and then start thinking about tax deferred and then tax. So better to meet them up to combine everything, but the first one to max out.

Andrew Stotz 14:28
Got it. Alright, last question. What's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Cristiana Tudor 14:34
My number one goal is to impact many, many women. globally. I have two books coming out. So I talked about empowerment, but also what it means to be an artist more to have an office right to set everything up during pandemic. So watch out for the book. I'm going to keep you posted. And you know, I look for The movement is all about what we do for the room to empower them and not just about, you know, posting parent content across social media. So I'm really excited about that. Number one,

Andrew Stotz 15:14
beautiful, beautiful. Alright listeners, there you have it another story of laws to keep you winning. Remember to go to my worst investment ever.com slash deals to claim your discount on how to start building your wealth investing in the stock market. As we conclude, Christiana, I want to thank you again, for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Cristiana Tudor 15:48
Yeah. Do your research, don't get too emotional. That budget per month in terms of percentages, not a fixed amount. 10%, whatever that is, from whatever you're gaining on a monthly basis. And very, very important. cancel those subscriptions that you are not using. So take a look at your bank statement and inventory, take a look at those automatic withdrawals from your bank account and see, okay, I'm spending so much money on something that doesn't work for me, let me invest my money into something that's actually going to work for me, it's only talking to me that it must be spending money and invest money. So if you're just spending money on subscriptions, or stuff that you'll never use that fans that block. So choose wisely. And pay attention because you know, it's just it's not at all $1 or $2 doesn't matter. Compound Interest keeps adding every single month, you're losing money. So when it comes to investment,

Andrew Stotz 17:14
great, I'm gonna that you just remind me that I've got to go through my monthly subscriptions and get rid of them. So thank you. Well, that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow, and most importantly, protect our wealth. Fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying I'll see you on the upside.