This thread is not strictly about investing or trading itself, but more about the life complications and consequences surrounding it, I think this subforum is the right place for this, please let me know if there are any relevant/similar threads. Please let me know if this belongs somewhere else.
Hello everyone, first time visiting this part of the forum for me, but I am very interested in hearing your thoughts on my potential plans, as I think the 2p2 community is fairly unique online. I don't really know another forum that I would expect to get solid advice from.
So, what am I thinking?
As you can see from the title, I am seriously considering dropping out of university in order to pursue crypto investing/trading full time (for at least a year). I am currently enrolled in a Liberal Arts & Sciences Bachelor's programme (which is pretty worthless if you don't do a Master's after). I am about to start my third and last year at the end of January.
I got into crypto in December 2016 and put in €2000. Through 2017 I gradually invested more, until in May 2017 I had invested €10.000, which is now worth roughly €100.000. Yes I have made sick gains, but I have underperformed the market, so there is a lot to learn AND gain. I realise that this opportunity crypto provides will last maybe a few years, at least the really crazy part where you could pull an Ian Balina (who went from 0 to $5MM in under a year). But the sooner you get good at crypto, the more money there is to be made.
I feel like going to university to get a worthless degree (this is becoming an increasingly accepted notion as you probably know) is normally a decent way to spend your early 20's, as you live an awesomely chill and social life. HOWEVER, if it is costing me millions of dollars in opportunity costs, what the **** am I doing in college?
I am fully aware that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. However, this opportunity seems pretty damn real. If you think I shouldn't leave university, please convince me it is indeed too good to be true. If you think pursuing crypto fulltime is/can be a good idea, please let me know your arguments as well.
The way I see it is like this:
Best-case scenario: I pull an Ian Balina and go ~50x in a year to end up at €5MM, only to coast along after that and end up with €10MM-€50MM somewhere in my 40's/50's (may sound crazy if you don't know anything about crypto, but I think there is at least a few percent chance this happens).
Worst-case scenario:
You can obviously make this as nightmarish as you want, but let's say somehow all crypto becomes worthless (that is $0,00). Okay, in this case I go back to uni, get a boring degree, get a job, make some money, and try to invest that succesfully. Support for student in the Netherlands is very generous, so nothing to worry about there really. It would be insanely painful to waste €100.000 of course, but that is the worst-case scenario.
"Realistic" worst-case scenario:
So let's look at a more realistic bad scenario. I (and many others) are convinced that crypto is not only here to stay, but that it is going to grow in the next 10 years or more. Given this assumption, if I go into crypto fulltime, I will likely make money, unless I am a complete imbecile. Alright, let's say that it turns out I am a sucker. Then I may realize 0-200% gains next year. I would conclude at the end of the year that I failed, and I would go back to uni, because apparently buying and hodling some coins might be better for me.
Considering the above, I would say switching to crypto full time seems +(life)EV.
I think that this forum has people who can look beyond the standard outlook on life most people have (highschool-college-boring job-promotion-still boring but some more money-retire-die), therefore I think you may have valuable insights. Maybe there are even people (who know people) here that have done something similar. Quitting college for poker sure seems a hell of a lot more risky than quitting college for crypto.
Anyway, thanks for your time, and I look forward to absorbing some of your wisdom
Final note: If something like a "crypto house" or other type of local, in-person community exists - which you know or live in, I would be very interested in potentially joining!