How Keegan Paid off His Debt With Bitcoin
Early on in my (Keegan Francis) cryptocurrency journey, I was inundated with debt from putting myself through school. I took a computer science degree at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. This put me in a good position to earn an average salary right out of school, but I soon came to realize that it would take me a long time to pay off my debt, regardless of my pay. I started to look into investing as a way to pay off my debt faster. I had stumbled upon bitcoin in 2014, and invested in 2015. I originally got interested in cryptocurrency for a couple of reasons.
The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
The underlying technology
I had the ability to comprehend blockchain, the underlying technology to cryptocurrency. This admittedly gives me a leg up for understanding the various value propositions that cryptocurrencies, namely bitcoin, have to give to the world. The next few years would be spent riding a wave of excitement as bitcoin rose from $500 to $25000. This is the story of how I paid off my debt with Bitcoin.
The Crypto Bubble of 2017
After investing in 2015, I instantly cared more about cryptocurrencies. One of the surefire ways to get someone to pay attention to something, is to get them invested in it. After you acquire something, you suddenly want to know how it works, and whether or not it will be worth more in the future. I luckily had 2 years to familiarize myself with bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. When the price of my bitcoin started to lift off in 2017, I was forced to consider what I would do in the event that my investment grew to a size where I could do something with it. A striking realization was that I did not have a plan. I realized I needed to have an investment strategy.
Fast forward to the end of 2017, where bitcoin hit an all time high value of $25,000 CAD. When the innevitable plummet started to take place, I was finally forced to make a decision. Do I liquidate some amount of bitcoin to pay off my debt? Or do I leave my investment in bitcoin in the hopes of more growth? I ended up choosing the former. I paid off my $60,000 worth of student loans, more or less in one lump sum payment.
Why Did I Sell?
Through my journey into investing, I also learned about debt. Debt is not inherently bad. If you know how to use debt, you can make it work for you, and become wealthier. What I saw, was my debt eating away at my bi-weekly paycheque. I had less cash flow because of my debt. To me, my debt represented some amount of risk I was holding onto. I ultimately knew that I wanted to start a business of my own, which is a massive risk all on its own. I didn’t want the additional burden of my debt, on top of the uncertainty surrounding the next time I would get paid from being an entrepreneur. I ended up selling my bitcoin for two reasons.
I thought bitcoin would go lower
I wanted to eliminate my debt before taking on additional risk
It Worked Out
It was difficult to know this at the time, but the decision to pay off my debt was a good one. Bitcoin continued to fall far lower than I was anticipating. This allowed me to secure my gains, pay off my debt, and buy back into bitcoin at a much lower price. Not only that, but it allowed me the freedom to start my own business. In November of 2018, my wife Mrugakshee and I started a cryptocurrency and blockchain consultancy and education business called Atlantic Blockchain Company Inc. Now we’re telling our crypto story through our new brand Go Full Crypto.