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Using Bitcoin to Build an Emergency Fund – Update #2

This is the second update in my weekly series of my experience using cryptocurrency to get people excited about saving money. I will be the first person to admit there is little fundamental reasoning behind investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, or any one of the many other digital currencies out there.

However, one reason to examine digital currency as a tool to save or invest reasonable amounts of money is that it gets people excited about saving money and that’s a good thing.

The Digital Currency Savings Account Update

This week I added a new tool to my saving strategy. I found an interesting application on my smartphone app called Coinflash. The app works like a lot of other apps and rounds up transactions you are already making to the next dollar and then invests that difference each week in a digital currency you select. I picked Ethereum since I had not invested in it before but you can elect to invest that spare change in Bitcoin or a combination of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Now you might have the same concern I did, how are these guys getting the information on my transactions? Well, they are actually using a service called Plaid which only provides transactional data and they are a company with experience in the financial industry. You can read more about them here.

I elected to link my two credit cards to my Coinflash account since they are the bulk of my daily transactional data.

If You Love Charts

The arrows show the point at which I bought for each currency.

What’s It All Worth This Week?

Invested – $200
Coinflash Round Ups – $37.49
Coinbase Referrals – $40
Value This Update – $522.12
Value Last Update – $312.38
Change Since Last Update – + $209.74

See also  Ethereum Basics: What Is Ethereum?

How I Invested in Bitcoin and Litecoin

There are a ton of places you can use to purchase cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin. If you decide to start a savings program using any cryptocurrency you should absolutely use the exchange you are most comfortable with.

When I started this experiment I used Coinbase. They are an often mentioned exchange that has been around a long time a good reputation. Coinbase has a nice dashboard and it worked smoothly for me. I have no complaints.

Read This Disclaimer

I’m not an investment expert but Bitcoin caught my eye as an interesting way to get people excited about saving and hopefully to enjoy the current wave of explosive returns to help them to get out of debt or build an emergency fund they can use when they need it most. Rushing to invest in Bitcoin or other similar currencies is a risk and many people leaping for that risk will make an emotional rather than logical decision about what to do. Make an educated choice about what you should do, not an emotional one. And for God’s sake, never save money you don’t have.

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Steve Rhode is the Get Out of Debt Guy and has been helping good people with bad debt problems since 1994. You can learn more about Steve, here.
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