Financial Planning for the Future
Millennials Using Crypto to Pay Off Student Loans and Save for Retirement
Cryptocurrency is increasingly becoming part of the mainstream investor’s wallet. More and more people, from billionaires to celebrities (like Paris Hilton) to ordinary people, are exchanging their fiat for bitcoin or other top altcoins. As seems to often happen, millennials are leading the pack in seriously considering a cashless future — young people are increasingly putting their money where their thumbs are without second thoughts. Students and recent graduates are investing to help establish their future financial security faster and earlier — not necessarily in fiat stocks, index funds, or a 501k but in decentralized digital currency.
The trend is growing, but the numbers are still fairly small. Only 1% of America’s population has not only heard of bitcoin and ethereum but is actually buying, selling, and trading cryptocurrencies on their smart phones and laptops. Some of these people not only use cryptocurrency as the basis for their long-term savings but are encouraging their friends to do the same to take control of their future finances.
Roshaan Khan, a 20-year-old senior at Virginia Commonwealth University, is one of those millennials. On his decision to invest in crypto Khan stated:
“All of my net worth is in cryptocurrencies because I see them as the best way to escalate my ability to be financially secure and pay off my student loans. I like the idea of decentralization, the fact that there’s a lot less corruption and political ties. That idea appeals to me … Not having to go through banks. Having financial control over our lives again.”
The author of Mastering Bitcoin and The Internet of Money, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, says that millennials are more likely to believe in this new financial system as it hasn’t betrayed them yet. He stated:
“When you talk to millennials who have been thoroughly disappointed by every single social institution — the government, the church, the politics, the parties — they can’t trust anyone anymore. They remember 2008, because it was the first big crash they’ve had, and many millennials have been unable to find work. They watched no bankers go to jail.”
On integrating crypto investments as part of a diverse financial portfolio, Emil Thorsplass, a 24-year-old musician from Norway, confessed:
“It feels better to run my own savings plan by investing and reinvesting in new technology. I still have my regular pension fund and my bills still have to be paid through a bank account, but cryptocurrency investments have become a central part of saving for me.”
