DH has spent our Xmas money on BitCoin

[crisscrosscranky]

🤦🏻‍♀️ we often get cards addressed to "Criss and Mr Criss" at Christmas from grandparents/aunts etc. The past couple of years we've used it for a weekend away around Easter time and I book it before the new year so I can send thank you cards and let the gifters know where we're off too they're mostly old folk; they like a proper thank you!

This year we got £155 in total. Just suggested to DH that Bath might be nice and that I'd to the bank tomorrow to pay the cheques in. He's then told me cool as a cucumber that he's invested it in BitCoin so if we wait a few months we might be able to afford a weekend in Europe rather than the UK

I love this man to bits but he's just thrown our Xmas money away hasn't he!? I can't tell Aunt Doris and Uncle Quentin that he's gambling in digital currency so looks like we'll be paying for a weekend away on top of his new career as a broker he's actually a lorry driver

He thinks I'm massively unreasonable to be a bit cross because he seems to think next year we'll be millionaires if you didn't read that in Del Boy's accent you haven't watched enough Xmas telly

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Tell him he can do what he likes with his money but you want your half of the Christmas money back immediately! Just be prepared that if he does make any money on the Bitcoin you're likely to never hear the end of it. Not the point though, it wasn't all his money to spend. (Not invest, spend)

It was money for both of you. YANBU. Tell him he's selfish and that you want your half back.

jeez.

Your post is a sure sign OP that the Bitcoin bubble is bursting.

Sorry, OP.

How did he invest it? Don't you still have the cheques? Or did he take money from your account? I would be raging.

YANBU. He shouldn’t have invested it without discussing it with you, or he should have invested his share only.

I think he’s bought at the wrong time, but I hope I am proven wrong.

If people aren't going to invest, doesn't that mean that the value will fall?
And people who brought high will try to sell quickly to reduce their losses?

Just like tulips?

I'm pretending not to care about how BitCoin works- he knows I'm pissed off that he spent the equivalent of our Xmas money (before I've actually paid most of it in the bank!).

It's not that he's spent so much- it's what he spent it on and that he knew I wouldn't support it else he'd have told me first!

By 2nd January I predict the value will be half what it is now. If that. I've been reading more about it. Lots of economists are saying it's a total con as it's totally unregulated.

OP, your money will either be worth what he put in or more. He shouldn't have done it without your agreement but I'm confident that the value is going up. Plenty of people today buying at £13k which is the top of the value range so they're either stupid, optimistic or know what they're doing.

The people saying "bitcoin will be worthless in January" are people that have not bought in.

The whole point of it is that it’s unregulated , they are saying that to put off the masses ;)

Plenty of people are buying today at £13K. Well that's up to them. It's a pyramid scheme which only relies on new 'investors' putting money in. As an economist put it bitcoin needs new suckers to keep putting money in while the earlier people take the profits. But it's only like a pyramid scheme where the later people put money in so the earlier ones take it out. No new money no profit.

he knows I'm pissed off that he spent the equivalent of our Xmas money (before I've actually paid most of it in the bank!)

So hasn't he effectively spent his own money? Do you have your own bank accounts or joint bank accounts?

If your own- no problem - he has spent his money. If joint treat it as coming out of his individual spending money.

It must burst. It's based on nothing but hot air. Now it will go through what they call the FOMO syndrome. What is it that is getting valuable. It's imaginary.

Bitcoin isn’t a con, it’s a currency and like all currencies it’s worth what people are prepared to accept it as being worth. It isn’t backed by a country, so there isn’t a government (with a tax base to raise revenue from) that is essentially saying “trust us”. But as we’ve seen with “real” currencies, governments are sometimes prone to abusing the trust people put in their currencies. There’s no regulation on bitcoin so if someone manages to crack the encryption or the security on the exchange you use, or if the exchange just tells you “tough” you may have little recourse. There is a strong, real user base for virtual currencies that should maintain some value for it providing it isn’t ever broken (most experts think it’s robust). But whether that value is the current one, a higher one or a lower one is very unclear. The big surge and drop before Christmas illustrates the volatility and uncertainty. Now that law enforcement have managed to track currency use and use the evidence in trial some of that real user base may disappear and move on elsewhere. And, of course, there are competitors people could move to instead. But at the same time, Bitcoin is reaching a far bigger audience now, which could help raise value. It’s a big risk, but most investments are and risk is only mitigated by diversifying, which is tricky with £155.

I would be find using Christmas money (I.e. a small windfall I could afford to lose) for something like this quite fun. But not if my DH went behind my back to do it with our money. YANBU to be furious with him.

bitcoin is a con, I bought some around 6 years ago to buy some drugs online, at that time it worked very well, you bought say £100 worth and then ordered £30 of weed or whatever and then you'd pay around 3p in fees.

Nowadays the average fee is £30.

It's completely broken for its supposed purpose (a currency), due to high fees.

It's also an environmental catastrophe, basically it's a division of money (in effect) among the total computing power. So if the system earns $10 billion in fees, then a large % of that must be spent on electricity. Currently it's consuming as much electricity as most of the continent of Africa, and that will increase.

Most bitcoin get stolen sooner or later (mine did), and very few people in the world are technically competent to look after them properly (if you have them on some website, then you aren't technically competent).

They will go to zero because they are shit and broken as a cryptocurrency.

Something else will likely take its place because the drug dealers, etc. are really pissed off because it's so utterly broken and useless now.

Money going into Bitcoin now is not so much stupid money as 'too stupid to have any money'.

It's joint money thus (IMO) a joint descision on how to spend it. I would be pretty annoyed in my OH went and spent in on magic beans.

Even if it did make money it's principle that you had no saybon the joint pot.

Currently it's consuming as much electricity as most of the continent of Africa, and that will increase

That is a fascinating piece of information.

Can you explain "mining" ? I could not make head nor tail of the wiki explanation.

pisacake good point about the hike in transaction fees. It makes bitcoin less suitable for small deals, changing the market place for it and makes other cryptocurrencies more attractive in comparison.

Spent a weekend in London with a close friend of mine who used to work for a big bank across the globe. We caught up with a few of his old friends. One chap who's the son of a very wealthy family just couldn't stop praising bit coin. He said that's where the money is an his family have invested a small fortune in it and we should all too. That's all well and good but I don't know much about bit coin or the currency markets. Im not one to enter into a game with my money where I don't know the rules. My money is safer in my pockets than invested in games I don't understand. I may never be a millionaire but the money I have is plenty, I know where it is and I'm working it the way I know how. I think there is always a danger when the masses dabble in markets they dont understand or know how to play.

Does he understand what the fees will be to
convert his profits to real cash, and how easily he can call on this?
The whole bitcoin thing is so transparently a stupid bubble. When lorry drivers are spruiking it as a next year’s sure fire winner you know the smart money left long ago

I thought that the general consensus on bitcoin is that they are overbought and are due a massive (downwards) correction; the graph someone posted upthread seems to show that this is already well under way.

I'd be fucking furious. He did that without consulting you, and that's absolutely not on.

It was a great investment months back. The last few weeks the bubble has burst and it's value is dropping heavily and consistently as shown on the graph a pp posted. It is a huge risk anyway but especially right now.

He has no right to invest joint money in anything without your consent imo!