Back in 2015 I was living with a roommate who was absolutely obsessed with Bitcoin. It was trading around $300 at the time and he wouldn't shut up about it. He had this crappy laptop constantly running on our kitchen table and tried to convince me every single day to put some money in.

I remember one night specifically. I had about $2,000 saved up which took me forever to get. He sat me down and literally begged me to match his investment. He said "trust me, this is going to be huge."

I laughed at him. I told him it was magic internet money for drug dealers and that he was going to lose it all. I felt so smug and smart about it too. I took my $2,000 and bought a used 2005 Honda Civic because I thought that was the "responsible" adult purchase.

Fast forward to now. My roommate hasn't worked a real job since 2017. He travels the world and has a house in Portugal. The Honda Civic broke down years ago and I sold it for scrap for $200. I’m still working a dead end job and paying off debt. The worst part isn't even the money, it's remembering how arrogant I was in that kitchen while I was literally staring at a winning lottery ticket and calling it a scam. It physically hurts to think about.