Not financial, investment, or tax advice.
This is written as a note to myself, my own notes that I want to remember for the future.

Who are the geniuses of today that will be talked about 10-20 years from now?

Peter Thiel is able to identify and invest in the best founders in the world. He finds the on-in-a-billion entrepreneur, invests in them early. Vitalik Buterin. Elon Musk. Mark Zuckerberg.

Peter Thiel famously has stated that “I’d never bet against Elon, ever. Between 2010 and 2018, if you did nothing else, but listen to every Talk, presentation, podcast appearance that Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Vitalik Buterin gave, you would have done very well investing wise.

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Even while making bets on highly risky assets, I want to minimize personal risk in my own life.

We’ve all heard about having a diversified portfolio. And I suppose this strategy is a play on that.

Invest in whatever you consider your stable and secure investments are. This includes your normal 401K, index funds, Roth IRA, etc.

If I was making 50K per year, for example, allocate 10% of your income to safe, secure, proven investment strategies that work over decades. I would consult a financial advisor to learn about these strategies, or learn from a website like Mr. Money Mustache, or join the F.I.R.E. community on Reddit. This information is out there and easy to access if you’re willing to spend time reading, and actively seek to make changes in your own financial life.

So, the strategy is to invest your 10% of your income into secure places first.

Next, start saving about 1% of your income on top of that, and keep it in cash. Save this cash and start learning about emerging technology industries.

Impacts of innovation take a long time.

Sit and think about what types of products and what industries have the potential to impact the future of humanity over the next 30 years.

An innovative company that seeks to change the world can take longer than you think – or even have been able to think.

If you’re in your twenties, it can be difficult to make sense of a time horizon that’s actually longer than you have been alive.

But seriously – take 30 years, its important for the mental exercise.

Yes – 30 years seems like a long time, but its my favorite number to pick when thinking about the future of emerging tech.

30 years if roughly 1/3 of a human lifetime, and about 1 and a half generations of humans.

Its long enough that, someone born today, in 30 years, will likely be an adult with a family doing normal day to day stuff.

Think about someone born today, that in 30 years is an adult with a family. Which technologies will impact this person?

This mental exercise is difficult to do, but its valuable because it gets you to use your imagination.

Practice doing this exercise throughout your day to day life.

When you encounter something in the news or in your day job, start learning to think in these terms.

Climate change and sea level rise headlines, for example, might mean you forgo the beach house investment, and instead invest in a mountain house or a lake house. If sea level does in fact rise, among the large societal and global problems that humanity faces, at least you minimize the impact in your personal life by deciding not to invest in a beach out.

Next, keep reading and learning. One book, such as “The Inevitable” by Kevin Kelly, started helping me think about the future and what technologies are likely to exist at some point in the future.

Become obsessed with thinking about the future.

Learn from smart people that know more than you.

Make a list and keep track of possible technologies that will be super impactful in 30 years.

Maybe its a publicly traded company like Tesla.

Maybe its a digital asset like cryptocurrency.

Or maybe you’re an accredited investor, and you actually have access to participate in angel investing and buy into privately held companies.

Whatever your situation may be, you need to really start finding real projects in the real world that exist and that you believe will change the world in 30 years, and also be super profitable while doing so.

You need to be able to identify tech trends before everyone else.

At some point, you will be ready to invest. Take a small amount of that tiny fraction of your income you’ve been saving each month, and make a bet. Buy some shares, purchase some crypto, whatever that transaction looks like to you.

Slowly, you’ll begin to watch the performance of your high risk investment.

Maybe it goes down 50 or 75 or even 90%. Doesn’t matter.

Because if you spent the time to really think and really learn and intelligently have focused on the tech trends before the majority of the population, your investment is still sound.

The short-term drops and fluctuations are worth sitting through, because you are a long term thinker.

You invested with CONVICTION.

If you get lucky – big IF – you’ll start to see something interesting happen. As the high risk high growth investment gains traction, you will see the value start to go up and to the right.

You’ll start comparing your high-growth investments to those steady investments that you made into index funds or bonds or whatever other secure investment vehicles your financial advisor gave you.

If you’re lucky, those high risk investments that started out as simply 1% of your income will start to make up a significant piece of your portfolio.