Stop wondering. Calculate the exact amount of wealth you abandoned. A monument to wrong decisions. Verified pain inside.
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I first heard about bitcoin sometime in college (2007-2011). At the time I thought about buying a couple just for fun (might have been a few dollars worth? Can’t remember). But I decided it was a waste of money.
And at the time, it was a complete waste of money. I don’t regret it at all.
Only with knowledge of the future would it have been worthwhile.
But today when I see what cryptocurrency has become, I regret my decision even less.
There are countless ways I could have made millions if I knew the future. I don’t waste my time regretting those.
By jonplackett 2026-02-2510:253 reply I was gonna buy $1000 of bitcoin in 2016 but I couldn’t find my passport to verify my identity with Coinbase and then forgot about it. Ah well.
Would you have $100k now or would you have sold it when it tripled to $3000 because that would've felt like a really good return already, though?
By jonplackett 2026-02-2510:361 reply Yeah this is the story I tell myself to make me feel better. I may well have even more regret! Or thought I was an investment genius and invested loads more and then sold it at a bad time.
yeah as Warren Buffett once said: "Our favorite holding period is forever".
That is basically my strategy. Everything I buy is with the intent of selling in a couple of decades when retirement comes, at the earliest.
By b0bbi 2026-02-2512:46 It's a great strategy as long as there's agreement between people and that the "S&P500" (paste your) means something :)
By andirk 2026-03-0123:06 I did find my passport at that same time and threw a lot more USD at it. It's nice.
By jonplackett 2026-02-2520:321 reply Probably would have sold it when it doubled and felt like a genius… and then an idiot.
By b0bbi 2026-02-2521:37 yeh, that's true :) btw, I'm sure many did just that
By eru 2026-02-2811:55 > And at the time, it was a complete waste of money. I don’t regret it at all.
I think, spending 50 bucks on bitcoin back then wouldn't have been a complete waste of money: in the worst case, you could have kept them as a souvenir from a passing fad to tell your grandchildren about. Like pet rocks.
However, I heard about bitcoin around the same time, and even read the whitepaper etc (I'm a mathematician and did some actual cryptography at the time), but still didn't buy any.
By andirk 2026-03-0123:06 Just like any stonk that's increased in value, woulda coulda shoulda. Keep an eye out for things that you care about and things you think other people will care about, and invest in those.
By PowerElectronix 2026-02-258:334 reply The first thing one has to do when analysing past money decisions is to judge the decision based on the information available at the time.
I too watched from the sidelines as btc, nvda and others went to the moon. But with the information available at the time, investing in those was not a sound strategy.
By lofties 2026-02-2511:30 Even if I would've bought Nvidia, Bitcoin, or whatever stock... who is to say I would've had the balls to hold it all the way to whatever they're at today. I probably would've ended up like the guy who spent 10,000 bitcoin on a pizza.
By cs02rm0 2026-02-259:19 Survivor bias again - these are the few that made it while many others did not.
By hsbauauvhabzb 2026-02-258:451 reply There are plenty of people that thought WeWork would go to the moon, too.
You are 100% right about survivorship bias. That's actually exactly why the calculator already supports a status "BULLET DODGED"!
By hsbauauvhabzb 2026-02-2519:312 reply Do you account for all the factors of the worldwide market? Because there are certainly more busts then there are crypto level books.
The whole pre-tense of your site is flawed by survivorship bias to the point where it has no value, and you suggesting you’ve accounted for that proves that you’re ignorant to economic realities.
By b0bbi 2026-02-2521:35 Either I misunderstood the question, or you misunderstood what this project is about. All I consider is historical data. Based on this data and the dates entered, I calculate the result. I don't need to consider economics.
By eru 2026-02-2811:54 > The whole pre-tense of your site is flawed by survivorship bias to the point where it has no value, [...]
As far as I can tell, the site is purely for entertainment.
By b0bbi 2026-02-258:54 It's true.
In my experience, you'll be able to evaluate the correctness of your actions today in about five years, when you have more data and results.
By Bishonen88 2026-02-259:251 reply hindsight is 20/20. If I'd known that Nvda, Aapl, Amzn etc. would go up, it's easy to now to regret how much money we'd have. Same thing with "RSU's" we get at FAANG. I often hear from coworkers that if they wouldn't have sold them when they got them, they'd be rich right now. Yes, they would be - but in an alternate universe, they'd have little/nothing and wouldn't have bought the car/camera/vacation they got out of the money when they sold the RSUs.
I added something related to this idea to my life-planning app: what if for projections. I track all my expenses/incomes/investments in my app. I then can with 1 click run a scenario where I move certain expenses to investments. I.e. cancelling netflix for 10 years, or xbox gamepass etc. and seeing what it would actually do to my 10 year projection (which already accounts for ETFs/Stock with variable return rates etc.). i.e.:
Exclude Recurring Expenses Simulate cutting these expenses and investing the savings Redirecting €19.99/month to investments
Then I see black on white what would happen if I get rid of all the 'small' subscriptions, on a visual chart. It's eye opening when one selects items that add up to a ~100 Euro ++ a month.
I tracked every single daily expense for a few years, until I hit a point where I realized I already knew exactly where my money was going and how much I could realistically save. It just comes down to discipline.
I really appreciate the idea and saved it for potential future features! My only hesitation is that adding practical projection tools might make shouldhavebought lose its fun, curious spirit and turn it into a serious financial app.
By Bishonen88 2026-02-2510:10 You're right of course. For me the difference maker is in seeing on a projection chart that if I just cancel 2x zwift, disney and netflix, I can save up to:
Savings from Cuts
€11,048
€60/mo @ 8%
within 10 years. That's HUGE! While the 60 Euro a month seems kind of irrelevant on its own.
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