Crypto Is a Scam

Here at Stupid Sexy Privacy, we have a very firm position on cryptocurrencies: They are a scam.

Even Commissioner Gordon thinks so.

You should not use crypto.

Generally speaking, most people don't understand crypto, and if you don't understand how something works, you shouldn't use it or invest in it.

If you have a pension — or someone managing your 401K or other financial assets — you should drop what you're doing, and make sure none of your money is invested in crypto.

Especially in light of the GENIUS Act's passage, which puts us on a path to another global financial crisis.

We don't talk politics here at Stupid Sexy Privacy.

The reasons are:

1. If we did, this content would age like milk.
2. We'd also immediately lose half of you for one reason or another.

But here's what we can say about the GENIUS Act: It's bad.

If It's Bad, Why Did It Pass?

Because the crypto industry spent $245 million in 2024 to make it happen.

This is the same reason the United States doesn't have a national equivalent of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation.

The Big Tech companies don't want it. So we don't have it. That's what life is like in an Oligarchy.

You should remember this point, because oligarchs invest in fascists and weirdos.

The only thing you should invest in is an Index Fund.

Specifically, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX.)

The reasons for this are best articulated by JL Collins in his book, The Simple Path to Wealth.

(The book also discusses alternatives if you can't access VTSAX, and provides guidance for those not based in America.)

Not that you should exclusively take financial advice from us.

Anyone you hire to do so should be committed to The Fiduciary Standard. That means they work in your best interest, not in the interest of the financial industry.

But ...

There IS a section on our Privacy Tips page that deals with money.

We added this section after researching how generations younger than my fellow Millennials use money.

Gen Z, and the ones coming up behind them, don't separate spending and saving money from their other online activities.

More specifically, many of them don't use cash. And that's a problem.

Privacy Tip: In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash

Jean Shepard said that. And if you don't know who that is, I promise that you do.

You should use cash whenever possible.

Yes. We know. Cash is filthy.

But.

Money is harder to spend when it's something physically in your hands, versus something you can part with in under three taps.

Many people have found success in putting their cash into envelopes at the start of each month.

With each of those envelopes representing a thing you budgeted for.

So, if you know you're going to spend $500 a month on groceries, for example, you put $500 in cash into an envelope labeled "Groceries."

Once that envelope is empty?

You can't spend anymore on that thing.

Simple, right? That's the budgeting system we recommend.

Get comfortable with using cash again.

We like cash because it doesn't leave that much of a trail when you spend it.

Unlike when you use your apps and devices to make a payment.

They track everything you do.

The only conversations cash hears is when you talk to it.

And even then, you can be reasonably sure that it's not listening.

-BJ