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As a kid, we all love to dream that we’ll become millionaires when we grow up, but few of us ever get there, let alone become millionaires when we’re still on the cusp on childhood. But such is the case for Erik Finman who bet his parents that if he was a millionaire by age 18 then he wouldn’t have to go to college. Shockingly, Finman made good on his bet thanks to some clever investing in bitcoin. Not only did this dude – who I kind of hate only because I’m so insanely jealous – not go to college, he dropped out of high school completely at 15 to start his own company. Major props.
Bitcoin, which some analysts believe will reach $1 million or more in 10 years across all major exchanges, currently boasts a value of about $12,000 a coin.
Our guy Finman here? Yeah, he owns 403 bitcoins, so do the math. Further expanding his financial profile, this little whiz kid has also invested in cryptocurrencies such as litecoin and ethereum earning him a bunch of bank.
So he’s an 18-year-old millionaire, but is he worried the fickle nature of the financial world could all come crashing down on him?
“Personally I think bitcoin is going to be worth a couple hundred thousand to a million dollars a coin,” he told CNBC. Bold.
So how did he rack up all this worth and how can I do it? Turns out, Finman received a $1,000 gift from his grandmother when he was 12 that he invested into bitcoin. He then sold that for $100,000 less than two years later.
“(High school) was pretty low quality,” he said. “I had these teachers that were all kind of negative. One teacher told me to drop out and work at McDonald’s because that was all I would amount to for the rest of my life. I guess I did the dropout part.”
After dropping out at 15, he launched an online education company called Botangle and was offered either $100,000 or 300 bitcoin to sell the company in 2015. Finman went with the latter, which was valued at just $200 a coin at the time.
Now, he’s leaning towards skipping college given his rapid rise in the business world.
“I never got my GED, and I don’t see the value in it,” Finman said. “The purpose of that would be to get another education level and get a job. I had to learn through running a business. Instead of writing essays for English class, I had to write emails to important people…The way the education system is structured now, I wouldn’t recommend it,” Finman said. “It doesn’t work for anyone. I would recommend the internet, which is all free. You can learn a million times more off YouTube and Wikipedia.”
Just absolutely crushing it. Good for this kid.
