This article is reprinted with permission from Huali Huawai, and the copyright belongs to the original author.

A few days ago, I saw an interesting comment in the backend. The person said: "I really envy people like you. I also want to quit my current job and go all in on Web3. Can you take me as an apprentice?"

I definitely can't take anyone under my wing, and I am somewhat "lazy" in certain aspects, so I don't consider developing a mentorship business. However, this question is indeed worth pondering for everyone.

1. Should you treat the crypto field as your main job or a side job?

In this field, money can sometimes come relatively quickly. For example, some people can turn their $1,000 into $100,000 by buying MemeCoins in just a day or a week. But to be honest, those who can achieve such results are still a minority; most people will not become the next hundredfold coin darling.

For most ordinary people, if you also want to go all in in this field, you need to consider several factors:

1) How much spare money do you have? What percentage of your funds can be invested in the crypto field?

Just thinking about making money through trading is not enough because the market is volatile and unpredictable. Very few people can consistently earn without loss. You need to clarify whether you have enough spare money so that even if you can't make money through trading for a while, it won't affect your quality of life.

2) What are you best at? What is your greatest advantage?

For those with limited funds, I believe time may become your greatest advantage. Because in this field, it's often not just about the amount of capital, and many people seem to lack the conditions to compete on that front. As an ordinary person, having lasting endurance in this field can help you develop some core skills. For example, if you, like Huali Huawai, enjoy writing and are willing to invest 10-12 hours a day in this endeavor (including researching, tracking various data, conducting project research, etc.), then you can consider becoming a media IP and try to establish your own characteristics and advantages to surpass Huali Huawai.

3) Can you maintain focus consistently?

Any success is inseparable from focus. What every industry needs most is talent, not so-called generalists who know a little about everything.

In the crypto field, there are many ways and methods to make money. For instance, many partners in the group are very good at finding new mines or high-yield DeFi opportunities on-chain, some excel at medium to short-term swing trading, others are skilled at researching various airdrop opportunities, and some can achieve multiple returns just by holding Bitcoin or Ethereum… and so on.

Or let's continue with the example of media mentioned above. Media can also be divided into many types, such as long articles, short articles, videos, podcasts, etc. If you enjoy writing long articles, platforms like Medium (or WeChat public accounts in China) may be more suitable for you. If you prefer making videos, then platforms like YouTube may be more appropriate. If you are good at speaking frequently, then platforms like Twitter may suit you better. And so on.

Of course, the above is just a simple discussion of relatively free methods. If you have some special professional skills (such as programming, design, or marketing abilities), you can also consider looking for suitable positions in Web3 companies, such as through Web3Career, Cryptocurrency Jobs, and other Web3 recruitment websites (you can find the corresponding websites through Google search).

In short, going all in on Web3 is certainly possible; it is a personal choice for everyone. However, our advice should still be based on individual circumstances and carefully considered, rather than jumping in just because you see others making money in this field or hearing that it's easy to earn money here.

At the same time, going all in in this field requires sufficient self-discipline, the ability to endure long periods of solitude, and a commitment to continuous improvement (as this field changes rapidly). To be honest, embarking on the path of making money alone will be a difficult and long process. I hope that before you decide to make it your main job, you have conducted a careful assessment and consideration.

If you really enjoy this field, the best approach is to start part-time. You can use your spare time spent watching short dramas or scrolling through Weibo to learn some necessary knowledge about the crypto field and try some trading, treating the crypto field as a side job before considering a longer-term plan. For example, I started trading in 2017, but it wasn't until 2019 that I made the decision to go all in and treat trading as my main job. I remember sharing this in detail in the preface of the 2023 e-book "Advancing Blockchain Thinking."

2. How much money do you need to change your life?

Since going all in is about making money better, let's discuss a question that many people like to ask: How much money do you need to change your life?

I often see people online casually mentioning goals like A8 or A9 (where higher numbers represent higher levels or capital amounts; for example, A9 usually refers to assets with a tail number of 9). As for whether one can achieve these goals through trading, let's set that aside for now. The real question is: What is your life goal?

In real life, for some wealthy individuals, it is indeed hard for ordinary people to imagine. For example, a faucet casually installed in someone's villa can cost over 600,000 RMB, which is roughly equivalent to the annual income of a worker earning 60,000 RMB per month (before tax).

However, for the vast majority of ordinary people, it is difficult to directly leap and become such wealthy individuals.

Let's return to our own reality. When it comes to money, we need to first think through several basic questions (assuming a target of the next five years):

The first question is: How much money do you (or your family) need?

This needs to be practical. Don't tell me you need 100 million; such an answer is meaningless. You need to consider your daily living expenses, debt situation (such as mortgage, car loan, etc.), and the safe savings that can guarantee your basic living expenses for the next five years.

The second question is: How much do you want to earn?

Here, you can set a higher target, but the goal-setting should also consider your specific plans. For example, do you need to upgrade your lifestyle in the next five years, such as replacing your ordinary car with a high-end model, upgrading your two-bedroom apartment to a four-bedroom house or villa, or does your child need to study abroad or transfer to a more expensive school… and so on.

The third question is: How much can you realistically earn, and what methods or avenues do you plan to use to make money?

Combining the above two points, continue to think about how likely you are to achieve your corresponding goals and how much you are willing to pay for it. This also depends on your work status, your investment avenues, etc. For example, if you want to achieve your higher-level goals through continued employment, you need to work hard to improve your business skills and strive to reach a mid-level management position in your company. Alternatively, if you want to achieve this through investment, you need to leverage your personal advantages in the stock market, futures market, or crypto market. Or, you can allocate your time and energy well, using multiple channels to calculate and attempt to reach your expected goals.

Moreover, each of the paths mentioned above needs to be considered and executed based on individual circumstances (everyone's thinking models, knowledge experiences, observation angles, etc., are different).

Of course, you can also choose to do nothing and wait for the so-called opportunities in dramas, or wait for luck to fall from the sky, or gamble (for example, using your income to bet on MemeCoins on-chain) as long as it doesn't violate the law. But we should all understand a principle: if daydreaming or dreaming could make you rich, then there would be no poor people in this world.

In summary, if you want to change your life, you should first clarify your life goals, then change your life through phased efforts and attempts (improving quality of life - changing life path - achieving a free life), rather than dreaming of directly becoming someone else.

Don't see some people online (stories) casually making $1 million and think that making money in this field is easy. Don't envy those who become rich overnight. Instead, start by trying to improve your current life. For example, if your current annual salary is only 100,000 RMB, but through a year of learning and effort in the crypto field, you have already earned $100,000, then this amount is actually a considerable bonus for you, rather than thinking unrealistically about quickly making $1 million or $10 million in the crypto market. Numbers are not absolute; for some people, $1 million may just be pocket money, but for you, you shouldn't think the same way. Instead, you should cherish the $100,000 you have already earned.

How much money do you need to change your life?

This question itself has no standard answer because everyone's basic situation and perspective are different.

Those who have already earned $100,000 will hope to earn $1 million, and those who have earned $1 million will hope to become $10 million… But in financial markets (such as the stock market or crypto market), this game of numerical growth is accompanied by extremely high risks and traps, as most people find it difficult to truly understand themselves in this matter. Human greed is often hard to change.

Many people suffer from not being able to make money or from temporary losses, but the real danger in this market is not failure; it is that a person never knows when to end their victory and enjoy it.

We always say that the market is ruthless; it tests people's patience and punishes the greedy. Therefore, when it comes to making money, we don't need to exhaust ourselves to become someone else in our eyes. At the right time, it is better to calm down and rethink the three questions we mentioned above. Different goals and levels should correspond to different wealth and life goals.

A small number of people are buying time with money, while most people prefer to continuously exchange time for more money and never stop. Specifically regarding investment, regardless of the perspective, if you have already failed, it is better to conduct a good review and summary, and optimize or formulate a new strategy for yourself. If you have achieved phased victories, enjoy the fruits of your existing victories, continue to plan your assets, and improve your current quality of life, keeping yourself healthy and happy. Wealth is not just the numbers in your bank account or crypto wallet; it is also about clearly knowing what you truly need or want.

3. Let's continue to chat a bit about Apple at the end of the article.

Today (September 10, Beijing time), the latest Apple phone, the iPhone 17, was released. While scrolling through videos, I came across a lot of related content. Here, we won't introduce the products but will simply discuss a few points from a different perspective.

Ten years ago (September 9, 2015, U.S. time), the starting price of the iPhone 6s was $649, and the highest price of Bitcoin that year was $465 (with a low of $177), meaning it took about 1.4 Bitcoins to buy an Apple phone.

Fast forward to today (September 9, 2025), the starting price of the iPhone 17 is $799, and the highest price of Bitcoin today is $124,000, which means it takes only 0.006 Bitcoins to buy an Apple phone.

Personally, I have always liked using Apple devices, starting with the iPhone 3GS era and continuing through the generations of new models up to now. However, from an investment perspective, even though I have been buying Bitcoin since 2017, I still entered the market relatively late compared to my use of Apple phones.

Of course, when viewed from a longer time dimension, ten years is just a blink of an eye. But for a person's life, being able to grasp 1-2 ten-year cycles is enough. Sometimes, choice is more important than effort. The big opportunities left for ordinary people in the real world are actually few, and the crypto field is one of the few areas of opportunity. I remember that in January of this year, we compared the price trends of Apple and Bitcoin in an article, as shown in the image below.

In 2000, Apple launched the iBook (Firewire), iMac (Summer 2000), Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet), and PowerBook (Firewire) series products. In 2007, the first-generation iPhone was released, marking the beginning of a new era in the development of smartphones.

Now, let's compare this with the current Bitcoin trend. It seems that in the past two years, it has also stepped on the key point of a transformative era. Whether Bitcoin can successfully transform in the future may require some larger opportunities. If you firmly believe in the future of cryptocurrencies, then theoretically, we still have significant opportunities ahead; it just depends on how to seize the next ten-year cycle.

In investing, one should not only look at absolute prices but should focus on the potential for value growth. Short-term fluctuations and temporary difficulties are the norm; the core is to stick to long-term direction and principles. Just like in a person's life, one should not only look at immediate achievements but should also consider long-term accumulation and continuous growth.

Related: Due to weak U.S. PPI data, the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates, Bitcoin (BTC) breaks through $114,000.

Original: “How Much Money Do You Need to Truly Change Your Life?”

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