A millionaire with money to burn says he is “indifferent” to his fortune and only spends his cash on high-speed WiFi, Diet Coke and a luxury gym membership.
Plus his $50,000 (£40,000) gun collection.
Most 25-year-olds would be over the moon to have a heaving bank account but when Ben Burns made his first million, he didn’t bat an eyelid.
The self-made entrepreneur, who goes by @fqlx on Instagram, believes money is a “made-up concept” and says it’s not as fun to be rich as people think.
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“Everyone who has millions knows money is a made-up concept,” said the New York City native, who is now 29 years old.
“Being rich isn’t as great as you think – I’ve got money but spend 99% of my time in front of my laptop.
“I have an okay social life but my job does impact it, and there’s a lot of stress involved.
“Being poor is actually more fun than being rich, because you appreciate experiences more.
“If you’re out partying for instance, you can have a better night out drinking cheap beer in a dive bar than ordering bottle service and sitting in the VIP booth.
“People who do the latter are just trying to show off their cash, rather than actually have a good time.
A cryptocurrency whiz, Ben first began dabbling in trading in high school – investing all of his savings – but lost everything soon after.
Determined not to let that stop him, he quickly jumped back into the game.
He studied computer science at Coastal Carolina University and then worked as a software engineer Kraken Crypto Exchange – opting to receive his salary in Bitcoin.
Ben soon saw a 200% return on his money.
He said: “My college roommate, James, and I started trading seriously in college, writing strategies with code – which made us some serious cash.
“But the really big money started coming in once I joined Kraken.
“My parents are baby boomers so they were against me trying something so risky – but they are happy with the outcome.”
When Ben’s first million rolled into his account, he didn’t feel particularly excited – to him, the wins and losses are just part of the trading game.
His only pleasures? Diet Coke, an amazing gym membership and a big gun collection.
He said: “I wake up at noon every day and usually go to bed around 5am the next day, even on weekends.
“I take around 30 vitamins and supplements a day, which costs me around $1,000 (£790) a month.
“I go to a luxury gym daily – that’s really important to me to minimise my stress and costs $300 (£230) a month.
“And I have a large gun collection too, which I keep at my parent’s home in South Carolina.
“Where I’m from, it’s not uncommon to have guns in every room.
“Most of my friends have a concealed weapons permits – I even once had a roommate who left a loaded gun on top of the living room PlayStation.
“There has never been a problem.
“When I tell this to people from Europe, they often struggle to comprehend this.”
Although Ben says his millions make little difference to his life, he also believes people should follow their own journey in life – shunning the traditional 9-5.
And stop breaking their backs working to make someone else rich.
Ben said: “Capitalism is designed so that you can spend most of your life working to make someone else money.
“Don’t follow the sheep, be the shepherd.
“Mostly, I feel indifferent to money; apart from my gym and gun expenses, most of my fortune sits in index funds, Bitcoin, angel investments or welfare properties.
“Though I did just spend $3500 on a new thermal monocular (Iray RL25), you use it at night and you can see things you’ve never seen before – like raccoons that have lived in your yard all your life and you’ve never noticed.”
Sharing his secrets to being a millionaire, Ben says trading is not for the meek – with four top tips for getting into trading crypto.
BUY BITCOIN
Ben said: “Owning as little as six Bitcoins will let you retire by 2032.
“By then, we will see Bitcoin above £250,000 (£198,400) in value each.
“The market is really volatile, so it’s about finding the right place at the right time to trade.”
AVOID INVESTING IN ALTCOINS
Ben said: “The majority of altcoins [cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin] are bought by venture capitalists (VC) during their seed round.
“Many of them don’t care about the startups they invest into.
“In fact, they often do no due diligence and just write a minimum check size of $250,000 to be part of it.
“They mostly care about when to sell their altcoin investment – often aiming to profit off everyday people who bought it too late.”
TRADE MOMENTUM
He said: “When trading with momentum, things like market capital or the price don’t matter and there’s a lot of money to be made.
“You need to be very obsessive about your work, but it helps when you work with some of the smartest people in the world.
“It’s like a lifestyle, you have to be on top of it 24/7.”
LEAVE THE US IF YOU MAKE UNDER $200,000 (£158,700) A YEAR
He said: “Consider expatriating to a cheap city like Buenos Aires, where you will be happier and richer.
“NYC is a playground for the rich and the USA no longer offers a high quality of life for the price you are paying.”
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