I have been watching the rise of Etherum this week and at first, I was getting breathless with anticipation. You see the chart spike; you think it's a part of a trend; your fingers get itchy; you look for your wallet. I think we've all been there.

I've been there too under different situations where I had some kind of gas or another -- you know, GAS, Gear Acquisition Syndrome? This is Crypto Acquisition Syndrome, or CAS -- not nearly as catchy, but there you go. After the itchiness, the regret starts to creep in -- "If only I had invested at that price point, think where would I be today?" Then, I ran the numbers. If I had invested $1000 or even $2000 on July 25th to take advantage of the ETH rise this past week, that would have left me with roughly a 20% gain -- $400, and that's before the other sort of gas hits -- so, basically a lot of money (to me anyways) put at risk, for...$400 dollars.

That's nice and all, but it's not astronomic, and really at the end, I'd probably be looking at $300 net profit. So, well, again, that's nice, but is it really enough to make a difference? Not really. It's funny that when you have an extra $1000 laying around, $400 just doesn't seem like a lot. Maybe it's just the nature of money (the Extra Zero Effect, EZE)? Maybe it's just me.

So to make a difference more quickly I'd either have to take a lot more risk with a little more money or take slightly more risk with a lot more money; the common factor here is "more money". So say that I increased the size of my investment from $500 to $5000, a ten-fold increase (my heart rate is ramping up just typing it), would that be enough? Let's see - a 20% return on price times $5000 is $1000. That's more like it; minus say $100 in gas, to leave me with $900.

I guess that's always been the trade off -- more money and more risk equals quicker return (if you do get a return...), or less money at first, built up over time equals a slower return, but a surer return. I know loss is part of life, definitely part of investing, and double-definitely part of crypto, but I won't let FOMO own me.

Today we stay.

Now my investment strategy feels very conservative, but I'm not reconsidering. Donut is humming along, and so are our funds over in Coinloan. ADA is looking ok -- maybe a little shaky, but it was always higher-risk than ETH.

How has this worked for us? After one week, our return has been $20. Not bad I'd say.

Going forward, when my wife and I invest again, it'll be into the same places we've invested so far. We might add one other coin, but that's it. In any case, multiple income streams are good (ever notice how even celebrities do that?).

It looks like now is a good time to be in crypto. I've rounded the first bend in the path.