Doubling my money
I am not a gambler at heart. However there was a brief moment in my life when I found out how to double my money. Not much money by today’s standards but a half century ago, $0.50 went a long way. And I learned that at the lunch table I was able to put down a bet of $0.50 and from time to time double it period. Able to buy 2 pastries instead of 1 In the school kitchen. Now the mechanism is murky. There are people who played cards every lunchtime and some of the boys would bet on their games. One option was known as double or nothing. I figured out that if I could find someone willing to take my money and lay it down as their own temporarily I could make a bet on a game. I would not always win but I did have the option of deciding whether or not the odds were in my favour. And those days when my money suddenly doubled, I had a better lunch. From where I sit it was not that different from the current schemes that people use to change their money into something more. And not everyone was willing to take my quarter but when they did I realized that luck was something you created not something you were born with. As it happened I never had more than 1/4 at a time because even on those weird days where money doubled I still wanted it at least one pastry. If I had shown up with real cash I know that I would have lost everything and walked away somewhat the wiser. I bring this up because I keep getting these stories of people who bet on something called crypto and I do not understand the mechanism. Maybe it’s because I’ve always had to work for my money one way or another but the idea that your portfolio suddenly doubled in value just because you’re there at the right time makes no sense to me. As you can guess I have no interest in going to a casino or betting online. I learned at those lunchtime betting sessions that you did not always win and that you’re single coin could just as easily turn into nothing. It taught me an important lesson. I am now at an age where I am not apt to bet on much of anything. Not the outcome of a hockey game as some were wont to do or anything else for that matter in fact I can hardly remember the last time that I had a coin in my pocket. We live in a different age.
