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To make money with crypto, you may need to fire the experts
Embrace low-time preference for long-term success, says this expert
- PUBLISHED: Fri 30 May 2025, 4:38 PM
I had a meeting with a financial adviser sometime in my early 40s , the trauma of which still lives in my body. I was living in the UAE, working hard, making decent money, and ready to get serious about my financial future.
I walked into the meeting completely unsuspecting and she didn’t waste time. She drew a mountain on a piece of paper and placed a little stick figure — my sad little financial avatar — only halfway up the side. “This is where you are now,” she said. “And, if you don’t start investing much, much more, this is where you’ll be.” Then she drew the rest of the scenario: a steep cliff face, the sad little stick figure barely clinging to the side.
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I left the meeting and sat in my car and cried. I felt so frustrated and confused. How could someone in their early 40s with no debt and a good salary be in this kind of doomsday scenario?
Looking back, I can see I wasn’t hopeless — I was manipulated. These kinds of financial “wake-up calls” are designed not to inform or empower, but to shame, scare, and sell. And this one did lasting damage.
The financial confusion and manipulation I faced when I arrived in the UAE changed my behaviour for years. That’s why I want to talk about something I’ve only recently come to understand, which has helped me take my power back. It’s called “low time preference”.
The financial confusion and manipulation I faced when I arrived in the UAE changed my behaviour for years"
Low time preference is a term from economics and behavioural psychology that refers to a person’s ability to delay gratification and prioritise long-term rewards over short-term pleasures. Someone with low time preference is more likely to invest, save, and plan ahead rather than spend impulsively or chase instant rewards.
The concept originates in Austrian economics, particularly in the work of Ludwig von Mises and Hans-Hermann Hoppe. I first read about it in the Saifedean Ammous 2018 book The Bitcoin Standard.
Before moving to the UAE, I was a regular investor. In Canada, I opened a registered retirement savings plan as soon as I started working at 26. I invested every time I got paid and upped the amount when I got a raise.
I was far from perfect and bought a lot of useless things. I got in credit card debt at one point, but I also managed to get out with the help of a second job. As I’ve written about earlier, I struggled with life-long money fears. When I arrived in the UAE, with no financial plan for my expat life other than being scared that I would mess up the opportunity, I was a very easy mark.
That’s when the slick financial advisers I engaged, the ones introduced by my workplace, tried to sell me investment products that required 15-year commitments and huge monthly payments. If I ever moved back to Canada, and I was always sure I would be doing that soon, I knew I’d struggle to keep up. So, I said no — again and again, and each time, I got the same amount of shame that I did from the stick-figure artist.
The advisers kept saying if I wouldn’t do the regular plans, I needed $10,000 (Dh36,729) minimum to invest. I kept telling myself I’d save up, and sometimes I would. But then, I wouldn’t. It was a vicious circle that went on for years and because of it I missed the wonder of compounding interest for far too long. It’s a small consolation that those products were later revealed to be predatory at worst and poorly structured at best, with up-front fees that people were usually not made aware of. I have heard of people who got through the 15 years, with some regret, and others who couldn’t keep up the payments and lost almost everything.
As for me, it’s clear now that during the move overseas I lost my savings rhythm. Like many people, I also got caught up somewhat in the brunches and the bags – the opposite of low time preference. I could be much farther ahead were things different. And that is one of my deeper regrets.
It wasn’t until much later that I realised: the entire time, all I needed to do to save regularly again was to open my own investment account. Getting rid of all outside financial ‘advisers’, facing, and processing my money fears head-on, and figuring out personal finance for myself has helped build hard-won low time preference for me. Being able to invest regularly in Bitcoin without needing a third party has definitely helped.
Doing this gives me more peace and clarity than anything I’ve done financially in years. Now, I don’t want to spend on clothes or expensive meals — I want to invest. Bitcoin, with its sound structure and long-term potential, has helped me rediscover the discipline I had before I moved here.
I wish I could turn back time – but I’m also of the opinion that it’s never too late. That stick figure is not clinging to the edge anymore. She’s on the move now, climbing slowly, steadily, and one forward-looking step at a time.