I'm not a true believer in crypto, but I used to play around with it. I have received a 5-figure USD sum of bitcoin from the MtGox settlement, and I'm considering my options. It is a true windfall. It was worth maybe $100-200 when I used to play daytrader and shop silk road with it.
We are on track for early retirement as it is, but my "smart money" intuition says pay the long-term capital gains and invest in funds, how we do everything else. More money earlier is always good.
My gambler side says to withdraw some maybe, but split the rest into a half dozen likely candidates for someday real world crypto use which may take off. I don't stay up to date on them anymore, so this would take some real research.
The weird Trumpy stuff going on with BTC makes me think it couldn't hurt to hold through the election in case prepper types panic buy it lol.
My wife says it's unexpected so just leave it as a high-risk part of our whole portfolio, but I worry she underestimates the risk and scamminess of it all.
Update: I sold the account down to 0.1 BTC today. I may sell more later on. Thanks everyone for your input.
Honestly, it'd just go to stuff I need for the house. There's a lot of canning stuff I want but I need to import it from the US (pressure canning isn't a thing here in Japan and even water-bath canning is super rare so supplies are sparse and expensive). I'd also get a chainsaw and wood chipper. I would pay someone to do a full tune-up on my tractor and maybe get a mower attachment. Anything else, I'd basically put in the account that I use to pay my mortgage and for any home expenses.
Are you Japanese or did you move there and live on land?
I'm from the US and moved to Japan in my 30s. I lived in Tokyo up until a few months ago, but now live in rural northern Japan.
Can I come visit and mow your lawn? Are you on Hokkaido?