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Earning income from your investments seems to be a pipe dream of the past.
Dividends? Gone. Companies nowadays are slashing their dividends at the fastest rate in 10 years as pandemic panic crushes business around the world.
Money market funds? Think again: Last month, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates effectively to zero.
Short-term U.S. Treasuries? Forget it. The yields on 30-day and 90-day Treasuries fell to less than zero!
So, if you're an income investor, where do you turn for steady, reliable, income of 6% or more?
Ironically, the one place where most investors would never think to look: Cryptocurrencies.
How? Decentralized Finance (DeFi) allows you to earn yields by lending assets. And the genius of the blockchain is that it allows you to safely lend to people (or companies) you don't know or even have a reason to trust.
No longer do you have to worry about the creditworthiness of your customer. Or getting repaid on time. The blockchain effectively replaces due diligence and automatically kicks out anyone who so much as tries to break the rules.
But before you can connect to the platforms that allow you to earn 6% or more, you need a special online digital wallet: MetaMask.
MetaMask exists as an extension to popular internet browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox or Brave. You can access it from anywhere. Plus, it connects to large number of DeFi platforms.
Even though it's always connected to the Internet, there's virtually zero risk it could be compromised by hackers; because with MetaMask, you — and you alone — always have custody of your private keys which control access to your funds.
To generate those keys, you create a 12-word secret back-up phrase. This, in addition to your password, is what grants you access to your account. Because this is the key to all your wealth on the MetaMask wallet, do not leave it on a computer that's connected to the Internet.
Instead, memorize it. Write it down on paper and put it in a safe place. Or, if you want to get fancy, download it to a text file that you keep on an encrypted thumb drive (or other offline storage medium).
Just like with everything else, though, you should exercise some caution. While your MetaMask wallet should be impervious to hacking theft, it isn’t impervious to phishing.
These scams are designed to trick you into revealing your secret back-up phrase (or your password).
So, for maximum safety, I do not recommend using your MetaMask wallet for any purpose other than holding crypto you intend to loan out for income.
For safe, long-term storage of the bulk of your crypto savings, I recommend you use an offline or hardware wallet.
And for more information on how to download and set up your wallet, click here.
Best wishes,
Bruce
