Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited.

Understanding the phrase “afford to lose” better
I think that people only use the phrase "only spend what you can afford to lose" when they are talking about the most risky or speculative investments, or even gambling.   When talking about gambling, the following quote is a bottom line: The speculative investment that brought me to this question via google is how much should I invest in Bitcoin?  I was tempted to put in 10% of my investments, not including the 6 month safety fund and not including equity in my home.  Now thinking about this question, it seems that it depends on your income as a percentage of your investment income (which should grow in proportion to the whole over time).  For example: Early stage of career, not much investment income: 20% Mid career: 5% Mid-late career, moving to more safe investments: 5% Late career, retirement: 1% Another way to calculate would be as a percentage of the amount you put into retirement savings per year.  Maybe 10% of this figure when you're young and 1% nearer to retirement.