Hey all out there!
Warning! If you only like reading about millions of dollars and big BTC values, this is not your post. Actually this is my true story with exact dates and numbers.
To tell the truth I had no idea about bitcoin and cryptocurrency 3 months ago. All I knew were those nasty stories about criminals, terrorists and bad people buying and selling weapons, drugs, organs on the dark web. :)
I am an ordinary guy (42), father of three, leading a normal life in Eastern Europe. My partner is a teacher. One day in early September she came home from the school and told me about a presentation which was held by the school police about bitcoin and the dangers of the dark web. She totally freaked out about it. After I listened about those insane stories, I decided to research on bitcoin on my own. I spent several nights and hundreds of hours watching youtube videos, reading reddit and twitter posts about bitcoin and cryptocurrency. A whole new world opened up for me, as I knew more and more. That is how I got here eventually. I still do this every single day. I came across several good and not-so-good youtube channels. I used to watch Trevon James but he is really (I mean seriously) strange nowadays. I stopped following him. CryptoNick, sunny decree and tplusd are really excellent content creators, but my favourite youtuber is Crypto Investor. He has got no feelings at all. He analyses. He knows things. Great content he provides. By the way, you can find him HERE on Steemit too as 
After I thought I knew everything, I wanted to get some bitcoin instantly. For a beginner it is NOT an easy task, I tell you! Kraken was not an option for me, because it was sooo slow and it did not offer the opportunity to buy with credit/debit cards. I did not want bank transfers. I tried Coinbase next, where I knew I could use my debit card. No success back then (it was a noob mistake, because I had no clue about mastercard's securecode). In sheer desperation I found a website called Virwox, where I could use paypal for buying Linden dollars and those I could exchange for bitcoin. Do not roll your eyes. I know. But I was delighted and did not care about the costs. I had bitcoin for the first time in my life! (My portfolio's worth: €50 - 0.012 BTC) 2017-09-27
Since I started mining with my home computer (on nicehash - bah. later), I bought a 50H/s zcash contract for $96 on Genesis-mining. Do not ask! I enjoy it nevertheless. (My portfolio's worth: €130 - 0.022 BTC) 2017-09-28
I learned that there were numerous exchanges on the internet, and I wanted to trade, double, triple, quadruple my money. First I tried Poloniex, but the verification process never finished. I had patience for some days, but it got ridiculous. I never had an account there. My second shot was Bittrex, and it was a miracle for me. I finally strated to trade. I bought and sold basically anything and everything without knowing what I was doing. I finally bought some Einsteinium (EMC2) and it instantly went down in price by third. I was stuck. Rookie mistake.
At this point I bought some more BTC for Bittrex to trade with. Still on Virwox, of course. I continued trading altcoins with more caution. Trading was fun and profitable. (My portfolio's worth: €230 - 0.0422 BTC) 2017-10-21
After a month or so I reached the point where everyone arrives sooner or later. I decided to set up an account on..... Yes, you guessed it! I set up an account on Bitconeeeeect. I honestly tell you that I don't remember how I paid for my first $100 loan, since on Bitconnect you cannot pay with fiat. I cannot find any more deposits on Virwox, so I assume I paid it from my balance on Bittrex. (My portfolio's worth: €230 - 0.0422 BTC) 2017-11-05.
At this point I thought I was prepared for anything in crypto-world, so I tried a lot of things.
I bought 0.55 TH hashpower on Hashflare for $77 2017-11-28.
I lost 1 LTC ($100 back then) on hexabot.top.
I lost some money with Rewardtable.
Finally I realized how to buy BTC (and LTC) on Coinbase. I bought €415 worth of bitcoin 2017-12-08 just to hold it. I learned about Gdax, and started to exchange BTC to LTC and back, depending on the relative value.
Meanwhile I was introduced to Vertcoin and I had some on Bittrex. One of the youtubers recommended to try Binance out. I sadly realized that they did not have $VTC. It is a fast and reliable exchange, but since they do not have my favourite coin, Bittrex remained my top exhange.
Kudos to the Vertcoin development team once again, because they gave me 5 VTC for promoting their currency on twitter. I posted or re-tweeted every day in December something about why I chose Vertcoin with the hashtag #VTCember, and it looks I was lucky enough to be chosen. Thank you again so much!
To summarize the whole thing as of today 2017-01-02 I have:
On Bittrex:
On Bitconnect:
On Hashflare:
On Gdax:
On Genesis-mining:
On Nicehash:
This sums up of a value of around $1100-1200 which is approx. €900-1000 as of today. After a small calculation I realized that I made (with my losses!!) €300. You could ask why I use such small amounts of fiat money. Well, first of all this crypto world must prove itself, then I will invest more. Most probably. Secondly I am 100% aware that I am just scratching the surface. I do not want to lose more than I can afford. I have got a LOT to learn. Cheers.