if you purchase crap copycat coin, that's going to plummet, it's you who is ruining your financial life.
Whales manipulate whole market. If you panic and sell at bad moment - it's once again you who is ruining your financial life by bad decisions.

If you want to change your financial life for the better, work on your skills/knowledge and don't rely on some cryptocurrency to go up in value.

I made decent amount of money in IM since 2003/4, I made decent amount of money with crypto's since 2013. I've lost some with bad and hurried decisions.
But if none of above happened, I've always made enough money in "offline IRL market", so I wouldn't end living under the bridge in any circumstances, whales or not whales.