The crypto market has brought in all kinds of investors — from individual retail investors that are looking for a home run trade to large institutions releasing their own crypto funds. Venture capital investors have poured almost $33 billion into many blockchain and crypto start-ups last year.

Here’s a list of three cryptocurrency ETFs to think about buying for 2022:

1. Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF

With $1.07 billion in total assets that are under management as of Feb. 2022, this ETF is one of the biggest funds that is focused on the digital asset and crypto economy. It is a great choice to start searching for the best cryptocurrency industry ETFs, although it does not directly invest in crypto. The fund has a 0.71% yearly expense ratio, which means that $7.10 in fees are taken out of the fund’s performance every year for a $1,000 investment.

The ETF has 45 company stocks. It was released in Jan. 2018, which makes the longest-tenured ETF on this list, however this is still a very new investment product release. The top holdings in this fund include semiconductor company Nvidia and cryptocurrency trading marketplace Coinbase Global.

2. Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund

The Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund is a special offering on this list. It was initially a private placement fund, but you can no buy and sell shares over the counter. The fund is being actively managed, so it has a large expense ratio of 2.5%.

The Fund invests in the leading 10 cryptos (as measured by their market cap) and is rebalanced every month to account for any changes to crypto prices. BTC and ETH are far and away the biggest cryptocurrencies by size, so they make up about 61% and 28% of the portfolio. The next eight cryptos by size — including Solana, Cardano and Avalanche — make up the balance.

Because this fund is trading over the counter, it is able to trade at a large premium or discount to the underlying cryptocurrency prices it owns, depending on what the demand is for the shares. Investors should be careful. However, if investing in some of the largest cryptos is what you are after, this fund is worth looking at.

3. Siren Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF

The Siren Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF is a fund that puts its focus on companies creating and utilizing blockchain tech. Its assets that are under management are a lot smaller than Amplify’s other ETF product that’s similar, but it does offer a slightly different approach on this space.

For one thing, this ETF has 64 stocks. Its focus has broadened to encompass a more general technology business that may have a cryptocurrency or blockchain segment like IBM, which is a top holding. It also includes shares of some traditional banks like JPMorgan Chase that have begun dabbling in the world of cryptocurrency. It is a far more diversified way to bet on the growing cryptocurrency industry.

The Consumer Price Index report released last week by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that inflation has now reached a 40 year high of 7.5%. Businesses with pricing power could help pass some of those higher costs along to their customers. And stocks that pay dividends will provide a passive income stream that will help in offsetting inflation as well.

Investing equally in Kinder Morgan and Autoliv will give an investor an avg. dividend yield of 5.8% and exposure to various sectors of the economy. Here is what makes each of these dividend stock an excellent buy now.

A safe bet in the gas and oil industry

Rarely does an investment provide a blend of dependable value, income and a high dividend yield. Kinder Morgan offers investors this medley, but it is a stock that is usually misunderstood.

Investors usually pass up on buying Kinder Morgan thinking it is a volatile gas and oil stock. But in reality, Kinder Morgan produces a predictable cash flow from its terminals, storage, pipelines and other energy infrastructures. Over 90% of Kinder Morgan’s business is connected to fixed-fee and take-or-pay contracts. This predictability has given Kinder Morgan the ability to forecast its performance of 2020 with a 99% accuracy going all the way back to April 2020. It is also why Kinder Morgan has already provided its 2022 forecast for the full year.

Kinder Morgan believes it will produce slightly less adjusted earnings prior to interest, depreciation, taxes, and amortization and distributable cash flows in year 2022 than it did in year prior. But its net income should be at a five-year high.

Kinder Morgan is also increasing its dividend to $1.11 a share per year. The company’s strong DCF shows it can support its dividend with cash even as it boosts spending on newer projects and invests in growing its infrastructure in legacy natural gas.

Autoliv puts Safety first

The seatbelt, airbag and steering wheel business has a dominant position within the passive safety market, and it is also a safe way to play on a recovery in the light vehicle production around the globe. For reference, Autoliv has claimed 50% of all orders in its end markets in Q4, a figure higher than management’s target of 45% of the entire market.

It has not been great times for auto parts manufactures. A combination of increasing raw material costs, supply chain problems, and declines in LVP because of the auto chip shortage have driven down profit margins and revenue.

But here is the thing. Demand is still high, and auto chip producers are making massive investments to increase capacity. That isn’t to say the auto chip supply problem will end overnight; it won’t, as it will take time for new expansions and factories to come online. But this does mean that supplies will eventually increase.

Autoliv’s management predicts global LVP to go up by 9% this year. Moreover, given the exposure to several product launches and strong trends in passenger safety, management thinks Autoliv’s organic sales growth will be 20% this year.

Apple has made amazing progress in India last year, with the CEO, Tim Cook saying that Apple’s revenue within that market has doubled over the last year due to the large demand for its products.

Calculations show that the tech giant has produced $4 billion in revenue in India last year. More importantly, recent data shows that Apple is on the right track to continue its momentum within the Indian market this year as well. Let’s see why that might be the case.

Apple’s products have been selling fast in India

The iPad and the iPhone are in high demand in the Indian markets. Apple’s smartphone sales in India increased 150% in Q4 of 2021 — for the few months ending in Sept. 2021 — to 1.53 million units sold. Sales of the iPad have reportedly increased 109% year over year to 240,000 units.

Apple has kept up its impressive rate of growth in India in the quarter that ended in Dec. CyberMedia Research has estimated that iPhone sales increased 48% last quarter to 2.2 million units sold even with the supply chain-related issues. For year 2021, it is estimated that Apple’s iPhone shipments to India have increased about 108%, with Apple having controlled around 44% of the market for smartphones priced over $400.

Apple is predicted to capture even more of the market share within India in 2022 on the back of newer products, such as the iPhone SE 5G that is rumored to be released next month, an increased production locally, and a jump in retail presence.  The Apple smartphone market share in India has reportedly doubled in 2021 to 4% and is expected to jump 5.5% this year.

Another great year is in the cards

The avg. selling price of smartphones in India has increased 14% in 2021 to around $227, driven by a boost in demand for its premium phones (priced around $400 or above). Indian consumers are now starting to prefer the higher-priced smartphones instead of $200 or less phones, and that is playing in Apple’s favor.

Apple has enjoyed a 44% share of the $400 smartphone sales in the Indian market, and that might be a key driver of its growth in 2022 and beyond. That is because consumers in India are buying 5G smartphones in large numbers.

This can explain why Apple has been enjoying great growth within the Indian smartphone markets. Given that the 5G smartphone market in India is in its nascent phase currently and Apple’s new 5G iPhone SE is thought to be priced below $399, the new device might give the company an excellent boost in that market in 2022 and beyond.

More importantly, India might become a major market for Apple in the future, as sales of the 5G smartphone start to increase there. India’s 5G phone sales are thought to increase up to 88 million units by 2025.

Apple is already in a great position to tap into the emerging 5G opportunities in India, and that might give the company’s earnings and revenue a nice boost in the future as it starts gaining ground in the world’s second-biggest smartphone market.

There are no shortages of high-growth trends for traders to be enamored with right now. Cloud computing, telehealth, cybersecurity and even marijuana, represent various sustainable double-digit growth opportunities.

Yet none of these opportunities can offer the market potential that the metaverse offers.

But there is no one-size-fits-all way of investing in the metaverse. Rather, there are two ways investors are able to stake their claim to this potential $30 trillion pie.

1. Diversify. Diversify. Diversify!

To start with, investors could gain metaverse exposure by putting their cash to work in metaverse-targeted ETFs. The Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF, which Matthew Ball has helped bring to the market this past year, is arguably one of the best examples in the ETF space.

The idea that’s behind a metaverse ETF is simple: To operate a virtual realm will require a lot of working parts. There needs to be the computational power to support the metaverse, the networking and bandwidth to provide data, payments to handle virtual ecosystem transactions, hardware to give users access to virtual worlds, and identity security to make sure that digital assets and user identities stay protected. Mind you, this is a little snippet of the intangible and physical needs of the massive virtual ecosystem. This means dozens of companies may play a role in supporting the metaverse.

The Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF has 45 holdings, with 7 countries that are represented in the portfolio. Most importantly, $ 68 billion is the median market cap of these 45 holdings. It is the typical company that is being held by the ETF that will be time-tested and profitable. These stocks will have clear metaverse ties, and there is a very good chance that these corporations will also have highly profitable core businesses that will pay for metaverse development and research. Translation: You can rest well if you decide to buy this ETF.

The one small thing is you will pay a 0.75% net expense ratio, which is a little bit more than the weighted average of the expense ratio for all the ETFs. But if the metaverse turns out to be everything it is suppose to be, a 0.75% expense ratio would be very well worth it.

2. Buy individual stocks with metaverse exposure

If ETFs are not your thing, a 2nd way to get metaverse exposure would be to directly invest in companies that have metaverse ties.

The good thing about this method is it lets you place greater weight on the companies you think will perform better. Also, with most online brokerages getting rid of minimum deposit requirements and commission fees, there are no commissions or fees to buy stocks on the major United States exchanges. Plus, this method can save you some money, compared to purchasing an ETF.

On the flipside, purchasing individual stocks will take more ongoing and initial research. Thankfully, a lot  of the companies that are involved in the metaverse are already well-established.

For example, Microsoft has a lot of different ways that it can benefit from the metaverse. The company’s cloud infrastructure sector, Azure, is already No. 2 in the global cloud industry. Cloud computing and storage will be required to take care of the mountains of information and data generated within the metaverse.

Microsoft has made waves by announcing its all-cash deal to buy gaming company Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion this past month. Activision recently has had 390 million active users a month, some of which have already been playing games within the virtual platforms. The Activision buy is another way that Microsoft can bring more people into its vision of a digital/virtual ecosystem.

There is a reason that seniors are usually advised against claiming Social Security too early. Claiming early could result in a decreased income stream for life.

You are entitled to your entire monthly benefit amount based on what you earned during your lifetime once you get to full retirement age (FRA). FRA begins at either 66 or 67, or somewhere in between the two, depending on when you were born.

If you were to claim benefits at the earliest possible age of 62, you would cut your monthly benefit amount by up to 30%. And do not be fooled into believing your benefit will then be increased to its full amount once you hit FRA, because that is not going to happen. Instead, you will generally be stuck with a lower benefit amount for life.

In spite of that, claiming SS at age 62 could actually make a lot of sense. This especially is true if the following scenarios apply to you.

1. Your career has ended unexpectedly

It is one thing to stay employed until FRA and claim SS then. But if you are forced to make a surprise exit from the workforce, you might have to sign up for SS early. If you do not, you could rack up costly debt just to live.

Why could you have to retire earlier than planned? There are a lot of reasons. You might start having health problems that make it difficult to work a full-time job. Or, you may get downsized out of your job and have a hard time finding another job at your age.

As such, you may have to claim Social Security benefits as an alternative to getting into credit card debt. And to be clear, that is the smarter route to take.

2. You’re not super confident in your health

Social Security is actually created to pay you the same benefit amount during your lifetime regardless of what age you file. The logic is that if you sign up early for benefits it will give you smaller payments every month, but more months of payments, while claiming benefits later will do the opposite.

This assumption is only true, however, if you live an avg. lifespan. And so, if health issues arise as retirement draws near, it could pay to claim your benefits as soon as you can if you are worried you won’t live an average or long lifespan. Doing so might make it so you are able to additional money out of Social Security during your lifetime, which is what your goal should ultimately be.

3. You’ve saved so much your benefits are really just bonus cash

If you are coming into retirement with about $90,000 in your 401(k) or IRA plan, then let’s face — you are going to need all the cash you can get out of SS to cover your living casts as a senior. But if you are entering retirement with $4 million in your bank account, then it probably does not matter whether you collect $1,200 each month from SS, $2,000 each month, or somewhere in between.

In that scenario, the chances are, you will be receiving most of your senior income from IRA or 401(k) withdrawals. And so if you want to claim SS early and use that cash for things like leisure purchases and vacations, why not do it?

Though claiming SS at age 62 will leave you with less money coming in every month — for life — it is not necessarily a terrible idea. Quite the contrary — it might end up being one of the best moves you will make for your retirement.