5 Financial Trends People Were 100% Sure Will Never Amount to Anything (But They Totally Did)

When you talk to people about what it was like when some of the biggest trends were still young, they always pretend like they saw it coming from a mile away. However, this is almost never the case.

The difference with financial trends is that you can always call them upon the fact that, if they did see it, they would make money off it. If you really knew BTC would be big, why didn’t you buy in 2012? That usually shuts them up.

Here are the top five examples of such financial trends that people were 100% sure would never amount to anything (but they now like to pretend they did).

1. Mobile banking

Bank information is some of the most sensitive personal info there is. The wrong person with the right banking information can bring about yours and anyone else’s financial ruin. So, the idea of having all of this accessible via your phone was more than unsettling to a lot of people.

It gets even worse.

You see, with a mobile app, if someone knew your PIN/password and stole your phone, they could easily get all the rest. For instance, if there’s a 2FA and they stole your phone, chances are that they can check the code via SMS or even your email (since you’re probably automatically logged into your email app).

However, modern mobile banking is so superior to any other form that it’s not even a comparison. Even if the security measures weren’t improved (which they have, quite significantly), the idea of checking your account without going to the bank and waiting in line or looking for the nearest ATM is quite impressive.

Not only that, but the fees are lower, and transactions are instant. This is an amazing way of sending money, as well as paying your utilities. Most of the time, even with physical receipts, all you have to do is just scan the QR code.

Today, everyone uses mobile banking.

2. Peer-to-peer lending

Some format of peer-to-peer lending has always existed, and we’re not talking about loansharking either. People could always depend on others to extend a helping hand, even if it meant profiting a bit in the process. The internet just made it easier for people with money who wanted to become lenders and people who wanted to borrow to meet.

So, why was this so controversial, and why were some people dismissive of the idea that’s as old as the world of finances itself entering the digital world?

Well, there were a few reasons behind this.

First, there was a lack of trust in the capability of P2P platforms to do proper profiling. Second, there was a regulatory uncertainty. Everyone understood that this had to be managed, but they had no idea how proper customer protection would apply to this field.

Lastly, this field didn’t rely that much on one’s credit history (in fact, this is where those without credit history come to borrow money). In other words, the risks were somewhat higher.

Fortunately, the good sides overpowered the bad.

Access to credit, competitive interest rates, transparency, and regulatory clarity managed to sweep the majority of the doubt away, making P2P lending into the economic powerhouse it is today.

3. Cryptocurrencies

The best thing about this particular scenario is that, just 5-6 years ago, the public opinion on cryptocurrencies was mostly either negative or even completely oblivious of their existence. So, how did we come from the majority of people not even being aware of BTC, to looking for the best meme coins to buy in just a few years?

First of all, didn’t the underlying strategies and principles of cryptocurrency sound too trustworthy? After all, how would a decentralized market work and self-regulate?

We’re also talking about a time when there was no regulation whatsoever, and cryptocurrencies were mostly used on the black market.

Contrary to popular belief, the breakthrough of crypto didn’t come from the BTC explosion in price. This explosion just made people interested in learning more about cryptocurrencies. Once they actually did the research, they understood that there’s nothing to be afraid of and that it’s all (or most of it) completely legit.

They also understood the advantages of cryptocurrencies. The instant transfer across borders with low fees and increased anonymity is more than enough to sell the idea of crypto even to the biggest skeptics.

4. Robo-advisors

One of the best ways to make your decisions data-based is to use robo-advisors. Some people are a bit skeptical about this tech trend, but this is the very point of our post. The truth is that robo-advisors are an amazing technology that can process far more data than a human ever could and give you unique insights.

Do you have to listen to it?

Of course not!

However, there’s virtually no downside to using it. The refusal to actually use robo-advisors in any capacity in 2024 would be like your refusal to use a calculator in accounting and do all your math on a sheet of paper. Is it possible? Of course! But it’s also tiresome, prone to mistakes and miscalculations, and, the worst part of it all, completely unnecessary.

The main source for this skepticism came from the fact that AI as a trend has been talked about for years, and the results have not been very impressive. What some investors fail to realize is that 2023 and 2024 AI is not the same as the AI of 2019. The difference is incredible, and a failure to take advantage of this would be a grave mistake.

All in all, this is one of the latest trends on the list, so its development and adoption need to be followed closely.

5. Online shopping

Online shopping is as old as the internet itself. The essence of it was that you could order from your couch and have the product delivered to your doorstep. After all, you could do this via a phone, so why were people so dismissive of online shopping?

Well, first, you need to understand the speed and the reliability of the internet in the early days. Chances that the connection will break or that a failure to load will cause an error that will repeat the order 12 times (without the option to refund) were real.

Also, people were far more paranoid of online scams, viruses, and malware in the early days (when, paradoxically, there were fewer of them).

Still, as financial tools became more sophisticated and cybersecurity became more reliable, people started to ease up regarding these ideas.

Not only that but enough time has passed, and enough people made successful purchases, which further reinforced public trust in this trend. This slowly built up both personal and public confidence, which resulted in 2.71 billion online shoppers in 2024.

Today, no one doubts that this trend will continue to grow.

It takes time, confidence, and technological improvement for a trend to really pick up

So, were people really out of their minds when they dismissed these five financial trends early on? Of course not! In their early form, these trends were deeply flawed.

Mobile banking was less secure, online shopping was less trustworthy, and even cryptocurrencies were seen as more of a gimmick than a legit asset. After a while, however, the technologies became more sophisticated and people saw them in action, which resulted in them gaining more confidence in these technologies.

So, when making similar predictions, don’t just look at the current state. Instead, look at the potential behind it!