Thanks. That gives me a bit to think about. It's not just money I want out of it, but I also can't afford to lose money from it either and I've reached a point in my life that I know I have to make self employment work for me so money factors in but isn't the only thing.

I'd make my art even if I made nothing from it and there was no prospect of it, and making my art or writing a program is good for my mental health, so the things I do on here and the other platforms I'm on have a lot more use than just making money. On the other hand though, making money from it would allow me to do it more than if I have to rely on a job (especially if the job took away too many spoons / too much of my energy and hindered my ability to do my creative stuff outside of work) and it also means I'll no longer be a fish trying to climb a tree.

I also care about rewarding other artists and I definitely like that boosting my SP would make my votes more valuable to the people I want to support. I definitely like to support other people. If I was a bit more financially secure, there are people I would be supporting on patreon too.

As of halfway through last week, I'm currently out of work atm (but I'm hoping to switch to making my business, of which this Steem account is part but far from the whole, an actual income capable of being a main source of income), trying to buy a house on my partner's wage (but we still need to save some deposit) and recovering from a massive burnout, which was pretty damn terrible but honestly isn't all bad as it has lead to more understanding of myself.
This understanding further pushes me to believe that self-employment is what I should be aiming at and I'm going in and giving it what I can to make that work.

Because of my situation, any money I was to invest is competing with going towards a house deposit, other ways to monetarily invest in my business and money for surviving until the business does better, so while money isn't the only goal or reason for me to use these platforms, it does play a role in determining whether I should invest money (and also time really) into them or not.

The reason for time is simply because the time I spend on here is competing with time spent on other creative things that may also make money. If it was competing with time spent on facebook or reddit, that would be different and would fit with what I see other people say about treating anything earned as a bonus (I hardly use facebook and I do use reddit but that's individual communities that don't appear have the same presence here), as in that case it's competing with non-productive social media time, but for me it is competing more-so with time spent on other potentially money earning activities. I think the opportunity cost influences which mindset is applicable (ie whether the opportunity cost is time spent on facebook not earning money vs whether the opportunity cost is time spent creating a design for Redbubble or making something for Etsy etc).

Whether through investment or time and content creation, I do hope to eventually be powerful enough on here to properly reward those I appreciate though. Given my situation it probably isn't the time to spend money investing here now though. I'd have to know I'd at least make the investment back as we do need the money for things.

Thanks for giving me a bit to think about.