I'll be the first to admit that I got lucky over the past couple of weeks. While the crypto markets were doing their thing and covering the streets in blood, I was spending my time with views like the one above. The past week or so in Colorado has been a good distraction from all the negativity that is going on.
Sure, I might have posted and thrown some comments out here and there, but I really didn't have time to be looking at the charts or markets or whatever. My best guess was that it would all be here when I got back and it seems I was right.
BTC is down, but it hasn't folded completely. The same is true with HIVE. If anything, I am just disappointed that I didn't get to snag up some HIVE at the $.16 point like some other folks did. Instead, I had to settle for $.19 or so. I'm good with that!
It is time again for another Finance Friday/Friday Finance. This is a series I started where I talk about random bits of financial stuff that I have seen, gathered, or experienced during the week. I hope as a reader you find it informational, entertaining, or both. I also hope it can generate some good discussion and edify the community.
I've also seen a lot of people talking about pulling funds from their HBD savings and moving it into Hive. Hey, if that is what you want to do, I am cool with that! I'll probably be leaving my HBD in savings though. At least until Hive gets up around $1.
I've fully jumped on the fence about what I want to do with Splinterlands. The most recent changes to the daily system have made it less desirable to play now. It's basically impossible to earn anything and battles are harder than ever to win.
The saving grace is that they haven't managed to screw up Brawls yet. I'm waiting for the day though. I don't think anyone is going anywhere while the price is this low, but if there happens to be a spike in the price of Hive, you might see more and more people parting with their assets.
When my wife and I got home from our trip, we had a bundle of mail that had been delivered while we were gone. One of the items was an offer for a new credit card through some organization that we are a part of. 
That's highway robbery right there. I remember when I got my first credit card the interest rate was 9% and I thought I was living large. I got a second one with an interest rate of 21% and I was very quickly introduced to the world of debt.
These days, I don't put anything on my credit card unless I know I can pay it off when the bill comes, but many people don't live like that or have that luxury. Can you imagine 31%?
I did a little test with an online calculator assuming I have a small balance of $5000 on my card. That's not unbelievable or unreasonable. All it takes is a major car repair or an appliance breaking to get to that point.
At 31.24% interest, it would take 130 months to pay it off at $135 per month. It wouldn't let me go lower than a minimum payment of $135 per month because it said $130 per month even wouldn't cover the interest. That's almost 11 years to pay off a credit card! Assuming you aren't adding more debt to the top!
You can't look me in the eye and tell me that isn't crazy. If you needed any more proof that the system is broken, there you go.
##Whoa, We're Halfway There!
I feel like just the other day I was lamenting that it was only the beginning of 2024 and I still had a year to go before the bull market "started". Now, here we are halfway through 2024 already. It's one of those cases where you should be careful what you wish for.
With each bull cycle, I keep hoping that I will inch closer and closer to financial freedom. The flip side of that being that with every passing bull and bear cycle, I am left with less and less time on this planet to enjoy that financial freedom.
It's honestly quite frustrating!
All we can do is keep moving forward though, we really have zero control over any of this. I just hope we can all come out on the other side a little better off than we were when we started. I'm looking forward to sharing more about my trip to Colorado with you next week. I hope you make your way back to read about it!
I just found out the other day that 
I never met him in person, but I always enjoyed talking to him and getting his take on whatever crazy project we were thinking about aping into at the time. His wife reached out to me on Telegram after I messaged him in what had clearly been far too long and let me know that he was able to buy a condo for them before he passed. He used the multiple BTC he was holding to provide for his wife when he no longer could. That's pretty awesome if you ask me.
Sad, but awesome.
All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or
