I hate having to spend money, I shouldn't have to spend. And over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of money going out on extras and nothing coming in. And now that payday arrived, it will go to all of the postponed payments, like bills, that have been waiting in the wings. And today, I also went and bought a new washing machine to replace the one that froze and broke. Most (about 80 percent) of the price will be returned to us by the heating company insurance, but we have no clear timeline on when that will be, and we have already outlaid a few thousand upfront in the last two and a half weeks.
The easy solution for these kinds of times would be to use crypto, but I see it a bit differently than many people tend to. In my opinion, the more we get accustomed to spending it, the more we will spend. There isn't an inherent problem with that of course, but the investor side of my thinking is looking to build a stack, not lessen the stack. If life requires dipping into the stack, that means that I am living beyond my means.
How I tend to look at it is, that when these costs like this arise, I have to cover them with my fiat earnings, because they are fiat expenses. It is more difficult and means we will have tighter belts sometimes, but it also means that we stay in touch with the reality of our real-world earnings and our real-world expenses. The alternative is using crypto to supplement, which gives the impression that we are doing better than we are.
A lot of people for instance use their Hive earnings to live their life, and again, there is nothing inherently wrong with this. I often hear the "I have to" arguments, and that might be true. But I question this approach, because if it is true, what happens if Hive disappears? This is definitely not the most stable of income streams in many types of variability, but relying on it to live just seems like a very risky approach.
This is even more true when people are relying on Hive to earn to support their lives or supplement their earnings, and it is stopping them from going out and finding additional income streams. Essentially, using Hive as a supplement to live is like living on debt, where for instance, if the monthly expenses are 1000 and Hive is giving 100 toward that, if the 100 ends, what then? Is a person able to get another income stream to fill the gap, are they able to cut out 10% of their monthly spending? If they can't cut, will they be forced to take on credit debt to make up the shortfall?
Obviously, there are a range of financial skills amongst people earning on Hive, and for some, it likely works out well to use their Hive earnings in their real life. For others, it is just another income stream to fill the gaps in life needs, and I think that it is these people who end up getting affected the most when those streams end. Relying on the flow of a highly uncertain tap that could close at any time, is far too risky for me at least.
However, I do see my HIVE earnings as an investment, which is why I am looking to grow my portfolio. Over the years, I have used used HIVE to build positions in other tokens too, as well as an investment gateway for Splinterlands and the like. But, it is still an "investment only" token, not one I am willing to count as a revenue stream that can support my life.
Of course, because of how everything is priced in crypto and how our conditioned minds work, it is easy to see the value in fiat currency. This shifts it into a "spend" area of the mind and makes it available for all the costs in our lives that come in that form-. The bills that come in €$£, providing the same denominator. It is very hard to not be drawn into this thinking, and it is compelling to avoid financial hardship, which can lead to a whittling away of crypto holdings.
And, because of the way economies tend to work, the time that we are going to need the most extra money, is when the economy isn't doing well, which is often when the crypto values are also down. This means that we need more, but have to use more token to cover that amount. This reduces the stack and when the economy recovers and the markets are flush, we have far less than we would have had, had we not spent.
And then, there is the consumer mindset that kicks in too, where we see extra income and want to spend it on something we want, even if it is not something we need. The cost of spending 100 HIVE today to buy movie tickets, might be a very expensive movie at the top of the bullrun. However, value is meant to be spent at some point, but I am trying to be more strategic when and on what I am willing to spend my investments, even if it would make my life a little easier in the short term.
We each make financial decisions each day, but for now, I am willing to $€£! what I need and want, and leave crypto for another day - or year.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]