To be honest, I spent my first couple years using STEEM as money. I lived almost entirely off of my post earnings back in the day.

I powered down and took a long hiatus from the chain due to personally problems in real life, and have only recently come back. I'm still in a position where I need to cash out some of my HIVE for life expenses, but I intend to start pumping my HP very soon now that I'm back to posting like I used to.