Hello everyone!
I'm wiser and I thought I'd give steemit a try. I'm fairly active on Bitcoin Talk and I also keep a blog about my adventures in cryptocurrency (http://creativecurrencies.cu.cc).
I've been involved in the cryptosphere since around March of 2103. I spent around $40 on Bitcoin back when it was only $90 apiece. I also started earning it through various task-based websites, and then I got involved with writing for the Devtome (put out by the Devcoin project), which provided a source of regular spending cryptomoney.
At the end of 2013, the price of Bitcoin went up over $1000 and the price of Devcoin got close to 200 satoshis. I sold enough to pay the down payment on a new vehicle for my family. I also lost quite a bit that year. Early on I lost close to a half Bitcoin in one of those "mining" ponzi scams (and learned my lesson), and I also lost around four Bitcoin in the CoinLenders theft--that really hurt as it was the highest price for years at that point. I also invested early in NEXT, but failed to sell when the coin reached its peak, then invested it in "assets" which went nowhere and pretty much lost all of that. I came away from those losses with some valuable lessons, though, and as I mentioned before, still came out way ahead of where I started in terms of being able to cash out Bitcoin.
I enjoy sharing what I've learned in my crypto-adventure, and also helping new people get started. You really don't have to invest much (or any) of your own money to obtain cryptocoins. In fact, all of you who have an account here learned that firsthand. When it's not your money you're putting on the line, it does reduce the risk of playing the cryptogame substantially. You need to pay attention to the other coins out there besides Bitcoin, but you don't have to know about every single one. It's good to pick a few coins you think will be winners, buy them a little at a time (I've been known to use faucet earnings to pick up DNotes, XEM and even Diamonds), and then hold them for the long term.
