This is something I’ve been dealing with mentally over the past year or so. I have always lived paycheck to paycheck. Technically, I fall below the poverty line. But, I’m not going to pretend like I’m not fortunate in that sense, because I don’t see myself as poor and i acknowledge the privilege that allows me to have an apartment, a full bellied dog, and food in the fridge.
So, obviously, when I got into crypto roughly 5 years ago I had absolutely nothing to invest. I had been introduced the steem and I found other ways of earning crypto through hard work from there. Even so, at the time, I generated maybe a couple hundred dollars worth of coins. I took those and over time I moved them into different currencies, obviously dreaming they would one day moon but without hope. I went through a rather hard time, lost my keys for awhile, lost my computer; essentially had the coins but lost all access to them and I thought that was a forever thing.
But it wasn’t. I got my keys back and I excitedly checked them out. Unfortunately, not much had changed whatsoever. Still, I moved some around into newer projects that sounded intriguing to me and I was pretty flippant about it; it wasn’t enough for me to be “life-changing”, and even though it would strongly benefit my life I still had hope.
Last year that hope started to take off. I checked again and I saw some trends that I was very surprised, and happy to see. Move things around a little more; great. Over the course of four years I had make a couple hundred dollars into ~$1000. That was a big deal for me. But still, I wasn’t struggling; yes I am still living check to check but I had high hopes for crypto and kept it around and kept my eyes on it.
Everything just kept booming. Apparently I made some really good decisions without knowing it. Now, all in all, passively my portfolio has risen from $1000 to over $8000 in a year. This is more money than I have ever had in my entire life.
So that’s where I’m at. I’m not prepared. I don’t know what to do with it. That money could change my life(I’m a 27yo manual laborer with a ton of debt; I’m not pretending like I’m gonna be set with 8 g’s). But I continue to watch my portfolio grow on its own. The coins I have are growing. Which would I move around? Which could I cash out on?
I never expected to feel so nervous finally having some silver lining. I have absolutely no idea what to do. This is a big step in my dream, but I never imagined I wouldn’t be prepared for it.
Thanks for your words taskmaster. Sorry for the rant. You just struck the nail on the head for me of what I’ve been concerned about; and I never fully acknowledged it or spoke on it, anyways, until I read this post