The Best $50 I Ever Lost

As you may or may not know, I'm a rabid sports fan.

I am a massive San Antonio Spurs, Atlanta Falcons, and Gonzaga Bulldogs fan, and I am eternally disappointed by my Seattle Mariners.

I'm also a fan of making money. Unfortunately, I'm not as good at that part.

As a listener of Bill Simmons' podcast, I've heard many an ad for the betting service mybookie.ag. As a fun way to kickoff the NFL season, I decided to create an account. I threw $100 in and with his referral code, I received $100 in free play money.

I figured I would make a few fun bets with the free play money and maybe make a few dollars. I placed some bets on teams and hoped for the best.

I'm currently down to $55 in free play money after two weeks with zero winnings.

As you can tell, I'm a horrible gambler.

I'm still learning obviously and luckily for me I haven't actually lost any real money (okay I lied, I lost $5 on a prop bet in the Packers-Falcons game on Sunday night).

The thing is, even though I've only lost money so far, it's still fun to play. I like the feeling of having something to cheer and hope for.

I think that's why I love fantasy football so much (and I'm actually decent at that. Currently 2-0 in my league). But I digress. This is about gambling and losing money.

While I love the thought of winning money by gambling on sports, I also realize that I hate losing money even more.

That $5 prop bet was the one that hit me the hardest. The odds were in my favor and I got screwed! Screwed I tell you!

At least my Falcons won that game, but it did hurt a little bit to know that I lost money even though my team won.

Maybe I should just stick to fantasy football. At least I have a shot there.

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I write all of that previous mumbo-jumbo for this reason: Money is important to me.

No matter how many blog posts I read about how to "earn so much money you won't have any problems again," I always have the same sunken feeling when I think about money.

I'm addicted to money and it's probably pretty damn unhealthy.

In my spare time, I think about money. I scheme up ways to make more of it. To use my existing money to increase my current supply.

I'm the guy that checks his stock portfolio 17 times a day knowing full well it's unhealthy and unproductive to do so.

I don't mean to be this way. I didn't choose this.

It just happens.

Much like the Falcons just happened to blow a 25 point lead in the Super Bowl (still one of the worst experiences of my life as a sports fan).

So this is my way of attempting to not blow my lead.

I am gambling on sports because I know I will most likely lose everything I put in.

I want to get used to the feeling of losing money. To be okay with that feeling. To relish that feeling.

Why?

Because I know that I can always come back from it. Money doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Money is just paper with white guys printed on it.

Money doesn't mean anything.

Friends, Family, Freedom. Those mean something.

The friends and family that leave when there's no more money? They weren't actually important to begin with.

I don't mean this in some anarchist burn all of your cash type of way. Don't get me wrong. I still pay taxes and work my day job.

I just want to feel less addicted to money.

I want to enjoy the process of doing work that matters. Enjoy the time with my friends and family.

Love the process and love the hustle.

When I die (which could be tomorrow even), the amount of money I had won't matter.

The number of people that attend my funeral? Now that's what matters.

The End.

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For those of you interested in betting at mybookie.ag please feel free to hit me up on steemit.chat and I can send you a referral. If you don't want to do that, feel free to just go directly to the site and signup, it doesn't bother me either way.