Cashing Out Steem To Pay Off Debts vs. Investing in Steem Power
Paying off debt is bittersweet.
On one hand, it is the best and soundest financial decision that I can make. Every dollar that I pay off debt with is a dollar I don't have to worry about. I can just sit back and know that I’m making serious financial progress.
On the other hand, it’s just like throwing money into a black hole. Earn $100? Send $50 into the debt bucket. Hooray…
Without Debt, Steem Power is an Easy Investment
I can’t help but feel a little jealous of the people who are investing heavily into Steem and other crypto currencies. It’s such a huge opportunity to be able to invest and participate in this new ecosystem while it is still young.
Whenever I power up some Steem, or even just avoid powering down, it feels great too. As a true believer in Steem, it feels like every dollar of Steem today will be worth 5x as much in a few years.
But I also feel guilty, because I know I could be doing the even simpler, even smarter thing: Just paying off debt even faster.
Every time I upvote, I want to make it worth more. I think about powering up some SP. Then every time I open my bank account, I remember the even more important thing… becoming debt free.
Gratitude
In moments like these it is good to focus on gratitude:
I am grateful that my debt is less than $20,000
I am grateful that I have paid off at least $1,000 of debt in the last few months just by Steem blogging!
I am grateful to be in the United States, where wages are high and quality of life is good.
Besides, I got myself into debt. It was something I could have avoided or minimized a lot sooner in my life, so, that’s how it goes.
The Mindset For Now
I can sum up my current strategy right now in six words: Don’t Power Down, Don’t Power Up.
Don't power down, because every SP that I collect is worth way too much in the future. Powering down now is tragedy when that Steem could be $10+ down the line.
Don’t power up, because I have to focus on paying off this debt!! I was just posting last week about the idea of trying to pay it all off before the end of 2017 (https://steemit.com/money/@heymattsokol/my-quest-for-creative-financial-freedom-how-to-earn-usd10-000-per-month-it-s-not-as-crazy-as-it-sounds) although that does feel a bit out of reach right now.
Most importantly, we should not compare ourselves to other people. Some people are born into more wealth than we will ever know, and others are born into more terrible poverty than we will ever have to face. We only get one life, and all we can do is be good to ourselves and the people around us.
For me, that starts with paying off even more of this damned debt.
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Haha so you came to peace with the fact that 300 bucks per post are not going to happen soon?:P I can feel you, though Im not 100% sure Steem will prosper. I would like to think so, but at the same time it feels bit broken AND at the same time it’s nothing that couldn’t be further solved by upcoming HFs...We will see...Anyway I feel good for contributing my little bit often times when you write an article...you’re genuine person and I support that:)
Fingersik, this is a beautiful comment. Firstly and mainly THANK YOU for your contributions, which are greatly appreciated!
I'm with you that Steem is an awesome opportunity, but it's not a "100%" thing. Its really popular here to SAY it is a sure thing - probably easier to get upvotes when you act confident - but in reality, none of us know and yea there are some slightly "broken" things that need time to play out..
and yeah earning 300 bucks per post might be more of a long term goal hah, right now my average is around $30 per day so I'm trying to slow it down a little and focus on the shorter term wins :-)
Yop agreed :). 30 bucks per day would make my living :D, but I understand that USA X CZE is not comparable and also I’m not in dept. Now I’m about 20 per week and that is only slightly above the minimum of my investment plan. Anyway I’ll keep trying and maybe one day someone will reward me for my efforts, or maybe I will fall below the plan’s threshold and then I’ll have to come up with the decision about what to do with my life:D
Keep it up! I believe in you.
The good new stuff is that unlike other crypto you don't even necessarily needed invest anything, you can start with 0. I wanted to by some btc a few years ago just to because I knew it'd be big, but I hadn't no money. I still don't have any money but now I can invest my time and energy into steemit which is awesome. I'll have money next time, that's for sure :-D
This is the most important thing. There's no way I would have invested as much money into BTC or Ether as I have earned in SP... but now that I have it, I can't imagine spending a dime of it! Just like you. That's the beauty of Steem.
I guess I have big aspirations. I hope to be able to live off of 25% of my payout (I don't need much to live), give away about the same and add 50% to my SP. I wonder how long that will take ... working on the sp first
Great goals. You know you'll have some of my upvotes along the way :-)
It's a hard choice to make but think about all the money you save on interest from paying down your debt sooner. You should take the leap if the oportunity is available. I recently paid off the last bit of my line of credit and credit card. They both now sit at $0. It was a hard choice to make, putting a few thousand on them, but now I have almost $300 extra each month that would have normally gone to paying those down. I'll be putting that back into cryptocurrency as much as I can every month.
It's super hard!! I am just trying to remind myself that if I solve this problem once and for all, I'll never have to go back. Your story about how you now have the extra $300 each month is a great reminder of that. If I can just keep those kinds of anecdotes in my mind, I know I can hang in there for the next 3-6 months and just pay off more and more of this debt rather than spend on other things.
We'll just keep on steemin' :)
:-)
Damned debt!
It would be nice to be powering up 100% all the time... been doing the 50/50 thing and throwing a lot of my SBD at paying off debts. For me, at least, what I make from Steemit is "in addition to" income so I'm gonna use it first to get all our debts paid off while still allowing some SP to build... once the debt is gone... then it will be 100% power up and we'll be better off for noting making debt payments every month.
At least, that's the plan...
That is a solid plan. You're in a great spot having Steemit as additional income rather than the main source of income - having it "on the side" is probably the smartest move.
You'll crush the debt! I'll crush it too. Pretty soon we'll both be on the moon.
Good luck my friend. Debt sucks!
Thank you jeff!
Debt / slavery .. Make a vow... Never again..
trust me, NEVER AGAIN.
Amen to that Brother !!!! Following you Man..
Nice nice very useful post all steemians..great work @heymattsokol keep it up post....GOD BLESS YOU
thanks
Good luck with your debt man! I'm using the 100% power-up strategy.
If Steem keeps growing like I think it will, you are one of the smart ones... thanks for the support!
Long term preparation is better. That means Steem Power (SP). The golden rule is great. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Awesome. Thanks for sharing. Upvoted. Resteemed.
Interesting that you say "Long term preparation = Steem Power (SP)" - I agree, but in the context of this post, do you think paying off debt does NOT equal long term preparation?
For me, they both seem to be good for long term.. debt payment is safer, but Steem Power more high reward possibly... that's the puzzle
meep