I have been powering down for a couple of weeks now and I am likely to power down for the rest of this month as well. That means 3 more weeks. This will leave me with just a handful of LEO and approximately 4000 Hive Power.
Before anyone judge me and before I start getting questions about it, or before people start to question my "loyalty" to Hive, LeoFinance or any other community, I want to share the actual reasons with you. Especially as my goal is to have 10K LEO and 10K Hive before the end of this year.
My goal has not changed, my motivation, beliefs or drive to push Hive & LeoFinance to new heights has not changed the slightest and I will continue to put in a lot of effort in the future as well. The only thing that has changed, is the path of reaching those goals.
A necessary change had to be made, and instead of getting into more FIAT-troubles, I decided to solve most of those problems with my beloved crypto. I have cashed out earlier as well, especially during my first months on St**mit in 2016, so I have already felt the sweetness of crypto in real life, but this time is different and I know that I am putting myself in a position where I will have to work my way up again, and it's definitely a mountain to climb.
I'm aware of all of that and I have considered my options more than once. It was not an easy decision to make, even though I knew that I at some point would most likely cash out some of my crypto to escape the FIAT-troubles. One of my long haul goals has always been to cash out, or to "take some profits" as others would say so I could change my life due to the awesome opportunity Hive gives me.
That being said, I know that actions speak louder than words and I can understand if some of you won't support me or my content until I prove that I am here to stay. Hopefully, my previous actions have convinced you already, but in case it hasn't, I won't be offended if you decide to look elsewhere whenever you encounter my contributions. I am truly grateful for the awesome support you have given me, on both Hive and on LeoFinance which I consider my second home.
However, even though I don't have any problems with being transparent and honest, I won't give you in-depths explanations for my decision as others are involved as well, in one way or another.
The reason for my power downs are:
- Student debts.
- Other FIAT troubles.
I have paid a total of 17500 USD in debts since January last year. This basically means that most of my income has been used to pay off various debts for 15 months, as I have been using my salary to pay these bills. It has taken a huge toll on me personally, but it's also wonderful to get rid of debts with interest.
I pay roughly 260 USD per month on my student debt alone, so getting rid of that would make my life a lot easier in the long haul. I am still not near to pay it off entirely, but I have come a long way. By using my crypto, I'll be able to reduce the monthly payment to approximately $100 per month.
However, as I have practically been using my entire monthly income to pay debts and living expenses, I haven't been able to save a single cent for more than a year.. Which is something I need to change.
That's basically why I have been powering down recently. To get rid off as much of those FIAT bills and debts as possible, so I can focus more on crypto in the future. So I can focus more on Hive and LeoFinance, which are the two tokens I am most interested in. I have also become interested in POB lately, so I might give that an honest shot as well in the future.
I could obviously have paid this off with a loan of some sort, but that means more interest. I could potentially have asked some of my friends or wealthy stakeholders on Hive for a loan with less interest, but it doesn't feel right to use another persons money when I have money, so to speak.
It's funny though, because I didn't power down during the ATH's we've had. I started to power down when the price started to drop, which is unfortunate obviously, but it's also because I never wanted to use my crypto for this in the first place. I was trying to figure out the best way of doing this without using my stake, but my options are limited.
Long story short, I am powering down and I have my reasons for doing it. Even though I am powering down right now, my goals for 2021 is to have 10K Hive and 10K LEO and I have a way of reaching those goals when I am finally debt-free and don't have to waste my monthly salary on stupid things like student debts.
My first milestones will be 5K Hive and 5K LEO before anything else, so that basically means that I will invest in both Hive and LEO until I reach those goals. As I will sit at approximately 4K Hive when I stop my power down, it will be roughly 1000 Hive remaining until I reach the first goal. When I have reached that goal, I will continue to invest in LEO until I reach 5000 LEO.
When I am sitting comfortably at 5K of each token, I will consider to invest in POB as well. However, my main priority is to get all the way up to 10K Hive and 10K LEO before the end of this year.
Also, I will still re-launch my "Let's talk" contest where I give away tokens to increase the overall engagement on Hive, but this has been set on pause for now. This also gives me time to figure out exactly how I want to do things with the contest, as I plan to include POB tokens as well.
So, there you have it. The reasons for my power down. I know that this is just a short explanation of it, but I felt somewhat obligated to share this with you..
I am basically going for some financial freedom, and Hive has given me a fair chance of achieving that. I need to take this chance, and in a few weeks, I'll be more focused on crypto than ever before.