I often share how crypto is changing / has changed my life, since I entered the blockchain, 4 years ago. Today, I felt a strong urge to share how it is helping the people around me, especially my twin sister and her family of four.
My twin sister reached out to me, yesterday, to tell me that she needed another big chunk of money ( at least two months of minimum wage, here in Portugal ) for the renovation of her house and if I could sell some more of their crypto to cover the costs.
FYI: I have been investing in crypto for her and taking care of her portfolio, since the Autumn of 2017.
I had told my twister, last weekend, that there had been a serious market crash correction, but that it was nothing to worry about. It would go up again, over time.
In reply to her request for selling crypto, I let her know that I would think of an action plan and get back to her in a day. Part of me hoped that the market would correct, go up quite a lot, over night.
I was buying some time, even though I knew that she needed the money before the end of the week and that transferring between wallets and then to my - and then her - bank account would take a day or two.
It's now two days before the end of the week...
The market did indeed go up, but it still has some ground to cover, to get even close to the prices of, let's say, a week ago.
This morning, my twin sister reached out to me again, to ask me if I'd thought about it...
I tried to explain to her that now isn't the best time to sell crypto. That the portfolio, that I have been taking care of for her since 2017, had almost halved in the last couple of days and was now recovering slowly. To be more precise, I continued, it was at about 60 percent of the value that it held a week ago.
I told her that I would have to sell most of her crypto ( which, by now, is mainly BTC and ETH, the number 1 and 2 coins, that we tried 'hard' not to sell in the past ) to provide her with the money that she asked for. Did she perhaps have any other choice, some fiat to sell?
She called me a little later and we talked over the phone. She let me know how much she needed and how much fiat money she had left. This made it easier for me to make a decision.
Taking Profit ( for a good cause )
In an earlier text message, I had told her that the renovation of her house is actually a 'good cause' and that - even though the market had corrected loads in the last week, it's still serious profit. I also added that she will either receive more crypto from me in the near future or find a way to accumulate more herself, preferably during the next bear market, when crypto is 'cheap', once again.
I could make this a very long story, but I mainly wanted to point out how much of a help crypto can be.
My twin sister reminded me that she had only invested about 800 Euros, back in the days, in 2017. The rest was either gifted by me or profit.
This made me realize that, in the last couple of years, especially this year, we have been able to stretch the money a lot, which has given her family and her the opportunity to do a lot of nice things with it.
In fact, most of it has been spent on adding another floor to their small ( almost tiny ) house. Although my brother-in-law has worked a lot in the last couple of months and that has covered a chunk of the cost and their living expenses, their crypto portfolio has always been there as a back up and I have always been there to inform them and help them in their decision making.
I am pretty happy and proud that I have been able to help them so much with this. Since I got into crypto, in May 2017, my twin sister was the first one ( in my surroundings ) who hopped onto the blockchain train with me. She sensed my excitement and believed in it. She was wise enough to let me do the investing for her and now, almost 4 years later, she's reaping the rewards from this.
Some background info:
My twin sister has always struggled with money, in the past ( and so have I ). Being a creative ( like me ) and someone who has always thought more of others than herself, didn't help with this. And let's say that the difficult ( huge understatement ) past of my Portuguese brother-in-law, who she met over a decade ago, also contributed to her poverty and struggles and, indirectly to my struggles ( being her hypersensitive twin brother ).
Fast forward to the now. They are all doing very well. Lotte and her partner have a 7 year old son and a 5 year old daughter and have been living in Portugal since 2018 ( and so have I ).
They own a little house ( that is now doubling in size ), with a hectare/ 2.5 acres of terraced land and a river plus their own private river beach, at the bottom.
They have their own water ( mine ) and have set up a system to pump the water to a huge tank that functions as a small swimming pool for the kids, waters their garden and provides natural water for their house and guest house.
There's a bunch of happy chickens on their land providing them with amazing eggs and, at times, sheep come over to graze and act as natural lawnmowers.
There's also quite a nice amount of fruit trees, grapes and a huge kiwi plant. They constructed vegetable patches, set up a solar powered warm water system and their toilets are connected to a container with shit eating worms (haha!).
They also constructed a guest house, two years ago, that was doing pretty well, before the virus took over the world. In the last couple of months, that guest house has been the place where their family of four has lived, while their own house is being renovated/ a floor is being added.
Their one floor house has now changed into a two floor house and, as of late, things are really starting to speed up.
The crypto that I sold for them today, will hopefully cover much of the remaining renovation costs.
I would like to add to the above, that my parents have also helped her ( and me ) a lot. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be living in Portugal now.
Thanks mom and dad! You helped us loads! Love you 💗
Nevertheless, if it hadn't been for me getting into crypto, half a year to a year before we left The Netherlands, we probably wouldn't have thought this big and everything might have taken a lot longer to manifest. It would have been way more of a struggle.
It feels great to know that I have been able to help in such a way, having struggled financially ( and in many other ways ) myself for most of my adult life.
I hope the above story has inspired you, one way or another. I just felt that it was about time to show the world that crypto is not just changing my life but also the life of the people around me.
Do you have similar stories to share? If so, I would love to learn about them in the comments :<)
P.S. I promise to share some pictures of my sister and her family in their finished house in an upcoming post. The above pictures were taken by my twin sister with her old phone with mediocre camera. I will blow you away with my future photos taken with my brand new phone with awesome camera haha.