Hey Steemies!
Yet another year just rolled by, another turn around the sun for the planet...hopefully a few more to come! I hope you are all partied out by now and had some jolly holidays before having to get back to the mundane on Monday. The new year brings celebrations around the world but also brings personal contemplation, perhaps feelings of guilt for indulging over the holidays either food, spending too much or drinking too much, family drama, whatever the case may be. This time also brings a temporary willingness to change something we dislike about ourselves, new year , new beginning, why not? Does it work tho? Many tend to make resolutions and try to commit to making changes that deep down they don't really want to make. Why do I say that? Because when a person wants to change something enough, they don't need a new year to commit to a plan. I always wondered how many actually keep to their commitment and make a significant life change based on a new year resolution.
With that being said, I clearly don't have resolutions but rather I set goals and visions on things I would like to get accomplished or new experiences to be lived, mainly a general idea of where I would like to be in 365 days from now regarding various aspects of life. We don't always reach our goals or targets in life or the span of a year as some things are just completely out of our control but as long as we have made strides forward and keep progressing is the main thing. How did I do on last years goals?
Some goals I have reached, others not so much but overall it wasn't a bad year considering the circumstances I found myself in. I'll get in greater details about this in a later post but long story short, our local economy is still belly up with no end in sight, clearly I didn't get anywhere close to my financial goals or stacking goals. The good news, I still made enough to keep the wolves away for now and I didn't have to sell any of my stack and was still able to add a few ounces at a time during the dips plus @silvergingerman and I buy each other stackibles as presents and tokens of affection instead of dying flowers or useless disposable trinkets, it helps with the illusion of moving forward in that regards I suppose. Part of keeping the ship afloat was the special abilities given by the stakitis fever of seeing everything's cost in ounces of silver or gold and continuing to find ways to cut stupid expenses.
Limiting the usage of debit card and doing day to day transactions in cash helps form a direct relationship with my habits just in case you suffer from a new year credit card hangover and one of your resolution is a cash diet and looking for tips. Another trick is the good old pocket silver when you want to buy something dumb, pull it out hold it and look at it, like an instant reminder of the prize to delaying gratification. Surprising the powerful effect that an old beat-up piece of metal in your pocket can have. One thing I can guarantee, once you start to analyze the cost of every transaction, you will quickly realize how much more a disposable lifestyle cost. By disposable lifestyle, I mean going to get your coffee from the coffee shop instead of making your own, buying convenient pre-packaged foods like already made meals or meals in a box like pancake or taco kit. You pay for all that extra packaging and realistically, it takes the same amount of time to make it from scratch and is at an insane reduced cost...for realz. Stop wasting your money, it really isn't that much of a sacrifice! It's only an illusion that you are saving time and continuing to do so is destroying our environment, filling our oceans with plastic and burying us in garbage(kinda like the steemit trending page, courtesy of bid-bots lol).
For 2019, work prospects are looking pretty grim for another year and since we are considered an essential service to society, we don't have the right to legally strike for a fair contract during our upcoming wage negotiations. Frankly it's as fair as making a business deal with a gun pointed to your head because we get fucked every time and have to give up wages and benefits yet we can get heavy fines of over 10 000$ individually for standing up against unfair labor contract that is in breach of local labor laws to begin with. Now that drama is coming up in the next few months again, last contract was a tragic loss for workers. Our time gets cheaper every contract but funny enough they expect more of us yet life gets more expensive everyday while they laugh in our faces and reap the fruits of our labor and charge us more for the goods and services we produced for them to get rich with in the first place and give themselves raises and huge bonuses while collecting corporate welfare and offshore accounts courtesy of our hard earned tax dollars from the 30+% my paycheck gets raped with in government fees before it even makes it to me. The fine you pay for being an ambitious hard working member of society.
With that being said, I pondered looking for a different industry for a career, even if I had to start from scratch...At what point do I reach the hill to die on? I'm still willing to fight for what's right and better working/camp conditions with my brothers but it has to happen soon or I will be forced to move on to greener pastures when the set-backs become greater than the benefits. The last couple years have left me in a somewhat stagnant position and I just don't do stagnant, simply not good enough for me. As to what direction I will end up? who knows, I tend to flow with the universe like a free spirit in the wind and never end up where I expected, all I can do is speculate. Steemit has opened up my imagination to different possibilities in the future, perhaps I can explore taking my photography to the next level and try to market it somehow and eventually work for myself but that's more of a long term goal.
As far as staking goals, I think I will try not to think to aggressively in 2019 and remain on the status quo of doing what I have to do to hang on to what I have and when I can, squeeze in a few extra ounces every few weeks. One thing I have learned, no matter how little, it all adds up in the end. If by the grace of god the pipeline gets built and Alberta's economy shows significant signs of improvement, then I can re-asses and set a % of my earnings to convert into a solid currency like before. They call it the Wild Wild West for a reason, life may be more urbanized than a 100 years ago but it's still survival of the fittest and you still need huge cohones to make it out here in good or bad times just like the pioneers who came before us with an incredible vision. Booms and busts are as predictable as a teenage girl's mood swings and is really the only constant around here. After living in Alberta long enough, I'm starting to see a pattern and plan accordingly. (To be fair Alberta is only about 100 years old, we used to be Northwest-Territories or the wilderness until then...not much has changed)
I get reassured that I'm on the right path when I think back of my young stacking days, really wasn't that long ago either, our economy was much better, silver was cheap and heard rumors that our dollar was going to take a steep dive along with the local economy when the price of oil tumbled, I planed ahead and started getting precious metals with any extra $$ I had. The first thing that went up as our economy crumbled was the price of commodities, including precious metals, the comforting feeling that I had maintained my purchasing power during this time of decline that we continue to endure several years later. Given oil industry have fallen from representing near 1/3 of our economy to 1/10 to give you perspective of the colossal kick in the balls Canada took and continues to take that everyone but Alberta seems to want to avoid talking about. They call it a more diversified economy but I call bull-shit strait up it's just a way to sugarcoat a pile of shit and selling it as a box of jelly doughnuts to deflect from the truth and prevent a citizen uprising but bear in mind, we are not as dumb as we look, we are just not sure what to do about it just yet.
From having an inquisitive nature, I had to ask my LCS why it seemed like every time we have gone for a visit in the last few months, they didn't have much for generic supply and mainly what is brought in to be sold by customers. From their business observation, premiums have been getting higher for them and it is harder for them to find supply with lower premiums in order to keep prices as low as possible for their customers. Is the price of paper and physical starting to part ways ending their toxic relationship? Perhaps 2019 could be one year closer to finding out the true value of precious metals? After all inflation was at a minimum when our currency was gold, silver and copper.
Parts of me still wonder, I'm I delusional in my plan for self preservation? am I that dumbass tanking hard earned cash into a plan destined for disappointment? Or is this the most ingenious idea I will ever have in my lifetime and my predictions right, in the sense that I will do better at maintaining my purchasing power for my savings than Fiat. Am I the only stacker to question my own sanity? or is it a symptom of stakitis sometimes it's hard to tell apart from reality. Strangely enough, they tax every action here, even the air yet precious metals remain tax free, probably the only thing left that isn't taxed, I'm still curious specifically why that is other than the government may still considers it a currency in some sense, maybe it's their back-up plan to get precious metals into the hands of their citizens for when the fiat financial tides change like it was the plan all along? Parts of me wonders just how much precious metals in various forms sits in the hands of ordinary Canadians? Anyhow, I would rather be caught in my own delusion and go down swinging until the end than just roll over, accept it and watch it all unfold before my eyes, admitting defeat without even trying anything, it's just not in my DNA.
Happy new year my friends!
Cheers! X🐞X