Going to start blogging about my Financial Journey on Leo

in LeoFinance3 years ago

I'm @adamada a hobby illustrator. I started blogging on crypto last January 2018 after a friend's recommendation to join the other blockchain. My blogs revolve around art, anime, and random interests that pop up.


I started posting on Hive again after hiatus for more than a year. I got caught up with the demands of my career so I had to drop some blogging activities to help me focus. I already had an interest about topics that helped me in wealth building but was less inclined to write about them on my blogs.

I was still mapping my way through traditional investments and the subject of cryptofinance was far from the items I had to cross over from my to read list. Back then, I didn't notice any well founded community that caters to both traditional financial topics and cryptofinance at the same time. I discovered about Leofinance from the communities page at peakd.

I spent some time lurking on what the community was about rather than engaging with it. I was still busy with my career but I wanted to be updated with what's happening on Hive. This post crosses off an item on my to do list after starting my regaining my blogging habits again.



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My financial journey started around 5 years ago when I got a wake up call on how money affects us all. I was studying medicine when I had to take a leave of absence because my folks was involved in a vehicular accident. The medical bills took a toll on our funds so I had to stop. I wasn't sure whether I could continue the grad course because becoming a doctor is a really expensive profession in the Philippines.

I'm already a licensed nurse but didn't want to work as one. The health care system and compensation here sucks. But I wasn't going to sit idly. I took the initiative to apply for work as a telemarketer, data analyst for a map making software company, and freelance content writer. I did all those for a couple of months till I burned out and dropped the call center job.

I wasn't asked to work for the family but I didn't want to have any relatives give me handouts either. While I worked as a telemarketer by night, I would sneak in some time reading about stocks and investing. This was how I started trying to teach myself financial literacy. I'll walk a few kilometers to work and back home just to save 16 USD monthly from car pool expenses. I needed to save some funds just to get myself started on stocks.

Walking a few kilometers after hours of work actually helped, fatigue is one of the best sleeping pills I learned. I'd sleep for four hours then wake up and spend 1 hour researching my articles assigned to write about then 4 hours actually writing them. I was tasked with 3k words per day as a part time work and the pay sucks but I got to live my life as best as I can here.

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That's 5 hours for article writing and another 3 hours for working as a data analyst. The data analyst gig was just a fancy term, I just check the images of maps and cross check whether the markers placed on them were accurate. I had a software that the company issues for the task. The rest of the day's hours is spent for self care, commute to work, and actually working as a telemarketer.

If you hate telemarketers, the feeling is mutual. I could understand how annoying that job is for people on the receiving end of the call. Just consider the idea that the people behind doing the calling are just trying to live with the means that they have. Being on both sides helped me be more considerate in my response whenever someone calls me for offers I don't need.

I earned an average of 400 dollars a month with 1 full time and 2 part time jobs. This is what being in the real world is and I'm partly glad that I was living in it. I lived a comfortable life before the accident. I knew learning about money was important but it was least on the list of stuff I wanted to learn about.

I resigned from the call center job after the stress of doing the routine daily took a tool on my body. I wasn't keeping 400 dollars on my savings, half of it automatically goes to paying bills and monthly life support to my family. I was planning to quit medicine if I didn't meet a sponsor by the end of the year when the next school year arrived. I was just fortunate that a relative gave an offer.

But the lessons learned from money making was instilled and I carried those throughout the years. I was focused on stocks and thought about being a day trader but that's not possible when the demands of my grad course were too much that made any extracurricular activities unfeasible. I settled to having my entire portfolio just invested on blue chip stocks for dividends.

I still kept my data analyst part time job to fund my stock investment but it had got to a point when I had to drop it too. While my cash flow lessened my habits to enrich my financial literacy progressed further. It's that hunger to know more. I was living comfortably again while studying but the struggle of being at your lowest point was not something you can forget.


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Teaching myself financial literacy didn't make me earn a lot of money but it did helped me keep my money secured from quick rich schemes. Being financially literate helped me see a different perspective of how the world works and it's damn complicated and beautiful.

I skipped some parts about my struggles doing part time while studying in grad school. But these were just stories about how my grades tanked while I was earning money for the love of it.

Cryptofinance is an area I've been reading about on the sidelines. I plan on allocating more % of my portfolio on crypto. While I still advocate people to learn more about the traditional investments first, I see value in talking about cryptocurrency as an area worth investing into. I'm a doctor now and this opens up a lot of income generating opportunities.


This is a creative footer by @adamada
A Hobby Illustrator

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LOL, I worked as a telemarketer for a long time too. Total drag! I could really relate with your story. I've been on a similar journey learning money management and personal finance. So much to learn and so important to make time for it. Just followed and looking forward to your posts.

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Thank you!

The industry taught me a lot of things an average person without business or finance smarts will never understand. It also taught me how replaceable anyone can be when they work for a company. Can't fully say I hate the telemarketing as an industry when it's the same industry that gave me a job and helped me grow. Being interested in money lead me to this blogging platform as well.

So much to learn and so important to make time for it.

This. You reminded me on how much I slacked off on my daily reading quota for financial books. Haha

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The industry taught me a lot of things an average person without business or finance smarts will never understand.

I learned a lot from that industry too. Totally agree!

Interesting story. A doctor and Crypto investor, I haven't seen much of that around. Learning to manage money is not taught in schools, one has to learn it by following the ropes and actually doing it actively, be it saving or trying to increase one's earnings, that's one life lesson that is never ending.

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Being a doctor kind of keeps one occupied enough with career building. In terms of earning potential, most would just hand over their money to mutual fund managers than actively learning the trade. I can't blame them though. Finance is already another field of discipline and cryptofinance is even a niche on its own.

Learning to manage money is not taught in schools

It's been a deep regret not meeting or paying attention to someone that could have saved me from being financially ignorant. Now I am just passionate about reaching out to anyone that wants to learn how to invest their money mostly on traditional investment vehicles since I have yet to learn more about cryptofinance.

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Thanks for sharing your journey.

People do not realize how important financial literacy is. With the internet, it is so easy to learn about what to do and, more importantly, what not to do.

It always starts with living within one's means. You showed how important it is to save a few dollars a month to invest. At the same time, it is vital to avoid debt.

All of this adds up to a sound foundation. Over time, hopefully you can grow it into more money.

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People do not realize how important financial literacy is. With the internet, it is so easy to learn about what to do and, more importantly, what not to do.

I learned to search for snippets of info from sample pdf files on the subject interested. YouTube also helped dumb down complex topics especially Ray Dalio's vids.

All of this adds up to a sound foundation. Over time, hopefully you can grow it into more money.

Investing on lessons helped me increase my cash flow but not at levels where I can freely buy into crypto sales yet. There are still loans to pay for the education I got. Thanks for the comment and support, I had a feeling that I'd see your name when I was writing this post :D

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I too was a telemarketer and I can relate. I also lurked for awhile before jumoing in on the then Steemit, which led my way to LeoFinance. Financial education needs to start early and the good thing is that we can contribute to the knowledge-base right here on the blockchain. :)

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I too was a telemarketer and I can relate.

The struggle to just make the weekly or daily quota is real. I never wanted to come back into that industry but it left me more respect for the people still hustling there. I will be always grateful for the learning experience I got from working there. It taught me how to dream big.

Going to build a reputation in real life and once I got that popularity going I'll start lowkey inviting people to try out the platform. Of course most of the time they fail at the screening test, the thing that prevents me from introducing the blockchain openly is inviting unwanted attention like shitposters, and quick cash grabbers, that's not how I want my referrals to end up like.

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Indeed, you want to bring the right people into the platform. I worked at one place where we did surveys and could use an alias, but with the sales job we had to use our real names and somehow get past the gatekeeper receptionist to get to the person we needed.

The public would be surprised to know of so many single moms and retirees doing it just to put food on the table. Knowing what I went through, I too am always polite when they call. The lessons learned in that industry can help you throughout your life.

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Good article, life is not what we think on the road of stumbling we have to learn by living strong experiences.

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