I seem to be having a lot of conversations with people about Bitcoin lately. Now it's high, there's more people admitting they hold it - it's like a big 'I told you so' to those who have been mocking it all this time. Even my Dad is impressed, and he made the sign of the cross at me when I bought it. I spent some time explaining to him that just because you hold crypto, does not make you a drug dealer, and that it's more likely you're using FIAT. Plus, you know, all those other drug dealers before crypto. I think he understands now. Still, he always said that the only way to get money was to work for it. Bollocks to that.
I hate working a conventional job.
I hate money too, yet here I am, slave to it. Watching the interest rates and the crypto charts. Counting pennies.
We keep thinking that 'if only we can pay off the mortgage' we'll be better off. Of course, that's an illusion - we still have to pay for the privilege of 'owning' land, and we don't even want to be trapped in this place forever, being the footloose and fanciful gypsy spirits we are at heart. Keep your mansion and give us wheels and an open road. That's rich, to us.
But it's a goal, right? Pay off that damn mortgage. At least we don't have a house in Torquay with a million dollar mortgage. It's a new demographic now on the coast, that's for sure. We didn't want to work our whole lives just for a sea view. The sky and a few trees will do us just fine. I'm not working my fingers to the bone for prestige and a pool and a postcode.
I am not even that enamoured about the crypto world, to be honest. It's not as if it's provided answers to all the worlds ills - if you can't afford it, for example, you don't get a slice of the pie. It's not as if it's made us all more equal - the rich are still in power, and the decisions are made by the people with the most investment. Fiat and crypto are bedfellows rather than rivals, methinks. And I loathe the way we're led to believe that more makes us worthier.
If I had my way, we wouldn't have money at all - just barter and shared labour. That idea suprises people. I give things away - like a beautiful heritage breed rooster this week. The woman was gobsmacked. Why would I give it away? Because not everything has a price tag, and if you believe in abundance, it comes in all forms. And will $50 for a rooster make my life better? No. But her smiles will. And when she sends me pictures of baby chickens, I'll smile from here til next Tuesday.
And I'll acknowledge I'm privileged too - because if I had less money, I likely would have accepted at least some fiat for the rooster. When I quit work, I'll probably try to get a least a bit of pocket money for the things that come out of my garden. But for now, I have this idealistic dream I'm clinging to of a money free world. Yeah right.
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So, without revealing how much we owe on the mortgage, I can say we aren't too far off. In fact, we nearly had paid it off last year, except we bought a Landrover and took a year off work. Here we are on the treadmill again, working to pay the mortage and the bills. Ugh.
But with our small bitcoin investment, things are looking good. Not buy a small island or be totally comforably secure in retirement good and never work again, but better than we were good. Or at least, good enough to buy those extra accessories for this car restoration project. We'd been skimping and saving and worrying about what things we could afford.
We're good at finding bargains and things that look good for low cost. New Defender seats will set you back a couple of grand, but we just got Suzuki Liberty seats in leather from the scrap yard for $100 bucks and they look awesome. So that makes us think - well, if we took a bit of the BTC and spend it on some luxuries like the carpet set, a new steering wheel and some new door cards, this dream Defender is going to look pretty swag. If that's the word that the kids use. Because if you're going to spend a year and a half restoring a dream car and putting a slide on camper on the back, you may as well have it looking proper nice, right? Yolo, and all that.
New paint job coming along nicely on Wally the 130
So Friday, Jamie got into his Bittrex account, wondering how much he had. He suspected 'a little' from a small buy a few years back - a few hundred Aussie dollars for small day trade dabbling, but he hasn't been trading and hasn't even looked at it. Lo and behold - at today's prices, there's a decent little egg in there. Enough to buy all the things we need (nearly) on that car guilt free. It's kinda a little big like magic money. We're proper blessed we don't need it for day to day living and we could afford to HODL, but where would be the fun in that?
So we'll sell a little for now to fund the project, and we're high fiving each other.
Sure, the price might go up AFTER we sell it but we have to hold onto the fact that we DID profit from a crypto investment, enabling us get this project done a lot faster than if we had to save hard for it, and a lot better than if we had to settle for the tired old dashboard and carpet and so on that would do the job, but look shite.
Happy days.
With Love,
@Riverflows
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This gave me a good feeling
I understand the love for the little things and not the best postcode, the latest gadgets, the "er" and "est" of everything
I too am happy with a roof over my head, the holiday every now and then, and yummy food ever so often :D
That lucky woman ;D
They say the more you give, the more you get
so High 5 to you guys :D
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Aw, thanks so much! Yes, it's the simple things, and I have a big resistance to being told what I should buy and should be!! I mean, people spend a fortune on cars - all we want is our Defender so we can travel in it. I'm so glad that HIVE pushed me to make a SMALL investment a few years ago! It's really not much at all, but it is a happy boost for us.
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Ah, good to see that you are doing things that you find personally valuable! I've started skimming to bolster both of our superannuations as it is the decidedly weaker leg in our retirement plans (freelancers...).
My super is going to be dire...definitely can't live for long off that.
It always good to hear such a great things what crypto can do. I too have little Bitcoin with and I am holding it for a long time. I am not a trader just a long term investor and thus will keep holding until it's absolutely necessary to cash out.
Good idea. Us to, for the most part. But a couple of k on a beloved project is a good investment too for us.
Sounds like you're doing OK to me - of course paying off the mortgage doesn't really matter if you've got enough wealth to cover it, earning you a better return on that mortgage.
But they do sort of hang over you!
I don't understand about the better return thing.. I'm financially illiterate. What do you mean? Yeah I just want to get it done.. hate being beholden.
I think he means, if the interest you're paying on the mortgage is less than the interest (or profit, whatever) you're earning on the Bitcoin. So like, if your mortgage interest is 5% annually (I have no idea what interest rates on mortgages are like, I'm making up numbers), but you're earning 20% returns on investment with Bitcoin, it's a better return to HODL.
However, I'm with you and Suze Orman on the "debt is bondage" idea. I'd rather pay it off, too.
Edited to add: I think it would also make a difference on the size of the debt/investment. So even if your mortgage was 5% and Bitcoin was 20%, if you owe 100k on the house but only have 1k in Bitcoin ...(enter math here).
Yes - if yer earning 30% in a defi farm there's no point paying off a 5% mortgage!
congratulations! i hope you get that paid off, just getting close is worth celebrating. im excited about paying my car off by the end of the year.
my dad, recently retired and paid his house off that he had for about 17 years, always paying more than the minimum.
he had it for about ten years, you know where you are just paying the interest off, lol and he tells me that he paid about $100,000 on his $130,000 house...and he still owes $100,000
i guess compound interest works great for the banks too!
anyway he paid the last $40,000 or whatever i guess after he retired so now he just enjoys life, nice to see him with a smile -he worked hard all his life and had a stressful job in the last years.
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...made me LOL. 😄
Good for you on getting a little profit and doing something that will make you happy with it. It's rather like "saving the china and fancy towels," if you're familiar with that idea. Some people have "the nice china" that hides in a cupboard "for special occasions," and they never use it because they want to "keep it nice." Well what's the point if you don't enjoy it and it just collects dust in the cupboard? The purpose, ostensibly, of money - fiat or otherwise - is to be able to do the things you need and want. It's a tool, not an end in itself. Too much of our culture sees it as "the point" and not "a tool."
One of the things I like about Hive is, anyone can get into it. I am one of those who can't afford the luxury of buying a little Bitcoin (or any other coin) as an investment and HODL it, because I am living hand to mouth. But I can blog on Hive, and earn some coins, and though I cash out some to buy groceries or pay rent, I am building my stake (so close to dolphin!). If the prices get nice again, then I can meet my needs with my earnings, made possible by that stake. It's why I see the POW coins as "investments" and POS coins, or at least Hive, as co-ops. And I know I'm not the only one, because look at how many people who struggle even harder than I do financially who are here. Bitcoin gets the attention but Hive is where the worldchange is, imo.
Inspiring. Wish I had bought some many years ago when I first thought of it and people told me I was crazy. Alas, how it goes. It still seems like there’s a lot of promise especially with smaller coins with space to grow. We shall see. Enjoy your little egg
Thanks @ofsedgeandsalt - it's a bit of a boring finance post next to yours!!! Still, they say it's going to go up again anyway, maybe to 400K but - jeez who knows! Even my son and his girl just bought a little amount, 'just to see'. Even if it goes up another 10K they'll make a small profit.
Well that's a very refreshing take on the whole thing, thanks :) I can only wish I had any extra money to invest but alas... we'll just die in crypto poverty... and happiness :D
If only everything in human life could be given freely...then we would really be getting somewhere. I guess until we can figure out Milton's Utopia we will have to keep trading something, people have this weird illusion that free makes it less valuable, but I like to think that after the past year more folks are raising their consciousness on what free is, and should be.
The next level of currency (we like that word so much better than money) is here, and it's here to stay, so now it's about working to invest in the future of abundance, and it's very exciting to hear about your Bittrex discovery! Paying attention to the crypto world these days is going to pay off handsomely for many of us who haven't accrued massive fiat dollars!
When you get that mortgage paid off (or before!), and you realize your gypsy dreams to the fullest, I sure hope you make time for a visit to our little corner of Appalachia. You have an open invitation to Fantastica any time...
Of all places in America, I'd love to go to Appalachia. You guys have so much biodiversity there and of course I'm interested in all the wild herbs and plants you have growing. I can't see myself getting to the states in this lifetime now, but never say never, right? Especially if HIVE moons!
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Well maybe I will get out of the States at some point and get the opportunity to run around some other countries like I have this one. I don't know if I will ever make Australia though, NZ's ecosystems and biodiversity appeals to me but Australia's nature seems a bit harsh for me ~ between the weather and all the things that live there that are dangerous it seems a bit challenging to run around in the wilderness there like I do here and not die!! 😅