I use a ratio. My first 2.5 years investing, I kept it all on Coinbase, but 'it all' isnt my life savings. It's all my crypto, which is less than 10% of my net worth. As crypto approached 10% for me, I diversified my holdings to paper wallets, Trezor, and multiple exchanges. As I gained more skill with those, I now keep less than $500 on Coinbase and my biggest exchange account has $1800. I'm slowly moving the $1800 off, but I own 60+ coins there so only moving the biggest ones as I teach myself their wallets.

NEM wallet was my biggest surprise. What a pos. Now when I need eth or btc for new coins, im selling NEM down to half. Its cool actually knowing what bitshares means or steem now, rather than just trading and investing based on news and a few clicks of the home page.

Im glad you are learning about Poloniex by using and experiencing it. You sound like a bitter winer though. When you taste an ice cream flavor you dont like, do you wine the same way? Poloniex is an awesome product, way more popular than anything you could create and share with the world.(Im guessing here). I dont like or use Poloniex and you obviously dont, but just because we dont like it doesnt mean its bad or wrong or shameful. Figure out how you want to keep your coins without Poloniex, let us know what you do and don't like, and carry on. They are not bad or evil or stupid. They are rich and successful as you aspire to be.(Im guessing again here). Go be you and do it without them. I believe in you.(and them, hehe). And me.

And NEM. It's not really a Pos. Nem is cheaper and faster to send than btc. Its price is more stable than eth and many of my alt coins. There is nothing really wrong with NEM. I hate it though. I liked it until I tried the real nem wallet and sent some coins from bittrex into it and played with their tip bot. I lost much of my faith in it and have a negative opinion of it. Maybe you can think of Poloniex like that?