That's pretty cool that you were able to pay for your son's braces!
I'm quietly "saving up" with an eye towards replacing my aging (desktop) computer, one of these years... and I feel fully aligned with the idea that it might take three years, and it might end up only being a "subsidy" towards the final price... but yes, it does have value!
Like the choice of this word "aligned"
I started in 2017 with nothing. At first I put in a lot of stress and tried to follow what everyone was doing. Later I learned to just use it for myself. Anyway over time I found some spare change. It was my first to change to fiat and literally cash out. We changed HBD to Bitcoin and then sold the Bitcoin. I wish we had held the Bitcoin until after the election, we could have cashed out more, but we needed it then.
Computers might be a waste of money, but if you need it then you need it.
Indeed, computers feel like a bit of a waste of money... but I do a lot of photo/image processing, and I like to look at things on a big screen, and I hate actually writing on a phone. I try to buy tech that's at least a little obsolescence resistant... my current gear is 10+ years old.
If wishes were fishes... I wish I had some of my early BTC I paid about $300 for... but oh well.
These are life lessons. I left a chunk of Bitcoin and Ether on the ionomy exchange waiting for a good trade. Now the exchange doesn't seem to exist anymore. The only safe place is my own wallet with my keys stashed away in a place I and my wife can find.