I have been a pretty outspoken advocate over the last year for powering up for future benefits and at times, I have been criticised for not being sensitive to the life situations and needs of some. It is because of these situations and needs that I have recommended powering up.
I wrote a piece last night on how I see the future of Steem and some predictions as to where I see it going. In essence, it will be more earners, earning less which means, unless one has built a healthy community support base or holds Steem personally, getting a viable return is going to be difficult.
What always surprises me is that the people who claim to need to live off of the earnings didn't have this option available to them even a few short months ago yet, now rely heavily upon it. That is a risk. The other thing is that they seem to take all earnings out without leaving even a small percentage to keep their own account clicking over. 10 - 20% would be a small price to sacrifice now to invest in potentially very large future positions. There is risk in long-term thinking of course but, there is a lot of risk in thinking short too.
If you think that 1000 SP votes at about 19 cents currently (~1.90 a day) what does that 1000 vote at when prices are 10 times as high? Yes, there will be larger pulls on the pool and less Steem paid but, the value of 1000 SP would be highly significant to many of the users here. For those struggling now but not powering up, they are always going to struggle and likely increasingly so as prices increase and onboarding continues.
Rather than building a nest egg, they have created a job for themselves with a weekly paycheck but, no fall back position. A change to the code, a shift in social preferences, a lockout through communities and, they are back at zero. Unemployed. Even if they are earning, the pressure to continually perform, chase, stress will go on indefinitely and they will never get a chance to rest, take a day off, a holiday.
Plus, earning and holding a little SP now creates more than voting power in the future, it creates a nest egg that can be liquidated if necessary. 100 Steem at 30 dollars is worth 3000 and if a dollar a day matters, that is enough for 8 years of mattering. A power down of a few SP can tie one over for a long time.
There are going to be ups and downs in the markets but, earning Steem through content creation will never be much easier than it is now and as competition through mainstreaming increases, the chances of increasing rate of earning goes down. Unless of course, one holds Steem power to use to earn upon and support others.
As I have said many times before, I am investing myself as heavily as I can now and doing all the work I can so this isn't a job but a preparation for a different life in the future. I am tired of living month to month, paycheck to paycheck, hand to mouth as, it is no way to actually live. Life has a lot more beauty in it than most of us experience while we go about trying to make do on the scraps thrown from employers and governments alike.
The beautiful thing is that not only can we work toward our own freedom here, we can be a part of helping many others too. Well, we could be, if people chose to create a community of free thinkers instead of a group of short-term maximizers and extractors.
This place is going to evolve in many ways and be influenced in many more both internally and externally. My hope is that improvement behaviors are incentivized, harmful disincentivized and those thinking long will get rewarded for their effort and consistency.
A long way to go and so much to come.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
I have realized I can’t do it anymore . I feel like I need a part time job and these savings can be for my future or Incase of emergency . It was fine at first but when the price drops it hurts my withdrawals and hence , my expenses for baby and I
I am so far from willing to live off this, it is too unstable and too random.
It seems like there is a big annuity type factor with steem that a lot of people don't talk about.
I really don't get why @tarazkp. I've seeing people on this platform quit their day jobs for Steemit, even when they haven't started earning consistently on their postings.
It's a dangerous way to live, not planning for the future. I have a day job, a small business and am also investing here just in case. We don't want to regret anything
Perhaps it is a lack of experience or maybe not understanding how the platform works enough. Many don't know about the limited pool, vests or that SBD is meant to be pegged. They will learn one way or another.
It is a lot riskier to focus on the short-term, but I don't have to tell you that. Things change, and anybody who depends on one source of income will face some tough times when things change or disaster occurs. They will wish the had done what you are doing when "it" hits the fan.
The fan is always waiting. Spinning. There is a convergence of events in the world happening. It will likely get uglier.
Oh yes, it's only a matter of time.
Indeed, we don't seem to be hardwired to think long term (especially odd considering the small amount of time that platforms like steemit have been around, yet people seem to act like it's been around forever!)
@exyle did a good vlog today along similar lines pointing to how hard it's going to be to earn steem going forward once smt's are released and the BIG content creators join (along with their followers).
Collectively, this reminds of that phrase:
It is strange isn't it? People talk of early users when we are just over 2 years in...
Yeah, it is going to get difficult to earn steem and potentially with smts, the bidbot rules will end. Hopefully.
Honestly, I wouldn't blame those who have refused to invest in this system after they have lost a whole lot to internet scammers and ponzi. If you havnt lost anything online yet. You might not get to understand the psychological trauma many of us have gone through before coming on steemit. Many are still trying to recorver all they have lost and that is why you may get to see the behavior of instant gratification in many people .
I was once there and so I understand perfectly. It would take a while for them to realise that steemit isn't Ponzi and that it is here to stay.
When I came into steemit , I was used to taking all my reward and wouldnt leave a dime for to.orrow thinking steemit would crash anytime as I virtually lost all my life savings to Ponzi and was feeding from hand to mouth until steemit came and saved my life. So it took me a while to recorver and now that I am a bit stable, I can now think of investing once again as I come to trust the platform and belive in its long term goals.
All we need do is keep making posts like this to teach people but we can't force them. Only time can convince many.
Life tends to hit a lot of us . Whether its from medical issues , loss of job or a scam . Recovery is a long haul . I am glad you are on the way back . I too am putting what I can into Steem and I am not so much stable but will be within 6-9 months where my ability to hit steem hard will come into play . Steem is also my long term goal that I invest in now with my time and energy . I look forward to seeing many of you in the future as we look back and talk about how we didn't miss the boat
If I remember correctly, you said you knew it was a ponzi and invested anyway. This is common, like bitconnect. Everyone wants to get rich quick, instant gratification and the like yet, very few will invest long-term in themselves or an idea. Those that do take short-term risks for long-term gains.
Getting to 1000sp looks a bit difficult these days but I am still positive that I will get to it in no time. I am half way there.
What you say about support is obvious now, if you observe closely. There are fewer and fewer readers and curators of content and more and more writers and creators of content. This means that organic upvote aside from autovoters is now scarce. Maybe I am the only one taking note but curation is indeed becoming difficult to find.
I am thankful that I have gotten to where I am but I think I need to reinvent, reimage myself, not just my content. Press refresh so to speak. I do not yet know how but it is a possibility that I have considered.
Community can never be over emphasised especially for those just starting out. Not just passive membership but contributing, supporting and assisting the community to grow. Such efforts will reap benefits in the long term.
I depend on steemit for a lot of my financial needs but my eyes are wide open to the pitfalls of not planning for the future. I have my own projects offline, dreams and visions that I want to birth into reality. I need money to do it. I need to invest time and energy to ensure that I can do it when I am still young enough to bear the burden and stress. Steemit is giving me that opportunity to actually make it happen. I will be stupid to waste it.
Investing in SP is easy, if people can take out time to do it. A little bit of patience is all.
I kinda want to kick myself for not taking the opportunity to really power up last December as SBD was high as compared to Steem that it was even around 3-4 Steem for about 1 SBD.
I took some of my earnings and cashed out for the first time in order to show people that I invited that it is real as well as have a great Christmas back then.
Although I powered up 1/4 and then used some to rent delegations which I have to say is very expensive right now on account that bid bots are all trying to get it and not leaving a lot to smaller minnows like me.
The more we create content the more SP we will gain and so we need to keep Steeming and growing our account.
Talk to me about it the @promo-mentors are looking to support projects/
You are also earning less because they are decreasing the amount of pool available to an increasing amount of users.
true as you said and it make sense that the pay out will be flatter but more spread out. There is the need to stay relevant and touch as many people.
Who know may hivemind, communities and GPT will fix some of the curation rewards.
I will contact you there definitely. I have seen the post but I am still trying to gather the nerve to present my idea.
This is what I am hoping people are doing with what they take out but, I fear many are just increasing their short term standard of living.
Yeah. I have thought about it. I feel that to really make something out of this platform, one has to create a business model around and about it. A project that will not only pursue the steemit mantra of community and interaction but also proffer assistance to those who seek to escape from the choke hold of job and wages.
Well i will admit to be in the category of this people, but i had no knowledge, i was barely 1 month old,but i have more knowledge and understanding now, i have more insight into about the platform and i have been able to know that for me to even benefit more, all my earnings need to be aimed at investment in the platform.
You don't know how much i want to get to that 1000sp so bad
This is financial freedom, if things are done well
It for sure will evolve and maybe it will go faster than we think!
I am in a position that I don't have to depend in the steem income. So for me it is obvious I will power up as much as I can. All earning, Steem of SBD, are instantly converted into Steem Power.
The only 2 reasons, for me, not to do this is that I need some Steem at hand each week because I do sponsor a contest each week with an SBI share. The other reason is that I need to save at least 40 SBD to sponsor my own World cup contest!
But both I do see as an investment in my Steem future!
Hard work now, will pay off later!
So yes you are right. The ones who depend on a Steem income, should also try to invest something back into the system. Day by day it will be harder to get noticed, to get upvotes and so on. And this will become even harder when loads of new users will enter the system! Each SP counts then! The advantage we will have be creating content of curating content now, will be extremely important!
I think that is a good approach and, good luck with the contest :)
Feel free to participate. The bigger the crowd the more fun!
I agree 100%. It is incredibly stressful to know that you have nothing to fall back on if something happens.
Passive income is key.
Yep, I am trying to get to a point where i can passively cover most expenses but as you know, in Finland that is difficult to do.
Hi Taraz. My sentiments exactly. I am building my SP and hence my Vests for the future. You never know when you may need it. What you are doing and the way of thinking is identical to mine. If I get some extra money from somewhere it is going onto powering up. Build as quickly as possible. This is like a time bomb and need to get ahead of the game as quickly as possible. If one doesn't then you are ignorant and have thrown a golden opportunity away. How many opportunities do you get like this? It is time ,sacrifice and commitment and don't understand most of the people here. They are chasing today's buck and not worried about tomorrow. The smart ones are growing and re investing.
You have taught me and agree with this thinking as it makes total sense. One day I will be sipping Gin and Tonics and be saying cheers to Taraz.
I count this as my last now, I am not going to lose it.
I will hopefully join you for one. Hendrick's please.
There are two things that are distinctly lacking in the so called modern world, and those are patience and consistency. With great patience and consistent effort comes great reward.
There is a very worrying trend that is on the rise. More people want to have results right now, and they want to exert themselves as minimally as possible. More people are wired to look for the magic pill that will fix all of their problems, and they have the same approach to money and success.
The thing they do not realize is that success needs effort and takes time. If it did not take time and effort, everybody would be a billionaire with a perfect body and the best relationships.
What use is there to plant a seed today only to dig it back up tomorrow? Would it not be better to let it grow into a tree that will give you fruit for years to come? That same fruit you will get will have seed that you can plant, that will turn into yet another tree that will give you more fruit.
You may dig up your seed today, or you can wait for your tree to give you unending harvests.
Patience is my struggle point.
They want workless wealth..
https://steemit.com/philosophy/@tarazkp/workless-wealth
not many planters these days, nor people watering the garden.
The tendency for the teeming mass of humanity walking around with little to no net worth is due to their poor choices in life. Why would you think that this virtual platform would exhibit different behavioral patterns? I would argue that because most members of social media are younger people with little to no life experiences, we would observe more short-term thinking behaviors than would observe in the real world.
I don't think it would but, at this point for many, there is time to adjust what they have been programmed to do. And yeah, I think most of the crypto world suffers from lack of life experience.
That is the issue with poverty and even those slight above it in the state of paycheck to paycheck barley staying afloat. The lack of ability to try and hold anything that could increase in value over time. More often than not it’s traded into things that will only lose value over time or be consumed. This often leads to rash decision making and thinking “this has to work.” Far too many have tried to cash in the hen before it even laid a single egg.
Many if lucky enough have gained enough of an auto upvote from people going inactive that they don’t have worry losing those votes or cashing out everything unless the service that person was using to cast those votes stops working. There are quite many who seem to just be surviving of what votes they have coming from the old days. They are not building for a future either. They seem to just want hold on to what they can for as long as possible.
I’ve personal reduce my own cost of living as far as I’m willing to go in life (for now) to try and get ahead somewhere in it. Far too many seem to fall into modern day traps of staying ahead in technology, eating overly priced food, and spend so much money on clothing you wonder if they are just clothing themselves or an entire village.
I can only hope your own personal sacrifices in life to try and get ahead work out and create what you truly want in it. I do agree it is a shame to not enjoy the beauties life has to offer. Sometimes just have to get creative as well to enjoy it. Turn a hobby into something that creates some income that tries to balance out the costs which is something steemit can do for many.
I see a possible future here where people would not dream of the opportunity that was just sitting around like it is right now this very moment. Many will come who can afforded to pay the price to catch up. others will come with amazing talent that blows everyone else out of the water. Those that never tried to build a thing won't have a raft to stand on when the waters of price rise.
This is part of investing I think. it is not what you have but what you do with it.
This is what I don't understand.. Why do people find it so hard to post?
Some I think have to high expectations on what they want to produce and what they expect in to yield. As such they seem to just want to fail instead of trying and failing. Others seem to try and do too much right away. I know I’ll sometimes have a blog that gets away from me in turns of time consumed. Many seem to just struggle with coming up with anything at all. Which I just find strange. At least for me if it comes down to lack of ideas I can just start turning comments into blogs instead. After some polishing up and a little more work on them.
Once in a while I’ll talk with redfish or even a minnow that does not produce a lot of content . Once every couple of weeks or even less. Their heads seem to be more in the clouds day dreaming of some whale to come upvote there work. They seem to not get it that the price of steem today should not be an impact on what you are doing. It’s more of a moon or bust for many that log in daily and try to do something. Some seem to just get really down when the price is down than want go crazy on content when the price is up.
Needs must sometimes, who am I to judge that, but using Steemit rewards for more than a very temporary stopgap is a dangerous game.
stopgap I understand, reliance I do not. People want freedom but then tie themselves to a weekly ratrace.
That is not entirely unique to Steemit. With a little bit of generalisation, it is the way of the world 8-).
A lot of people are still living the scarcity mindset that they need to amass and cash majority of their earnings off steem.
I had some people who have been here longer than I have but have only 100-200 SP in their wallet because they keep cashing out.
Now it is their right to cash out especially if they need it but like what I always tell the women in my HR team you need to think of your future as well.
Create multiple streams of income, don't put your eggs in one basket and invest in your future.
In Steemit my way is by investing some of my gains from other coins as well as waiting for good ratios of Steem/SBD although I should have done more last December.
I am slowly growing my account and would love to be able to spread my votes more and give value to posts.
Steem is a marathon for me not a sprint to cash out all.
This is a place to learn all about it yet, how many do?
not a lot because it is far easier to just think short term comforts rather than long term wins.
When your SBD can buy food, pay rent or buy new shoes or have a vacation over powering some of it up and using it to increase engagement and influence which to some people is not important.
Nice informative piece and has me thinking about my goals here a bit more seriously, regardless on whether I have a grasp on all the info yet or not. I'm getting there.
takes time to understand it all but if you start with your interest areas and circle outward, you can cover a lot of ground fast.
Great words and post. I came here because someone explained about you and how you helped him with the right connections and principles. I connected with you because i want to get such state from your posts and knowledge.
I appreciate your guidance through this post. The people who have little time in steemet do not know these things. I share the idea that we must collaborate so that steemit continues to grow more in value than in users.
@tarazkp great informative .
Enjoyed your post. Trying to learn all I can. 😊
I might occasionally move some STEEM out of my account now and then, but I have a feeling I will never, ever withdraw more than I put in (in terms of STEEM) unless something goes really, really wrong.
I actually keep a little buffer of liquid STEEM to withdraw if necessary, but I don't really know why. I tend to occasionally just power it all up on a whim anyway.
There are millions living morning to afternoon, don't forget....
Due to banks and government intervention my 15yr old business just came to a grinding halt- without 12 hours notice.
Life happens, and circumstances change.
I would have been screwed if steem wasn't here, tbh (although it still hurts to take out, rather than build up)
I totally agree with what you say in your post, but I think you have to bear in mind that western economies are not a 'standard' throughout the world...
Soz for not upvoting - trying to get my power back....
I noticed lot of declined payouts(am I correct in that ?) in your posts recently.
Is there a reason?
Well obviously there is a reason, but can you tell me ?
I'm one of those people living off Steemit, but I try to make sure I have all three, SBD, liquid Steem and Steem Power, for what ever happens in the future of this blockchain. I don't want to have all my eggs in the same basket, but luckily cryptos is a diverse basket of eggsies.