Hello fellow Steemians
I am so pleased to be writing my first couple of posts on Steemit. I had a friend @thearcanebear start posting about a year ago and sharing his links on facebook. I was so busy with life that I didn't take the time to check it out. I wish I had.
I'm 37, single, no kids. An electrician of 18 years. I was an avid rock climber but a bad fall three years ago has forced me to focus on recovery. I have survived a number of serious accidents and spend a lot of my time dealing with pain and doing my best to recover. I have worked in many different fields within the electrical sector; Renewable energy, industrial, commercial, residential, institutional, and have even done the power systems for a few music festivals. I recently quit my government job and went out on my own.
I couldn't stand working for a bunch of moron and dealing with all the political bullshit, stuck in a little office at a computer most of the time. I'm a hands on kind of guy that can fix/build just about anything. I understand how things work. I'm excited for the diversity and freedoms of being an entrepreneur. I started with nothing and have worked extremely hard for all the money I have. Realizing how hard it is to save money working for a living I'm constantly looking for other ways to grow and protect my wealth. When you see some of the opportunities that are out there it is very exciting. One right decision can set you up for life. That's what has lead me to precious metals and crypto currencies.
A little over a month ago I started seeing all the hype about bitcoin. It rekindled my interest in cryptos. I initially heard about Bitcoin in its early stages. I was actually one click away from investing $1000 CND when it was at $7 but my fear kicked in and I chickened out. There is a lot to it. All the steps it took to purchase and store it scared me. It was so new and there was definitely a lot of uncertainty. Now that $1000 would be worth over half a million CND. I have been watching it go up all these years and telling myself "I can't buy in at this price, I could have bought it at $7". Now look at it. It recently hit an all time high of just under $4000 CND. I'm not one to dwell on the past so I've recently decided to suck it up and throw some money in. Yes, it's painful. But it hasn't gone away and its only gotten stronger. There is so much I love about Bitcoin and cryptos in general.
Anyone who knows me knows to not get me stated on finance. I'm quite passionate about it and get fired up pretty easily. I started researching financial systems when I was 23. I had recently bought a house and the value was climbing fast. An old German fellow I worked with started telling me how money had no real value except for the value people placed in it. He explained how gold was a good way to store your wealth as you actually have a tangible asset apposed to some paper that was really only good for wiping your ass with. I quickly realized I actually knew nothing about money. I didn't know where it came from, what gave it value, etc. Like everyone I just kind of accepted it as is. I became fascinated by money and started reading as much as I could. In 3 years my house had tripled in value. I decided I would sell my house and put all the profit ($300 000) into gold. Gold at the time was $500 CND. (Keep in mind I was only 24 at the time) I started looking into how I would go about this. I called my step dad to explain my plan. He said "that is way too risky. You're only 24. You don't understand that much about finance yet. Don't do it. If you want to invest in gold put $10 000 in or something like that." So that's what I did. At that age you still think your parents know best. Over the years to come the value of my home dropped and gold surged higher and higher. If I would have trusted my instincts and bought in to gold and sold at the top I would have had over $1 000 000 CND by the time I was 30. Instead house prices continued to fall. I eventually decided to sell and lost a lot of the profit I could have had. Lesson learned. The more you learn about our current financial system the more your disgust will grow. I didn't want to have my profits sitting in the bank where they were at the mercy of the governments and their money printing. I put most of the profits I did make into precious metals but my timing was horrible. It was at the peak.
About a month ago I had a really good conversation with an interesting fellow @greenman I had recently met while attending Burning Man 2017. I knew he was into bitcoin and we instantly got into talking finance. We shared the same hatred for the crooked bankers and he was telling me how he pulled everything out of the FIAT system and got into cryptos, land, and a decked out Westfalia to travel around in. Needles to say we had a lot in common. He invited me over and very kindly took the time to share some of his knowledge on cryptos. He said one of his favorites was Steem and he told me a little bit about the Steemit platform. What a fantastic idea I though. A crypto combined with a social media platform that pays you to create content. The timing was perfect. I was so sick of facebook and instagram. All these people putting so much time an effort in to create content for someone else to profit from. What a rip off. Then I recalled how my friend @thearcanebear had been sharing Steemit posts for the last year. Sometimes we are so busy that we miss a lot of opportunities. But here I'm here now. A little later than I would have liked, but I'm here.
I'm so excited about this platform and its concept. I'm eager to start sharing with this community and contributing information that I find relevant and fascinating. Some of the things I will be talking about are; Crypto currencies, precious metals, energy, electricity, sustainable building, DIY, health/healing, yoga/strengthening, Anarchism, and generally thinking outside the box. The system is broken and together we will find new ways to build something that works.
I hope you enjoy what I have to share. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Look forward to connecting with all of you on this new and exciting platform.
Please follow me to stay connected.
Cheers!
@lightmaker your welcome to steemit community. As for your past experience on bitcoin, it is very painful but one must move on. I too have a similar experience. I wish you success here and in your crypto investment. See you.
Welcome!
Welcome to Steem @lightmaker I have upvoted and sent you a tip
Hey, thanks man. What a great welcome! Following you back.
Best wishes to you! What you have done is what I want my future to be filled with. I'm only 16 right now, but I want to invest in things, and base my life off of it!
@doubledeeyt followed you just now. Follow me back
Well you're on the right path if you're already thinking about it. I starter early. Just posted on how I bought a house at 23 years old with $5000 and an $11/h job.
https://steemit.com/life/@lightmaker/how-i-bought-a-house-with-usd5000-and-an-usd11-h-job
That's awesome!
Hey @lightmaker welcome to steemian land. Hope you enjoy your stay. Add me to your followers because I just added you to my list for being special. Great steemin
Who doesn't love feeling special. Thank you!
following!
Welcome to Steemit @lightmaker :)
Welcome on steemit. Shame you haven't buy at 7$, but game is not over yet. I think in two years time you will be very happy you was not trying to wait for it to go back :)) Enjoy and have fun around!
Agreed. Thank you.
Welcome to Steemit @lightmaker!
I'm a bot-helper, and I'm created to help. Congratulations on the registration on Steem - you really like it here! If you like me, make an upvote of my comment and follow me. Your upvote will allow you to give more money to new users, such as you. Let's make Steem better together!
I follow you, and to get more upvote and resteem - follow me!
All the money I earn will be donated to charity.
Steem on!
Congratulations @lightmaker! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPWelcome steemit
Welcome! I've been active for 10 days now but made my account almost a year ago. Man, that's another regret like the ones you mentioned above. I wish I had been here that whole time!
I got interested in economics when I was burned in the 2007 housing crash. It sounds like that was the same event for you. My home was bought for 279K by the original people. They sold it to me for 384K only 6 months later.
It eventually foreclosed and sold at auctions for 130K. I'll never forget that very expensive lesson. The incident lead me to @zer0hedge, and I wish I had been on there reading and learning from it for years. I would never have bought when I did if I had been.
I'm a voluntaryist, and we have a lot of other things in common. My two primary passions are private investigation and residential physical security. Thanks for sharing your introduction, and I look forward to your future content!
Oh man, that sounds absolutely horrible. Even worse then I could imagine. I'm really sorry to hear that happened to you. Where was this if you don't mind me asking? I hope you have managed to recover?
I see a crash coming in the Canadian real estate market but honestly thought it would have happened by now. I sold way too early. I would probably be up over 400% right now and be living off the rental income. Oh well, Live and learn right? Just not sure what to do right now. Might stay out of housing even though I want to buy in so I have something to poor my energy into. I want to have a home, I just don't want to regret getting in at the top after waiting for the crash for all these years. Maybe it will just keep going up, who knows.
I read Zero Hedge often. A lot of good information on his site.
Thanks for sharing! Following you as we seem to have some stuff in common. look forward to hearing your plan.
I had a job in Washington, DC, and it was 2007. I bought as close to DC as I could afford, and that was in Gainesville, VA (over an hour commute).
Yes, the foreclosure never really harmed me much. I did not squat in the property. I gave up the collateral when I could no longer pay the loan. Before my credit took the hit, I had already secured a rental. I always had a lot of money to put down on rentals too, so I never needed landlords to check my credit.
If you can pay six months of rent up front, most landlords don't care what your credit score it.
I bought a foreclosure last year. It is in a perfect location for a rental if prices drop, so I won't get stuck with it. The price was too good to pass up too. Basically, I've done the opposite of what I did in 2007.
We cannot tell when the housing market will crash exactly, so you're better off being out early than being out late.
Thanks for the follow! I'm following you too of course. :)
welcome to Steemit @Lightmaker! Glad to see more people like you - here joining Steemit! Nice post, i will follow your account, please follow me at @mekong
Just stumbled across your post and I must say it was a very interesting read about your early exposure to the world of finance and the journey you went through watching the growth of gold and cryptos. Congratulations on having the courage to quit and regain back control of your life from the modern day slavery! All the best on steemit, excited to be following you!
Thank you for reading and commenting Kuenok! Glad you enjoyed. Will follow you back.
Welcome to Steemit!
hello Lightmaker:) Glad to see more people like you - here joining steemit ! Becoming a steamian is a great adventure ! Here you can win money while bloging! At the beginning it wouldn't be easy, but it isn't impossible. So just write from your heart and everything will be allright. ! Cheers! Wish you much luck! Greetings, @khunpoom !
Welcome! You will be impressed how good Steemit is to connect and share content. I am a Brazilian writer and videomaker, living in London. Here I post about photography, travelling and stories. Have a look at my profile and if you like it, follow me. :-)
Welcome to steemit community...
What a wonderfully written intro you got here.
Do read my below recipes to have a successful steemit experience.
RECIPES FOR SUCCESS
Be yourself, originality matters a lot. Write and submit quality content at least three times weekly.
You can get into arguments but without being disrespectful to people to avoid down votes
upvote and follow posts that interest you...as well as people who upvote and follow you. Reciprocity matters. However, be careful not to exceed 20 upvotes per day as doing that will begin to deplete ur steem power. This is important.
spend sometime to comment on other people's posts daily.
Give quality feedback to peoples comments.
Observe this rules and success will follow you. Wishing you best of luck in your steemit activities.
I'm @eurogee
Thank you for the information Eurogee. I'd up-vote your comment but I'm taking your advice. I did not know that. I think I've already exceeded 20 today. Cheers. Will follow you.
Hey! You made a great choice joining this awesome community. You’re going to have a great time here. Keep Steeming!
Thank you. Cheers!
Welcome and Thank You for being with us!! Following your Blog now
Thank you. Checking out yours now:)
Hi welcome here, forget about the past and move on
You know it! :)
Welcome to steemit hope you enjoy it here!! Followed. Follow me back 😘
Welcome to steemit lightmaker, happy to have you here
I am @alienposts , my real name is achraf :)
Checkout my blog posts, Enjoy your time here and let's get this party started :)
Nice post
in search of the lost city of cryptopia... or just havin' a good time talkin' PM
Your bot sucks, and your website is probably a scam