Ah damn, stress sucks!
But yeah, if the funds help you out for now I recommend powering down or at least getting rid of the Steem Dollars you've saved up so far. If you are based in the U.S. I'd recommend sending SBD to bittrex.com then change it for Bitcoin and move that to coinbase.com and after that onto your bank account, other options are localbitcoins.com where you can meet people face to face to do the transaction or check out where their Bitcoin ATM's are located.
It may sound a lot more difficult than it really is, there are lots of guides out there, don't worry too much about how much you might lose out in the future by selling now, the platform is here and will remain for a very long time! :)
Okay! Thank you so much :) I had a newbie question: What does powering down do/ why is it a good idea to get rid of Steem Dollars? Are those the only dollars I can convert to USD? Also is there a way I can continue to support your work besides commenting/up-voting/re-steeming? You have been so helpful and I want to repay you in any way I can!
Powering down converts your Steem Power into Steem at a rate of 1/13th per week, Steem can then be transferred to exchanges and be sold there. Would not recommend since it would only be around 10 Steem a week right now with the current price being 1,70$ per Steem and it would mean you'd lose influence on your own votes & curation rewards.
Steem Dollars are currently selling at a premium though, they work usually as a peg to the Dollar but since there is more demand for them than there is supply they are right now trading for 1,85$/ SD.
and don't worry about that :) I'm glad to be in a position where I can distribute Steem Power and Steem Dollars to a wide userbase and help out newcomers like you get started and gain some visibility/followers.
Ahh okay gotcha. So don't power down right now? Just leave things as they are?
You're the best! Also, I don't know if I ever got your name / where you are from :)
I'm from Finland and everyone usually calls me Acid since middle-school (nope, not because of the drug :p)
Yeah, I think that would be the best option :)
Cool haha :) Thank you Acid!
Wait, sorry one more question! My post just jumped up to almost $200 and it has never done that before! I guess I'm confused as to 1. why that happened and 2. how the $ I receive on the posts is way more than my steem dollars / the account value. :)
A few users with a lot of SteemPower upvoted it :)
The payouts of them occur after 1 week and then your account value will update accordingly but what is displayed as account value depends on the average price of Steem in the last 3.5 days.
Ahhh gotcha. Thank you! Just got back from a 5 mile run! :)