You are now earning crypto currency for your efforts in Steem. But what do you do with it. It is money, so treat it with respect is a good start! I have said for more than a year now, everything in crypto is the same in the real world, it just works better and faster. So when it comes to managing your Steem the same applies.
There are many views here, and I would love to hear your take on this topic. Here are the four main things I believe you should do:
- Make it Fiat and use to fund day to day costs.
- Redeploy your Steem to steem power to earn more steem
- Trade with other crypto currencies
- Look for an ICO and invest your money there.
Each of these strategies has upsides, costs and risk. Make very sure you understand these. Especially when it comes to 3 & 4, do not go all in, hedge your bets and LEARN first with small amounts. Talk to people you trust that knows a little, read and research.
This article will focus on the first one!
Make it Fiat and use to fund day to day costs
You earned it so you can spend it. Just remember once you spend it, it is gone. With the other three options, you can quickly build your wealth. But you earned it so spend it if you must.
How do you spend it? You need to get it into an exchange that trades Steem for Bitcoin. Then you need to transfer your money to an exchange that trades Bitcoin (BTC) for your local currency (that you have a bank in). Of course you can just spend Bitcoin if you have a mobile wallet and places that accept this. But these are still far and between.
When you write you earn Steem Dollar (SBD) And Steem Power. You need to power down to take SP out to BTC and this you can only do over 13 weeks. You will lose voting power, as well as the impact of a vote for yourself. If you have little SP this does not really make a difference. IN the platform you can change SBD for Steem. SBD is pegged to the dollar, so not a good place to hold if you think that Steem will stay more than a dollar. If it falls keep it in SBD. Change the SBD for Steem when Steem is low and SBD high, to get more Steem. Using the platform they will use an average over 3 days so you have to wait 3 days. This is to stop arbitrage (playing small ups and downs, as this creates system overhead).
You can transfer your Steem to an exchange like Poloniex, Bittrex etc, where ever you have an account and they take Steem. Once there sell your Steem for BTC. Again, watch the price BTC to Steem (forget about your local Fiat money for now). You want to sell when BTC is at its cheapest to Steem, so you get more BTC.
Once you have sold this, if your exchange convert to your local currency directly then wait for the best price for BTC and sell. You can then transfer the cash to your bank. If they do not convert to fiat, find an exchange that does and transfer your BTC there. Then sell and send money to your bank.
This is quite a painful process I know. One of the problems with steem is that you can not convert straight to most fiat. Thus the BTC step. You have to watch out for transaction costs. Every one of these incur costs. The larger exchanges is safer and has more protection, use these rather. Your wallet could be hacked so be careful. You should be reasonably safe in large exchanges.
Comments inputs and suggestions welcome. We all learn together.
thank you for advice.
It is a pleasure. Please read articles to follow, as this is one of three.
you are right
Thank you for explaining I am still stuck, will understand soon I hope.
You will understand :)
I don't really tend to "spend" any crypto as yet (seeing I earn fiat and use that for day to day expenses) - use my Steem mainly to convert to SP or on other crypto...
That is my plan too
Nice!! 👍🏻
I think for right now the best thing to do is just build up your Steem Power and keep everything in there. Steem is only going to rise, so I think it's the safest thing to do for now.
Also, I think a lot more exchanges will start converting Steem direct to Fiat money in the near future, just like they do for Bitcoin now.
This will make it much easier for people to use and understand.
I talk to a lot of people about Steem and how now is the time to get involved, but most of them look at me like I'm crazy because they don't think it's possible to turn to Steem into Fiat, or what they call "real," money.
Most people just don't get that cryptocurrency IS real money . They will, though.
Early days. Crypto is also maturing. Right now it is hard to make crypto directly affect your life. At very least you need o understand a bit about tech. If that changes then more mainstream will follow
I agree. I think the learning curve is what is scaring a lot of people away.
I have been consuming just about everything I can get my hands on regarding crypto, and I'm still confused.
However, yesterday I hit a significant milestone. I did my first SBD transfer to Bittrex and exchanged it for Bitcoin. Then I transferred my Bitcoin from Bittrex into my Bitcoin wallet. Now I'm just trying to decide whether or not I want to turn it into Fiat money or re-invest it in some other types of crypto.
My next goal is to learn how to the exchanges work and try to "play" the market a bit. That's going to be a difficult task, but I think I can master it.
i've literally converted it all to steem any time i have ANY "credit" :-D
thanks for the insight though @robertm
HA
Thanks.
I treat blogging on Steem as more of a hobby, therefore I don't worry too much about instant financial returns. However, I will invest tiny amounts in one or two of the smaller cryptos; just in case I get lucky if one of them rapidly increases in value.
That sounds about right LOL. I know some guys have made a lot blogging, but most of that was in the early days. But if you enjoy it and it pays a little, why not. I have not taken a single steem to fiat. Did however invest in some ALt coins (including our upcoming ICO :) )
After a year I finally turned some Steem into Fiat money yesterday. Waiting for $67 to hit my bank account by October 8th (whoo-hoo)! Mainly, I just wanted to see if I could do it. I won't be withdrawing anymore I don't think. Now that I know I can turn it into spendable cash, I feel a lot more comfortable putting in a lot of work on my posts.
That sounds about right LOL. I know some guys have made a lot blogging, but most of that was in the early days. But if you enjoy it and it pays a little, why not. I have not taken a single steem to fiat. Did however invest in some ALt coins (including our upcoming ICO :) )
Very nice post thank you for sharing with us.
Thank Mrs Bear.