Drawing a Steady Income from Steem...When? (Plus my Journey Here)

in #goals7 years ago

Have you ever had a goal, only to realize that if you had paid attention you've already attained it?

Almost two years ago, I was on a business trip in Ucluelet. It was in April of 2016 when I decided that I had enough of that freezing cold month in Quebec, bought a ticket and went to my favorite place on earth for 3 weeks.

Even though I was there, in one of the most beautiful places I knew, I felt lonely as hell. After working by the ocean in the lobby of a hotel, I would wander around feeling depressed and lonely.

Let's say I was not in the best of position in my life. I was almost 30, I was in debt, never owned a car and single. I had written my goals down but at that point, I didn't see how they could ever happen.

Here are 2 of the items that was on my list:

  1. I want to get married to a women who is graceful, has a moral compass, has family value, that put God first and that will inspire me to be the best version of myself.
  2. I want to be able to provide for my family. I want to give the option to my future wife to stay at home to raise the kids if she desire to do so. For that, I think I have to make at least 6 figures a year (we are taxed like hell here in Canada)

Needless to say, those 2 seemed unattainable from where I was at that point. But little did I know that I would meet my wife about a month later and get married 15 months later to the love of my life.

Annie&RenaudWeddingWeb-266.jpg

The second goal seemed even more impossible to attain. Yet few weeks later, a friend of mine brought me in the very early version of Steemit.com. Many people didn't believe that the first payout would ever happen on July 4th. But I blogged like a banshee to the point where I was the highest paid author (pending) for multiple weeks.

That's the funny things with goals...it's not like I was obsessed with them or anything. I just sat down, decided on what I wanted, wrote down on a piece of paper and went on with my life. Somehow...I was on auto-pilot toward my goals without realizing it.

Drawing An Income From Steem?

That was my big problem. I was afraid to ever touch my STEEM tokens. Why? Well, I was afraid to deal with the taxes associated with turning them into fiat to be honest.

I was "comfortable" with my income from my day job so I figured that I would not touch them and let them accumulate.

It was only this week that I realized that, if I wanted to, I could complement my current income so that I can achieve the goal of earning a 6 figure income. (Thank you SteemWorld!)

steemworld.jpeg

In the last 30 days, through curation alone I made 1,133.35 STEEMPOWER. In Canadian dollars that means $2,778.64 CAD per month in somewhat passive income. Add in the authors rewards and that's around 1557.49 STEEM or $3,807.36 CAD per month.

This means that without touching my principle, I could add an extra $45,688.32 to my income per year. Until this week, I never realized that. 2018 will be the year where I finally reach my goal...just in time for the baby :-)

When Should YOU Draw an Income From Steem?

First thing, would be to determine you goal. Are you happy with your work? Do you want to have additional income or are you saving for retirement?

I can only speak for those who wants an income. But all goals are valid at different times in your life.

What you want is enough STEEMPOWER to make a steady flow of STEEM coming from curation. With more STEEMPOWER also comes more visibility and better author's rewards over time if you create good content.

Keep an eye on your steemworld account and look at how much you made in the past 30 days. That will give you an idea of what you could touch without affecting your principle.

You should start drawing an income when:

  1. You know how to deal with the tax ramification of doing so.
  2. You like the amount of principle you have in order to benefit from the rise in the price of STEEM.
  3. You've attained the income level that you would like.

Conclusion

Goals are important. We are goal directed beings and without a clear idea of where you would like to be, it's very difficult to get there. Does it mean it will happen fast? No. Does it mean it will happen exactly as you though it would? No. Does it mean you will ever attain at all? Maybe.

But what matter the most is that we are most fulfilled in life when we are in the active pursuit of a worthy goal and that we are making noticable progress towards it.

You'll realize that if you ever attain the goal you've set for yourself, you'll have to set another one for you to pursue...otherwise, you'll stagnate and get stuck like I did in the past after reaching a major milestone.

PS: I highly recommended the future authoring program of Jordan Peterson. It's fantastic for serious goal setting.

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Very powerful post, touched me on so many levels though in a way my circumstances are not the exact same with yours, but I am in a time of my life where my decisions will have full impact in my future. Some days are good, some days not so much, but all in all, I keep taking baby steps, that I hope will lead to giant milestones in the future, thanks for the tips, they are fully appreciated.

If some other person narrate this story to me, I wouldn't believe in a million years, truly you are a inspiration to us all and am thankful I was able to read this post today.

I consider myself a heavy traveler. Last year I have visited 13 countries and countless cities while having a 09:00 - 18:00 office job, developing software.

This job makes those trips possible. However, at some point, I would like to get a passive income like you and just work on what I want to work. (Blockchain, steem related projects, non-profit organizations, etc.)

I have already some examples which you can basicly work remote and travel at the same time on our industry. While this is also possible, I find it hard to do managing it.

Thanks for the inspring post. :)

Damn, 13 countries in one year while having a 9 - 18 office job? That's pretty impressive. How did you manage to do that? How long were your trips?

Flights

I am an early bird for buying tickets. I always get cheap prices with low-cost airlines. I also have a good credit card (reward program) with that airline, basically 3-4 flights in a year are free for me.

Hotels

I am in the tourism industry, working intensively with other B2B hotel providers. That gives an extra to get cheap deals or compensational stays.

Time

I don't have huge vacations. I use my day-offs on Fridays or Mondays which gives me 3 days of travel time. Generally moving around Europe, so flight times allow me to do that.

If the flight time bigger than ~4 hours, then I will stay in that country longer. Spending a huge portion of my yearly vacation is not sustainable so that's one or two in a year. Lately, I have been in Thailand and it was 9 days.

Other expenses

  • I don't eat at luxury restaurants. (Exceptions: cheap countries like Ukraine, Hungary etc.) Even I buy sandwiches from supermarkets on lunch.

  • I don't pay anything to museums. Not really a cultural guy, therefore, I don't spend any time or money on museums.

  • I walk! I never use taxis. (If it's not a business trip and can't expense it.) If I can't go where I headed on foot, I prefer subways, buses. Also, in some countries (Netherlands for example) I rent bicycles to move around.

Everyone can do these things actually. You just need to follow promotions and give up luxury. :)

For some reason a 9-18 job sounds much worse than a 9-6 job.

Congratulations on reaching your goals man, I've recently more accurately defined the goal that I am aiming for with crypto and am hoping I can achieve it one day. Having a clear idea of what you want helps and is very personal to each persons life scenario and desires

Steem is the power ;)

Excellent Stats! Good luck...

Great story.
Thank you for sharing!

Oh wow, you're making a great income here, congrats! Not many people are able to do that, but I'm sure most of us aspire to do so at some point in the future.

You know how to deal with the tax ramification of doing so.

This, for me, is the biggest unknown right now. I have no clue how to work with taxes combined with crypto and I'm not sure our Dutch IRS knows either. I'm not earning near enough to make a good income here anyway, but I still make a nice amount and I've turned a bit into euros. I don't know how to even start with taxes for this though, so I'm not using serious money from my Steemit earnings yet.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. Your curation support has been a tremendous motivational push for me to strive to produce quality content. I have posted every single day for... actually I haven't been counting, but several months at least.

It has been a pleasure to be one of those who swim in your wake as you navigate our steem ocean. Your success is our success, thanks and congratulations on all your success!

:-) @roused

@cryptoctopus' wake is the best wake to swim in:)

Today marks my first month as a Steemian and all I can say is this post should come before the introduction on the Steemit welcome page.

Everyone should be striving for passive income but it’s almost impossible to acquire assets that produce passive income when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. Steemit provides a simple way to do that and your success proves it.

Besides the importance of setting goals, there are two things people really need to understand from your post:

  1. STEEMPOWER is a valuable asset and should be treated that way – don’t convert it!
  2. Don’t worry about what SBD is worth at any given time. “It was never my thinking that made the big money for me, it always was sitting.” – Jesse Livermore

You may also consider that assets can be borrowed against (to avoid taxation) or insured through the use of options and futures. These instruments may not be as readily available as they are in real estate and stocks but as cryptocurrencies become more popular they will be commonplace. (Bitcoin futures are about to go live)

Thanks for this very important post.