How Do You Save, When Life is SO Expensive? (An Experiment)

There's some kind of "fuzzy logic" that might suggest that you eventually get used to living with a zero balance in your savings account. Not that that's a good thing.

OK, if we are to get totally real about it, who the hell keeps a "savings account," anyway? Commercial banks only pay about 0.000000001% interest on your savings while charging you a $5.00 a month "maintenance fee" for the privilege of them holding onto your money.

Doesn't make a helluva lot of sense, does it?

Mt. Shasta, CA

Getting Out of a Hole...

There's an old truism/bit of wisdom that goes something like this: "The first thing you should do when you find yourself stuck at the bottom of a deep hole is... STOP DIGGING!"

Like many good people's, our wee household has been stretched thin for many many years.

We have the "joy" of living in the US of A where Mrs. Denmarkguy had a couple of rotator cuff shoulder surgeries almost a decade ago... and even though we had $600/month health insurance, we ended up owing more than $20,000 in hospital and rehab bills, after all was said and done.

Welcome to no savings, and backbreaking debt.

We haven't been able to afford anything for almost ten years, but at least Mrs. Denmarkguy isn't permanently disabled, which was the other "option," were we to choose to NOT have the surgeries done.

View of the lake...

When You're Poor, You Tend to STAY Poor...

Our world is set up in such a way that when you have no money, the system actively prevents from changing that. Meaning... that because you can't afford to plan ahead for anything (because you need to buy groceries NOW, not "save") you end up always paying the highest prices for everything... from airline tickets to the simple fact that you can't afford the cheapest "jumbo size" of anything that will last you for months, instead you are buying the smallest and most expensive sizes of everything.

Eventually, you might manage to get to a place where you have a couple of hundred saved up, and then your car needs work, or the roof springs a leak... and you're right back to zero.

The entire idea of planning — which is one of the pieces of "good advice" friends always seem to offer — tends to go down the drain.

Winter skies...

But Speaking of Planning: Known Expenses

Mrs. Denmarkguy and I are lifetime members of The Labyrinth Society, and she is actually on their Board of Directors. That means that once a year — in the fall — we have to attend the annual board meetings of the organization, followed by a three day gathering.

Whereas some of the travel, lodging and food expenses are paid by the organization, the reimbursements do not cover everything, by any stretch of the imagination.

Now, the most obvious "solution" someone might come up with is "quit the position and don't go." But that's yet another side effect of being poor... you easily become a "non-participan" in everything to do with life.

The alternative, of course, is to start setting something aside... which is tricky, given that we've already visited the issue of unexpected expenses erasing savings in a matter of moments.

So, that still leaves the challenge of coming up with an estimated US $800 by next September. As of today (12/1/19) Coinmarketcap says that one Steem is valued at $0.1338, so I would need 5,979 Steem, which is a pretty tall order, if not all but impossible...

A balancing act

So, the "Steem Experiment..."

It occurred to me that maybe it would be possible to use Steem and blogging as a sort of "indirect savings account."

Leave the liquid part of rewards to build up, and just maybe there might be something there, by the time next September rolls around. Of course, it's a high risk proposition... because it is a "savings plan" that's partially dependent on the price of Steem (which, for all I know, could be TWO CENTS by next September), and partially dependent on being able to (a) find the time to create enough worthy content and (b) being rewarded for content continuing to be "a thing" around here.

But I figure it's worth giving it a try.

And — at least —I'll be continuing to be active in the community and my SteemPower will continue to grow, as well... as I am not planning to touch my powered up balance.

I realize this is a bit different from my usual posts... but as much as anything, I am using the blockchain to simply "put a marker" here, for my own future reference:

December 1, 2019: Have 288.105 liquid Steem, value $38.54. At 4.81% of $800 goal.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming!

(Another #creativecoin creative non-fiction post)

Have you ever used Steem as a "savings account" for a long term goal? Would you consider doing so? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 191201 13:59 PST
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