Hold on... I think I'm figuring something out. I've been doing this whole thing where whenever I get a paycheck, I keep my money in dollars to pay for gas and groceries and then I plan on dumping it all into Bitcoin. But that doesn't end up happening in regards to Bitcoin savings. It's been like this for months now. So I'm not really stacking on sats and I keep getting these annoying payments, financial goals, or worries in my way where I end up keeping my money in dollars to ensure my money is liquid and easily usable. One of the worries goes something like this: "oh maybe I should keep some dollars for the next week in case I need gas ASAP or food ASAP." But I could literally just use lightning to pay for a gift card or maybe even wait 10-20 minutes for a confirmation on-chain. The spam might be bad but the fees are still good! Another worry is capital gains taxes. I haven't contended with converting Bitcoin into dollars because of the capital gains tax. But I've been thinking about it and I think I actually need to part with some sats to actually learn how to convert Bitcoin into dollars and pay the tax for when push comes to shove. This is if I'm ever going to live on a Bitcoin standard; which I don't seem to be doing much to my chagrin! Of course I'm back again to the gift cards. It's not completely bulletproof since sometimes I'll have a few cents left on a gift card for my means and I know the gift card companies will just eat up the remaining money once it expires. I'm basically wasting a bit of money; it's like it's a gamified, conditional tax or fee in some sense. Not only that but my Android phone (which is getting older by the day) has been a bit persnickety with NFC use on GPay. On top of that I have this dumbass subscription that I pay at the beginning of every month that I'm not really getting much out of. Then I'm also using a credit card for when I want to delay a payment. Like, what the fuck!? I'm just doing the stupid ass fiat thing! Why the fuck am I still sitting here on a dollar standard? I know Bitcoin is the answer. I know Bitcoin fixes the savings problem. So why don't I just hoist my money in Bitcoin every paycheck? Then it hit me. This is a deep game the fiat system is playing to get me to stay in their gilded cage. They know I don't want to do the work-arounds and fiddle with the capital gains tax stuff. They know I'm not okay with the imperfection of gift cards. The reason I have all those worries about next week are only because of the way the dollar functions, shortens time horizons, and maximizes high time preference. I've been using the dollar for way too long and I think I'm starting to see the conditioning. The ah-ha moment is that I have to level up. I need to become more vigilant and agile. I have to continually test GPay on my phone or upgrade to a new phone entirely. I need to learn to deal with shit like converting my Bitcoin to dollars when I need to. I have to accept the imperfection of gift cards. I also have to have backup wallets in case my Bitcoin node goes down. And lastly, I need to just dump all the money into Bitcoin, figure out what I'll need to do if I need to spend it, and then never look back on worry. The reality is that there's nobody near me that would accept Bitcoin directly for what I need so I have to go through the hoops. I was also thinking, maybe I should start accepting Bitcoin for the gig work I do. I literally had a person who couldn't tip me because she didn't have cash on hand. If I had suggested Bitcoin to her and given her an address, I might have gotten a tip by now. With that said, I think we all know how hard it is to orange pill people. But then I had a realization about that too. Perhaps I'm making the orange pilling process more difficult on myself because I'm not living on the standard I want to be living on. I need to pick a day and make it all about leveling up. I need to assess my current Bitcoin setup and financial situation, shake things up, and then take the plunge. I need to go back to what I originally wanted to do all along-- save AND spend on a Bitcoin standard. I feel like I will never naturally save in sats unless I'm putting it all into Bitcoin and then spending those sats when needed. That's the epiphany that I had for myself. It might not be for everyone but I think that's what I need to do, despite all the road blocks and hoops I'll have to jump through in order to spend. Besides in absolute emergencies where I'm forced to use fiat, I can always use my credit card and then plan to pay it off when I have fiat to pay it ASAP. Or maybe I'll use Strike's bill pay... I dunno, I'll have to figure it all out. 😵💫
