For many years of my life, I knew I was looking for something, but I just didn't know what. I always felt that there was a better way, a way out of being financially captured and trapped in the system. For years, living week to week, pay to pay with no end in sight. My path into crypto was probably pretty similar to many, but it begins with two major learning experiences.
Ancient History. (REKT for the first time)
My first "REKT" experience was the "dot com bubble" going back 20ish years. I came into this time in my early 20's, and thought I was the hottest trader on the block. In reality, I didn't have a clue about anything - trading skills, technical analysis, fundamental analysis, risk management and so on. I realised as tech stock prices were booming that I could buy a much bigger position than I had the funds for, so long as I sold it prior to settlement 3 or 4 days later. Off I went, speculating like crazy up to the crash. Within days I had turned a portfolio of stocks worth around $20K that I had saved for years to accumulate (yes in my late teens, early 20's) into nothing - with a $15K personal loan used to square the ledger with the stock brokers. Rekt hard.
In hindsight, I can now recognise that those days were pure gambling, and problem gambling at that. I learned my first really harsh financial lesson at that time - don't speculate with other people's money. I withdrew completely from stocks for a while, and knuckled back down in the shitty job to pay of the debts and get back to square.
Insert more years than I care to remember of boring drudgery.
Second Chances. (REKT again)
My second big adventure came along after finally making some changes in my life. I quit my shitty job, and went travelling. Three month around Asia, and seeing some of the world. When I returned, I went back to work in a different job, managing a cafe for a hands-off owner. He was in difficulties, having bought the business for his wife to run. A few months later she left, and he owned this cafe and didn't know what to do with it. After a while, he offered to sell it to me for what I thought was a bargain price. I came up with a business plan, and borrowed most of the funds from my parents to buy it.
Over the next 12 months, I slowly built up the business, having some success, but also making lots of mistakes. It was bought as a loss making venture with lots of potential, but I didn't have the funds to invest in it and slowly fell behind on bills - most notably building up a big debt to the franchisor. The franchise model was such a poor setup, very one sided in their favour, and it was a constant battle to get to break-even.
During this 18 month period, I also started a relationship with the love of my life, and we started our own family. This shifted my cost base quite a bit, and I was drawing more funds out of the business than it could afford. Then came along two events that put a particularly harsh full stop on our progress, and set me back once again to where I was 10 years earlier, but this time with a family and commitments.
The lease on the shop was due for renewal. It was located in a shopping center, which required businesses to renovate their store in order to secure a new lease. I had no other assets to secure a loan to achieve this, and the Global Financial crisis (GFC) kicked in. Banks tightened their lending criteria here in Australia massively, and a marginal business with no other assets asking for a 100K loan was something they just basically laughed at and showed the door. Eventually, the franchise company took back possession of the store and showed me the door.
REKT again. Massive debts, basically having lost a portion of my parents retirement funds - pretty much written out of their will as a result, a 6 month old baby and a 12 year old stepdaughter, no job and no income... Shit!!!!!
Rebuild again.
My partner and I moved out of town, leaving Sydney behind and moving 500 kilometers north to a smallish coastal city, living with her parents. I get a job at a major supermarket and we start our life over again. Stubbornly, I refuse to declare bankruptcy, and slowly work on clearing some of the debts away. Insert a number of years of drudgery once again as we grind away, week to week, and re-establish our new life.
I spent much of this time looking for an extra income, with little success. I was looking for a way out, and eventually Bitcoin started making the news. This instantly fascinated me, and I watched daily as it boomed up to its last ATH around $20K USD. The bubble started to pop, and I couldn't help recognizing the similarity to the tech wreck previously. Still, the more I read, and started to look into it, the more I realized this could be a way out for me. I still had no money to invest, and was very gun-shy about trading again, but started looking for ways to generate an income in crypto.
Mining.
I discovered a mining site called Minergate around march 2018. This was it. I could run my computer, and earn this magical internet money. Obviously at this point BTC was dead for home mining, but ETH and XMR were the opportunity. Prices kept dropping, but I started mining and learning. Planning on building a multi-GPU rig, and never having the money to do so, I chipped away, played with faucets and ground out a tiny amount of crypto, which continued to lose value. At that time, I also found out about STEEM, thanks to 
Came for the money.
My experience with steem was similar to many I guess. Having missed the halcyon days of STEEM running up to its ATH, I started grinding away, writing crappy blog posts that no one was reading, and looking for a way to make a few dollars. Eventually, persistence started to pay off, and I kept learning new things and slowly building my account. Communities and Tribes arrived, and there was now a bunch more ways to grind out tokens and find ways to get ahead. The early days of Sportstalk were kind to me, and I put alot of funds I gathered there into a little project called Spinvest, which has proved to have been a much better investment. The other project that became the first place on steem - and subsequently hive - where I really felt at home and among like minded people was here on LeoFinance.
Hope.
I think all this history has shaped my approach to crypto. I have had a few small dabbles at trading, but as I learned previously it isn't my thing. The biggest impact that crypto has had on my life so far has not been financial. It has been to improve my state of mind, increase my confidence in my future and give me hope that better days are coming. I have taken some funds out, once to treat the wife and I to a once in a lifetime chance at some awesome front row concert seats. This proved in my head that this money could be real, and also showed my ever doubtful missus that all that time sitting at the computer may not be wasted after all. In the last month I have taken a bit out also, for fiat, to catch up a couple bills and take a bit of real world financial pressure off. Nowadays, when the wife and I contemplate what life would be like without financial stress, she no longer thinks all this is a waste of time. When she tells me she hates her job, and wants to win lotto so we can quit, my answer is that I'm working on it. Her response used to be that I am "wasting my time", now it has changed to "work on it faster".
So the short answer to the question is that crypto has thus far had a small impact on my personal finances. I've put a few dollars in here and there, and taken a bit out on a couple of occasions. The real impact I think has been on my mental health - giving hope that things will get better. This has made my work life more bearable, and has generally washed away alot of negative thoughts, borderline depression stemming from the business failure, and overall a more positive outlook on life.
You can't really put a price tag on all the non-tangible benefits from building and growing in this space. Financial freedom will be nice, when it comes, but the peace of mind knowing that it will happen is almost more valuable - I think.
Let's hope third times a charm, and this turns out to have been what I have spent my life looking for. Time will tell.
Thanks for reading,
JK.
