by voting am i 'giving away' some of my SP or steems? should i be 'hoarding' my votes and being stingy with them? or should i just upvote everything and everyone? also something i don't quite understand is upvoting myself.. is this good or bad practice?

unfortunately i don't think there's any 'whales' in the categories i post :D but that's OK, it'll get there eventually (although i did get $5.50 for a single upvote the other day, that was impressive!)