melissa on Nostr: That's such a great question and I am happy to share ... even though it is terribly ...
That's such a great question and I am happy to share ... even though it is terribly embarrassing.
The true story starts a bit sketchy, but ends well. I joined a real life Ponzi via a trusted online friend I knew and respected in the online business world. 🤦♀️ I did a tonne of checks to make sure it was legit - legit trading company with proper paperwork etc... I sold some crypto late 2020 to get in. argh. So embarrassed. I started to see some red flags pretty early on, say within six months and then thought, I don't want to put all our eggs in this basket in case it stops paying. 😬 I didn't like the marketing that the leaders were doing (convincing people to transfer their entire retirement portfolios to this thing) and I started to back out and withdraw everything I could. Thankfully the few people who followed me in had the opportunity to get their money back because I alerted them to what I realised was going on. It's still painful to think I tried it, but learning curve and also taught me a lot about the fast money mindset. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
That was around the time payments slowed down and the savings were getting very low. I decided to have a look at what kind of remote jobs were available from crypto companies. I knew a job would be better for the time we were in. I landed a role with a wallet right before the ponzi stopped paying entirely. I had to borrow over 40,000,000 vnd from someone I had met only a few months earlier to buy my laptop.
And that was it. Since 2021 I've earned roughly an average income, supported our family of then five, now six as we slowly travel the world. We've spent a rather large portion of my sats (I'm paid in Bitcoin) but we've tried to balance saving with living our best lives. In saying that, we spend less travelling than we do in a regular lifestyle so it is good to have a life like this (common misperception is that permanent travel is wildly expensive- it is far less than living in expensive places around the world).
Most of the time we save a little each pay check, and over 3.5 years I'm still not even close to where I want to be 😅 But, we look at life and think, we are living. We are also saving more than we would be if we were playing by society rules. And we get to enjoy life on the way while we build up something incredible for the years ahead. Our kids are learning too. I will write a book about it all one day soon (my backstory is even wilder) 🤣
My next BIG step will be when I have the confidence another business income can support us and I can let go of being a remote employee and just focus on finishing all the books I have started to write ✍️😍
That's still a while off as we continue on towards our goals!
I hope this inspires 🤞
The true story starts a bit sketchy, but ends well. I joined a real life Ponzi via a trusted online friend I knew and respected in the online business world. 🤦♀️ I did a tonne of checks to make sure it was legit - legit trading company with proper paperwork etc... I sold some crypto late 2020 to get in. argh. So embarrassed. I started to see some red flags pretty early on, say within six months and then thought, I don't want to put all our eggs in this basket in case it stops paying. 😬 I didn't like the marketing that the leaders were doing (convincing people to transfer their entire retirement portfolios to this thing) and I started to back out and withdraw everything I could. Thankfully the few people who followed me in had the opportunity to get their money back because I alerted them to what I realised was going on. It's still painful to think I tried it, but learning curve and also taught me a lot about the fast money mindset. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
That was around the time payments slowed down and the savings were getting very low. I decided to have a look at what kind of remote jobs were available from crypto companies. I knew a job would be better for the time we were in. I landed a role with a wallet right before the ponzi stopped paying entirely. I had to borrow over 40,000,000 vnd from someone I had met only a few months earlier to buy my laptop.
And that was it. Since 2021 I've earned roughly an average income, supported our family of then five, now six as we slowly travel the world. We've spent a rather large portion of my sats (I'm paid in Bitcoin) but we've tried to balance saving with living our best lives. In saying that, we spend less travelling than we do in a regular lifestyle so it is good to have a life like this (common misperception is that permanent travel is wildly expensive- it is far less than living in expensive places around the world).
Most of the time we save a little each pay check, and over 3.5 years I'm still not even close to where I want to be 😅 But, we look at life and think, we are living. We are also saving more than we would be if we were playing by society rules. And we get to enjoy life on the way while we build up something incredible for the years ahead. Our kids are learning too. I will write a book about it all one day soon (my backstory is even wilder) 🤣
My next BIG step will be when I have the confidence another business income can support us and I can let go of being a remote employee and just focus on finishing all the books I have started to write ✍️😍
That's still a while off as we continue on towards our goals!
I hope this inspires 🤞