The heart attacks that come with putting a minimum wage paycheck into cryptocurrency when you have zero savings

I’ve done something which everyone seems to advise against. They say don’t invest more into cryptocurrency than you can afford to lose.

This advice is especially for people such as myself, who have zero savings and are living paycheck to paycheck.

Well I broke that rule and decided to invest a paycheck into Ether anyway, because I desperately need it.

Please allow me to explain....

In March 2017, I had to downgrade to a minimum wage job (that’s 10 USD per hour in Arizona).

However, my rent of course remained the same amount of 1,314 per month (that’s the total cost that includes all the little fees they add into it, such as valet trash pickup from outside my door in the hallway. Yup–it’s a trendy place).

I am painfully aware of how ridiculously expensive my 1-bedroom apartment is, especially now with less money, so I plan on moving in to a cheaper apartment in August when my current lease expires. Still, there are fees that come with moving to a new apartment, and I need to save up for a deposit, first month of rent, renter’s insurance, etc.

I recently applied to get a credit card, but was denied, maybe because I was living over in Sweden for a few years, or maybe because I don’t really have any credit.

Somehow, though, I’ve got to get a little extra money to move to the cheaper apartment.

Luckily, I got a raise to 11 USD/hr a month later (April) because my new boss was impressed enough with my efforts at work AND he wanted to help because he knew I was struggling for money (I had asked for his help filling out an official form to get nutritional assistance from the government—aka: food stamps—of which I currently get 16 dollars per month).

My paychecks seemed to be 700-something every two weeks, which covered rent, electricity and the internet bill. I use a bicycle, so there are no car bills.

Those who are quick with math might be wondering where I get money for food. Well luckily, I can eat a meal for free at the restaurant where I work.

I’d been watching YouTube reviews of Clif High’s web bot reports and they seemed to be spot-on when it comes to predicting crypto-currency stuff.

Somehow, magically, I gathered up enough money to buy the bare naked wealth #2 report.

Clif High suggested that Thursday, June 8th, would be a good day to invest in Ether before the price begins to rise. (web bot predicts over 500 USD for Ether).

This truly seemed like my best option for making the money I need.

Now, my paychecks arrive every other Friday and I also realized that since the Coinbase withdrawal doesn’t show up in my bank account until about 3 days after I’ve initiated the crypto purchase, I could technically begin the purchase on the 8th and then my paycheck would cover it when it’s direct-deposited into my bank account on the morning of the 9th. …And, I thought to myself, who knows where the price of Ether would be suddenly on the morning of the 9th, right? What if it sky-rocketed to 500 USD overnight? I certainly didn’t want to miss out on Thursday's low prices! (And didn’t Clif High say that FOMO would be fueling many purchases this summer?)

So I initiated a purchase for 700 USD worth when 1 ETH = 259 USD on Thursday, June 8th. I won’t need the money until the beginning of July, for paying rent and the bills. So it might as well be put into Ether where it can gain some “interest,” so to speak.

I thought that 700 USD would be well under my paycheck and a “safe” amount to invest in, because I truly believed that Clif High’s web bot report would be right about Ether. I wanted to get the max benefit, so I was putting in the max money.

I went to sleep happy about the purchase on the 8th.

On Friday, June 9th, I went to my online bank account and saw that my paycheck was for 664 USD and thus would not be enough to cover the 700 purchase of Ether that was on its way in a day or two.

I’d miscalculated how much less I’d been working (the restaurant business is apparently slower in the summer in Phoenix; people don’t want to go out in the heat and a lot of the “snowbirds” leave, which are people who live in Arizona during the cooler months and live up north or east somewhere during the hotter months).

I didn't have enough money to cover the Ether purchase. I nearly had a heart attack. The emotional rollercoaster began.

I needed money in my online bank account asap, or at least by Monday morning when the 700 USD purchase for Ether would go through.

I ran through the options in my head. Asking people for cash doesn’t help when my bank is an online bank that doesn’t have any physical branch locations.

Doing online porn wouldn’t help because I wouldn’t see that money for a couple weeks.

Could I beg someone for a PayPal donation?

But that would take a few days to deposit into my bank account anyway. Still, there was a chance a donation could be deposited Monday just before Coinbase got to it….

So I was in the middle of drafting an email to my ex to beg him for a PayPal donation because he had been so generous in the past when I lived with him in Sweden from 2013–2016. He'd been my main financial support while there. We broke up at the beginning of 2016 and I moved back to the USA that summer. Been back for almost a year.

Then I stopped typing when I realized that I have 1.75 Ether offline in cold storage wallet! I quickly transferred 100 USD worth of Ether over to Coinbase, then to GDAX, then to my online bank account. Whew! Saved. ...But wait! I saw a little message that said the transfer to my bank account could take 1-3 days. It might not arrive until Monday anyway.

I continued to freak out on the emotional rollercoaster ride.

Sooooo little side note: I've done a tiny amount of online porn in exchange for money. (Hey, man, desperate times, desperate measures). A viewer on the online porn website who has been a kind and friendly admirer happened to send me an email on that morning, saying good luck with my Ether purchases (I’d mentioned that I was going to invest) and that if I need help with any moving costs in August, just let him know.

At first, I sent him an email thanking him and saying I’d let him know.

Let him know?? Was I insane? My god, of course I need help immediately right now.

I swallowed my pride and sent him a second email saying that, actually, yes, I could use some extra help. Even 5 bucks would be ok.

A few minutes later, I saw that he had donated 100 dollars and I broke down crying when I saw that. Just simply sobbing, tears and snot and all. The pain of having such unstable finances over the past year just came out all at once, along with the crypto stresses of that current day.

I sent him an email back, thanking him for his PayPal donation.

As I dried my tears and calmed down a little, I realized that the donation would still take a couple days to get into my bank account and may or may not be deposited before the Coinbase withdrawal.

I ran through scenarios in my mind, attempting to remain calm and rational. And it wasn’t even 9am, yet.

If the money is not in my bank account Monday when Coinbase attempts to withdraw the money, would the Ether purchase be cancelled? If so, maybe I should initiate a second purchase, say, for 600 USD right now, because I WILL have enough by Monday afternoon anyway.

At this point, I started looking for signs and asking spirit guides and my higher self, etc, for help.

I drew a random tarot card online and it was The Sun card, which also happened to show up in one of the Leo astrology forecast videos for July that I watched just the day before.

This seemed to suggest I’d be ok, but I was still nervous.

The dark night of the soul came. I couldn’t rely on hope. I needed to face myself and admit that I’d made a mistake and miscalculated how much money this paycheck was going to be. I needed to acknowledge that I could very well have missed the “Ether train,” and I need to make peace with that reality.

I made a mistake, I don't have sufficient funds, I was too greedy, it's my fault and it's over.

I'm not going to have any Ether.

I need to just let it go and mentally move on.

———

That same Friday afternoon, several hours later, the GDAX transfer (aka: the sale of Ether that came from my cold storage wallet) showed up in my online bank account.

Everything was suddenly ok.

I now had enough money to cover the Ether purchase for the next Monday.

I felt thankful for the friendly PayPal donation, thinking he had saved me, but I began to realize that my own quick action had actually saved myself today.

I felt empowered and happy. And relieved, to say the least!

I’d like to invest in BTC on the 20th, but my next paycheck only comes in the early morning of Friday, June 23rd, with the new moon in Cancer.

Would Bitcoin rise significantly between the 20th and 23rd?

Should I repeat my little rollercoaster ride by initiating a Coinbase BTC purchase on the 22nd? (Except with a much more responsibly lower number, just to be extra safe)

How much do I think the price will change between the 22nd and 23rd?

I guess I’ve got to ask myself one (more) question, and this is one we’re probably all asking right now: Do I feel lucky?

All I can say is, after I gather enough money to pay rent and pay the fees to move into the cheaper apartment this August, I don’t want to play the trading game anymore. I just want to buy and hold mainly Bitcoin and some Ether.

I’ll post another update in July. We’ll see how it goes!