Using Splinterlands to Pay Down Real-Life Debts and Achieve Financial Freedom

4 years ago now or so I started my journey into crypto and all things blockchain related mainly just excited for this next big wave of innovation and didn't want to miss out on what it could become in the future. I had a tendency to make poor investment decisions in the past and could never find myself in the right place at the right time either.

I started blogging on Steemit mainly for fun and viewed it as a hobby because afterall, I wasn't making very much money at all. Then one day this game called Steem Monsters rolls out and catches my eye because it bared very similar resemblance to games I had played in the past like Magic the Gathering or other similar card games.

At the time you couldn't really even play the game, all you could do was collect and trade with people mainly through Discord. I started getting involved in daily giveaways because the cards were cheap, and it gave me something to write about on my blog.

Over time, and through several financial burdens in my personal life I ended up selling my collection two full times through the Alpha, Beta and Orb sets never really achieving a whole lot of profitability from doing so. In hindsight they were colossal mistakes but the few thousand dollars I had invested in the game really made a big difference in my life at those times having 2 children, sick pets, medical bills, a mortgage, auto-repairs, etc. this goes on...

Finally, I decided one day I was going to re-enter splinterlands and just gradually worked my way back in through the rest of beta, dice and untamed and before I knew it had this huge collection again. I started renting those cards and even managed to scoop up some lands and totems cheap before setting my holdings essentially on auto-pilot and stepping away again for a while.

When the SPS launch arrived, prices went absolutely nuts and for the first time in my life I was finally in the right place at the right time.

I've now been taking stock of my cards and slowly beginning to sell things off to make impacts in my personal life.

So far to date I've paid off a $10,000 remaining balance I had outstanding on a $23,000 401-K loan. This gets me money back in my paychecks now and helps my retirement, and all paid for by Splinterlands money (net of tax payments that I've made to the government already this year).

I've since been continuing to sell asset, but this time with a primary focus on paying down my mortgage because when I sell I inevitably lose money to taxes of course. The best way I could see to grow this money even further was through the long-term interest savings that I will achieve by paying down my mortgage balance. I am only 2 years into a mortgage on what I hope will be our family's new forever home and this money is already making a huge difference. I am already paying in a little extra on my mortgage every month with the hopes of cutting 6-7 years off of my mortgage that way but not with this splinterlands income on the horizon it has the potential to push me much further ahead toward that goal.

In the past month since I've begun selling splinterlands lands assets I've cashed out $93,000 back to my bank account and have another $80,000 in crypto I'm trying to withdraw daily. I will be making some rather large tax payment this quarter on all of this money but once I have my numbers figured out the rest is going to be dumped straight on my mortgage.

I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch but now that this feels like it's become more of a reality, I'm setting my sights more now one trying to become debt free entirely by the time I've 40-45. (I'm only 34 now!).

I'll post further updates about my journal as this all unfolds.