What to do with your crypto

You are now earning crypto currency for your efforts in Steem. But what do you do with it. It is money, so treat it with respect is a good start! I have said for more than a year now, everything in crypto is the same in the real world, it just works better and faster. So when it comes to managing your Steem the same applies.

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There are many views here, and I would love to hear your take on this topic. Here are the four main things I believe you should do:

1. Make it Fiat and use to fund day to day costs.
2. Redeploy your Steem to steem power to earn more steem
3. Trade with other crypto currencies
4. Look for an ICO and invest your money there.

Each of these strategies has upsides, costs and risk. Make very sure you understand these. Especially when it comes to 3 & 4, do not go all in, hedge your bets and LEARN first with small amounts. Talk to people you trust that knows a little, read and research.

This article will focus on the first one!

Make it Fiat and use to fund day to day costs

You earned it so you can spend it. Just remember once you spend it, it is gone. With the other three options, you can quickly build your wealth. But you earned it so spend it if you must.

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How do you spend it? You need to get it into an exchange that trades Steem for Bitcoin. Then you need to transfer your money to an exchange that trades Bitcoin (BTC) for your local currency (that you have a bank in). Of course you can just spend Bitcoin if you have a mobile wallet and places that accept this. But these are still far and between.

When you write you earn Steem Dollar (SBD) And Steem Power. You need to power down to take SP out to BTC and this you can only do over 13 weeks. You will lose voting power, as well as the impact of a vote for yourself. If you have little SP this does not really make a difference. IN the platform you can change SBD for Steem. SBD is pegged to the dollar, so not a good place to hold if you think that Steem will stay more than a dollar. If it falls keep it in SBD. Change the SBD for Steem when Steem is low and SBD high, to get more Steem. Using the platform they will use an average over 3 days so you have to wait 3 days. This is to stop arbitrage (playing small ups and downs, as this creates system overhead).

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You can transfer your Steem to an exchange like Poloniex, Bittrex etc, where ever you have an account and they take Steem. Once there sell your Steem for BTC. Again, watch the price BTC to Steem (forget about your local Fiat money for now). You want to sell when BTC is at its cheapest to Steem, so you get more BTC.

Once you have sold this, if your exchange convert to your local currency directly then wait for the best price for BTC and sell. You can then transfer the cash to your bank. If they do not convert to fiat, find an exchange that does and transfer your BTC there. Then sell and send money to your bank.

This is quite a painful process I know. One of the problems with steem is that you can not convert straight to most fiat. Thus the BTC step. You have to watch out for transaction costs. Every one of these incur costs. The larger exchanges is safer and has more protection, use these rather. Your wallet could be hacked so be careful. You should be reasonably safe in large exchanges.

Comments inputs and suggestions welcome. We all learn together.