## <center>Breaking The Chains That Bind Us Isn't As Hard As You May Think, Just Takes Action</center>
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Around last February I received my income tax return, actually around the same time as my 39th birthday. Looking at this check an overwhelming feeling of how little I earned for the blood sweat and tears I put into my year of work just felt unfulfilling. I am unsure if it was temporary madness, or a moment of clarity but that check to me was worthless and an awakening in me to drive it all into crypto took over. Needless to say since that moment I have not cared to own any fiat or US Dollar ever since, and that was the beginning of a whole new evolution in my crypto experience.

<center>![FE_DA_1130funds.ripped.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmbyz9P3zGVxJuWa6BvECeWrCYKeaMqJmuFRPo4tdKYHBo/FE_DA_1130funds.ripped.jpg)</center>

It appears on many levels how bad the fiat system is once you free yourself from it. There is this crazy inside turmoil for those of us chained to that system. Never earning enough usually for your day job, never able to pay for the goods you would like to own, and worst yet...the system systematically wants to keep taxing it out of you to dwindle down you from every accumulating a safety net of wealth for your future. 

The more I walked away from fiat and broke off that relationship, the closer I felt to a reality that there is seriously something wrong within that system if I felt so relaxed and calm without it.

## <center> Encouraged to Save, Encouraged to Think Ahead</center>
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A weird side effect to crypto that I found, and something lost on me throughout most of my adult life was the power of saving. Under the rule of fiat it seemed so impossible to have a backup savings account. When the bills hit, you just have to sometimes take out of that savings to cover the bills. This is a consistently non stop situation that seems to hit everyone working day jobs under the fiat pay out system. In my life under fiat it got so bad that I just didn't value money right, I always figured well its gone before I have it so might as well spend it while its there. This is a sickness that I believe the system perfectly encourages. Commercialism is so bound to fiat money that it brainwashes users to feel they need and want way too much because your time to obtain is very limited, the swindling on citizens to not hold and save is in mass effect.

As soon as I got full time into crypto though, that side effect seemed to instantly wash away. Maybe its due to the charts on Bitcoin going up and down so much, forever making you want to hold for the next better wave of earnings. Or maybe its just because most of us in crypto firmly believe in a year or so from now the bit you sold maybe a regret later. Whatever causes this it is hugely beneficial and amazing to be encouraged by, because now I am careful with my holdings and only spend on bills when its absolutely necessary, and I only buy products when I have a bit more ahead of its price...this way I don't hurt the bank when I get that new blu ray or tv I always wanted.

<center>![logo-blue.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVM44LEQRPifmSt9A5MeC5JzciRNv2h3HM79HHo2BRULL/logo-blue.png)</center>

## <center>Boosting My Local Economy Unlike Ever Before</center>
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I am about to let you in on a little mindset I grown to have since getting my Bitpay card and able to cash out Bitcoin to spend in the real world. Yes, that is converted to fiat there so in a weird way I guess I am 98% surviving on crypto and not completely fiat free but that is only a means to an end, I do also spend online to Bitcoin merchants in my purist fashions where I can.

When I was all fiat I was not able to spend so much. I had to be careful thus probably choking my home towns local economy. My hometown is a lake town nestled near Gainesville, Florida...it is a boating paradise but with an average to small population and far between major cities so the area tends to struggle economically in its own ways. I am waking up to the fact since I got my Bitpay card that I am more able to help the local merchants here through the simple fact I am growing more earnings in crypto and able to go out and about more to support the town with more purchases. Deep down I know the guy at the gas station down the road from me is not pointing me out as some rich bitch giving him so much to put the kids through college but in my own small way I tend to believe I am doing more for him than I would have when I was living fiat only.

Local economies are important, they struggle against the Wal-Marts of the world and my town is still one of the rare ones with mom and pop shops based merchants. Not far away is more corporate businesses, but to me if we lose these mom and pop shops and go all corporate then the little guys in this world lose out. Spreading and supporting our income to struggling business owners is a huge power alone to have. To me crypto could save them and they are a dying breed worth salvaging.

## <center>Don't Worry Taxman You Will Get Yours, Haven't Gone That Rogue Yet!</center>
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It is important as full time crypto users that we abide the laws of the land. Its sucks and trust me I am not for the taxation on top of taxation that governments reverted back to that our forefathers fought against but in order to fight the battle we must remain free. Doing your battles in prison won't benefit the movement so at the end of the year be sure to report your earnings that you converted to fiat. I am still not fully up on this area so I luckily jot down and screenshot my Bitpay conversions.

<center>![mark-twain-the-only-difference-taxman-taxidermist.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmUM2TztwJGSpV15vvRM21Xia2rQCdDnyYWNiagQQU9aup/mark-twain-the-only-difference-taxman-taxidermist.png)</center>

All of us need to be proactive in this area, crypto is testing the limits of what the system will put up with and if we don't walk the gray line then we will all end up lost in this and forced back into that fiat system to never return legally to this amazing advancement and movement in crypto. I am hoping in the end the battle will be won against the theft that taxation is but we have to wait it out and be proactive in the right way to get rid of that immoral conduct of the world governments.

## <center>So Take a Chance and Live Free</center>
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To end, I want to say to you that if you feel fear to abandon fiat, don't. I have done quite well moving on from it. Am I rich, no I am literally living so simple its insane but I choose that route so I can save and let my future self be comfortable and money worry free. It takes a bit of sacrifice if your at the bottom of the barrel financially but I believe diving in to make a change for the better of your life is well worth the patience and simple living it takes.

The only way we will win this fiat vs crypto battle is by choosing our sides fully. Maybe that is my purist side speaking but I just don't see mass adoption happening if we remain half in both. The challenge here is for crypto users to show the world that this is a better system, but how can you if you don't fully dive in and proclaim this is all we need and show them we live better off of it.

Keep the hope alive and regain your financial freedom!!

#### ~sflaherty 
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### Follow me @sflaherty