First up I must state very clearly that this is NOT a sob story ! Secondly, this IS a *FINANCE* post

So my good lady and I retired a little bit early as we wished to travel around Europe with the potential goal of settling in Italy as a permanent home. 

### All our plans were based on our crypto stash, which is our 'wealth' and we felt it was enough to keep us in a modest lifestyle for many years. In hindsight a bit naïve but nonetheless it is how we planned ###

So we duly set off for Italy in early April 2022 ..... 


I had set up a system of 'staking' as well as yield generating liquidity pools on various platforms for our monthly expenses which we had researched and arrived at an 'accurate guestimate'. 

After extensive enquiries we had a very good idea of the cost of a long term furnished rental for a small one bedroomed flat which we would use for a base during our travel years.

Covid meant we needed to stay in one place (self - isolate) for 10 days after arriving in Italy. No problem, we booked an airBnB close to Malpensa Airport, Milan and planned on using that time to find potential long term rental in Ancona, a small port city in mid-Italy (logistical reasons around my wife's Italian family dictated this as our area of choice)

### Challenge One ###

The devil is in the detail .... and this caught us out big time ... 


![crowded beach.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/themagus/EopttG244DznpTmQL2joDfBYi7ySqjJ7PBKHTqFdwG7LjFHEPDTU6roz4VBSW94D5zU.jpg)

The European holiday season was just about to start and there was no or very limited (read EXPENSIVE) long term rentals to be found anywhere !!

So, THREE months of AirBNB accommodation used up our first years projected rent funds... after which we managed to secure our apartment in Ancona at slightly less than we anticipated; but needed to dip into the second year's savings to finance deposit and first three months rental (our choice)

### Challenge Two ###

Crypto had very neatly entered into a bear market and we found ourselves suddenly with close to 80% less capital than we had when we departed our home shores. 
*Starting a life in a new country requires quite a lot of capital outlay as we needed to acquire a lot of 'stuff' one takes for granted when in a home that one has lived in for two decades !!! This aggravated our expenditure*

![Marketcap1year.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/themagus/23uRLJc4n8rgvoHR8RT4Q1g6akwgw16hzsJL7Zt37kFGKfN9fuhraJG7JrvMWyD8QURbT.png)

### Challenge Three ###

In the makings of an almost perfect storm, Russia and NATO were duking it out in Eastern Europe in a proxy WW3 and Jerome Powell was raising rates like he was in one hell of a hurry .... and suddenly the cost of power and gas in Italy went up by 300 and 550% respectively... and food inflation was, and still is, in double digits.... further draining money and forcing us to sell more hard assets at very low prices. This is anathema to me {sulk}

### And now the reason for this particular blog post ###

Our travels have stalled for all of the above reasons and as such I have some time on my hands. I want to utilise that time to generate some form of income doing some thing I enjoy which brought me straight to Hive. I have been active but just as a pastime and as a sort of recording of our travels and building up a 'biography' for my children to remember me by. I discovered that since 2016 I have been scratching the surface of the Hive ecosystem... sort of floating on the top of a very deep lake !!

### I am going to dedicate a chunk of time to try and generate some income from this fine blockchain project ###

To this end I popped along to LEOFINANCE to see what it is about and what the options are. Man, I had no idea how much engagement is going on and the various communities and projects that exist on Hive. I learnt about PIMPS and !BEERS and !LEO's .... Challenges and theme days, the value of correct use of tags .... so much to absorb.


<center>![questionmark.webp](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/themagus/23uEqxRRCQM52r8XDWdYe8xv7vR4zBrJY7fhnZbJFCqrwMGd8tpxQm3Q5P7pkTZYg9CaT.webp)
<center>[Source](https://giphy.com/gifs/magic-power-charms-uHEqSttWHv476)</center>

My first (and only ) thought was to power up a whack of Hive and then spend a few hours a day doing curation and interacting with folks and try build an active follower base. For the record I have over 2000 followers and only 2 or 3 who ever interact with me.

### I would love some concrete guidance from the Leofinance community as to a way forward so I can contribute to the community whilst also building some stash for the future ###

That was long winded !! If you read all the way through ... thanks. Thanks for stopping by and thanks, in advance, for the support.

### namaste ###