Bitcoin Forum

Speaking as someone who genuinely *hopes* to earn their income entirely in BTC in the future, I am wondering something - how does one best use them to live off of?

Obviously, it's easy to meet up and exchange BTC for cash each month. But, unfortunately, it's hard to use cash to pay for many things, for example:

- Health insurance
- Rent
- Various loan repayments ( mortgage etc. )
- Other things that I'm probably missing ( buying plane tickets online, etc. )

I suppose the way to deal with this is to liquidate just the minimum BTC each month to cover living expenses that cannot be paid in cash, and then pay income tax on that money.

What about anonymous debit cards that can be re-filled with BTC to pay off things that cash cannot? The problem is that they're not anonymous if you keep using the same card to pay your rent etc, so you might as well liquidate BTC on gox and pay the income tax.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Probably at this point moving to New Hampshire which has  a large bitcoin using population untill bitcoin is more widespread.

Cash can be converted to money orders and/or cashier's checks.

I actually know someone who can pay their rent directly in BTC. That's probably the best route if you can do it.

Money orders/cashier's checks are a great alternative for bill payment, thanks. But I suppose for any major payments you should probably declare the income and pay the income tax for it ( even if you pay in cash or BTC ) since at some point someone is going to ask where the money is coming from.

Depends if you live below the radar with a shitty house and drive a shitty car no one will care ;)

No one asks you how you go the money for a $1000 car or where the rent money comes from of $300 a week.

Dont live like  a gansta and drive  a ferrari with no visible means of income.

True... one can drive an old car and live in a small apartment, but go out and eat lobster every night using cash. And you'd be just fine.

The funny thing is, in terms of quality of life that's actually probably a much better life than living in a nice house with two cars with payments you can barely make and having to slog to work for a 9 to 5 that you hate. For me, money is a means to freedom, not a means to "luxury".

On that note, I'm hoping to hit the road one day if I can make enough from BTC, and just travel and run my business from my laptop+clearwire connection. That would be the life for me. :) Maybe I could eventually settle down in New Hampshire if I meet up with a nice liberty oriented girl... *sigh*

Move to Barbados, Cayman Islands, Ecuador, Estonia, Isle of Man, Singapore or any other country without any capital gains tax.  You could also become a sovereign citizen and hop around the planet with multiple residencies and passports.

Now you're talking! 8) I'm actually a resident in several different countries already, but only a citizen of the US. And all my friends are here.

Meanwhile, I should probably get familiar with this:

Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center (http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=115045,00.html)

Thanks for the ideas. I love the concept of being a "sovereign citizen", that is so cool! I just hate being tied down to any single location; I'd love to go around visiting friends all over the world and having adventures before I hit 30.

Freedom is one of my highest values in life and although I don't seek luxury I am fine with making as much wealth via productive means as possible.  I am happy to live quite simply with more emphasis on the important small things like healthful food and relationships than external status indicators.  There are lots of websites and individuals who claim to be able to teach individual sovereignty for a price like http://www.sovereignman.com (http://www.sovereignman.com) but I'm pretty sure with some diligence you can find most of what you need to know gratis. Cheers :)

I could not agree with this sentiment more.

Thanks for the website, it looks like a great resource.

Sounds like a good idea :) Let us know how it goes...

Other helpful resources are Nestmann (http://www.nestmann.com/) and QWealth Report (http://www.qwealthreport.com/). Easily distilled it is the Six Flag Theory (http://www.byebyebigbrother.com/pt_six_flags_theory.php). Bitcoins are a great substitute for an offshore bank account (http://www.runtogold.com/2011/12/solid-bitcoin-consolidation-finally-bears-a-bitcoin-breakout/) to gain financial privacy (http://www.howtovanish.com/2012/04/bitcoin-how-to-obtain-financial-privacy/).

If you want the benefits of being an American citizen then pay your taxes.  I get paid crap at my job and yet a portion goes to Uncle Sam.  If you aren't going to be able to pay your taxes and live off bitcoin.....maybe you aren't going to live off of bitcoin.

That or go move to Singapore or whatever the hell.

All U.S. citizens pay plenty of taxes. Property taxes (schools, police), gas taxes (roads), sales taxes (state programs), corporate taxes (military), etc.

What benefit do we supposedly derive from paying the IRS' income tax? Do you even know where the money goes?

To pay the interest on the national debt to the international central bank cartel, of course!

Bingo.

Statism Is Dead (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P772Eb63qIY) so become a libertarian bitch (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/07/how-to-deal-with-government-become.html).

^{Blaztoize goggles on!}

Lol I love your mindset and I'd be interested in doing most of the stuff that you've discussed in the semi-near future. Already planting the seeds to make this a reality, so I suppose that's a start! I feel that it's important to never forget your roots, but also silly to forfeit your brain when there's better ways to go about doing things.  :)

Another way is to get 50x of your annual expenses saved in bitcoin form. Then just sell 2% of al your bitcoins slowly every year.

Enjoy your life while you are at it. You mileage (50x and 2%) may vary.

If I could only get BTC exchanged for a NON US currency such as the CAD in physical form and then convert CAD into USD in physical form and spend that using money order when needed and cash for the rest, that would be the best way I can see from avoiding the banks all together.

Am I wrong?

Why would you need to go through an intermediate currency?

by benefits, i guess you mean helping America pay the 154 billion dollars per year in interest that is owed on the 16 trillion dollar debt?  definitely you want to support the system that has the highest degree of economic inequality in the modern world.  you need to pay taxes on your little paycheck so people with great big ones don't have to pay nearly so much.  and it just feels good, doesn't it brother?  it feels good to pay 35% so the mega-rich can pay 14%- right?  it's what Jesus wants.

let me ask- are you still one of those spewing the rhetoric that America is the greatest country on the planet?  that you are leading the world because you represent freedom?  i feel like a good veteran's parade.  let's wave the stars and stripes for the kids we put through a meat grinder to get cheap oil!  praise Jesus.

your country is imploding, and you are too ignorant to see it and too cowardly to do anything about it.  it's cute that American economists are predicting that China's economy will be larger than the USA in 2035, and everyone else is predicting 2015.  you do understand that you are the laughing stock of the world, right?

MOAR TAX CUTS FOR JOB CREAT0RZ

supply side economics  fail

This post reminds me of that documentary where some dude lives exclusively off of craigslist free stuff. It would be interesting to see someone do the same thing with bitcoins.

Who is a videographer here? get to it!

Sovereign citizen is an oxymoron. I am sure that was your intent right?

There is this awesome book called  The $100 Startup  (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307951529/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=moocow-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0307951529&adid=0KM4YNV08YYKDGTFH0N2&) by Chris Guillebeau that is inspirational crack cocaine to self starting entrepreneurs. Give it a search if you don't mind using my Amazon Link, it's talks a lot about how people have done work and examples of such, and has a drawn out section on the life of a traveling entrepreneur.

I think his intent was the perpetual traveler theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler) for Sovereign Individuals (http://www.amazon.com/The-Sovereign-Individual-Transition-Information/dp/0684832720/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347304064&sr=8-1) (which you should read!).

Thanks for the correction. I was aware of the distinction but overlooked it at the time of writing.