To make a living, we must work. In uncertain days like now facing the global economic downturn, a stable job with high income becomes a scarcity. A side job or business seems like more necessary than ever, which can minimize the risks of losing your current job, ending up pennyless. However, a side job/business also takes time and efforts and can never be attained whenever we need it. What did you do or will you do in order to ensure your finanical stability despite all unfavorable circumstances ?
In my opinion having some form of side job is a big plus in the current times, everything is getting more expensive and our wages are not growing fast enough to offset the rising inflation. Another form of income besides our main job will make us more financial stable and help to offset any unexpected expenses. The main issue is that our side hustle is not going to impact the performance of our main job. We need to remain productive to not endanger being laid off. That is why I would recommend to spend only the weekends and maybe 1-2 hours in the evenings during the week for our side business. What I focus on for the last few month is selling some of the old furniture and other things from the house of my grandparents. They never threw anything away and have so many cool things from the past where people seem to be interested in. I take some good photos and advertise it on ebay and another website for people to bid on it. My grandmother is happy that we are cleaning out the house and I can keep 50% of the profits, win win for both of us. |
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You cant really be sure of that because on the time that these wealthy gamblers or does have lots of money would come into a point where they would really be minding with their huge losses and its impossible
that you wont really be able to notice out that you are gradually losing huge money on longer run which on the time that you are making yourself that aware already then this is where emotions would kick in.
Desperation would takes place and this is where you do mess up even more because you would really be that in a hurry on trying to break even on what you had lost.
In gambling whether you are a whale or not, we do share up on the same motive which is to make profits.
I agree with you, it doesn't matter if we are a high roller or not, the casino games are still the same for all of us. As long as our bets are a percentage of our total bankroll there is a lot of similarities between a whale and the average gambler. Sure the winnings of a whale will be much larger than for any other gambler, but so are going to be his losses. Being a good gambler doesn't mean that we have to become a whale, a good gambler can stick to play with smaller amounts. In my opinion a good gambler is someone who has a good life and manages to gamble regularly without becoming addicted and without facing large losses. A good gambler is someone who still enjoys gambling for the excitement and has no trouble to take a break from playing with money. The best attribute of a good gambler is being responsible in the way he places his bets. Becoming too concerned with winning and losing is not helpful in gambling in my opinion, we need to be not too much emotionally invested when playing with money, otherwise we can’t keep making rational decisions. |
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I, who don't have much experience in bitcoin, want to ask what is the key to your successful investment in bitcoin?
and I want to ask if you have ever experienced investment losses in bitcoin?
The first time I ever heard about investing and money management was in a book from a famous stock trader in the 80s and 90s. His main rule of investing was to buy as many different stocks as possible and forget about them. Trading too often only results in high transaction costs and doesn't really lead to a high outperformance of the market over a longer period of time. This is basically what the whole HODL strategy is about, buy crypto currencies and hold them for a long period of time. With the HODL strategy we can save a lot of time trading and also don't need to worry so much short term price changes. Unfortunately I didn't follow the strategy myself when I first started out with Bitcoins, if I had kept all my coins since 2016 I would be a happy man today. Everybody is going to experience losses when they start investing, it's part of the game and still the best strategy in my opinion is to hold our coins as long as possible. |
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Do you have a best time when you visit an online casino and when you totally steer clear from them?
Like you my number one motivation to go back to a casino that I haven't visited in a while is a new promotion campaign. It might be a bit opportunistic, but I have my 2 casinos that I visit regularly to play every week. All my older accounts at casinos that I don't really use anymore become active again when I see some new promotion being offered. Especially during the Christmas times there were a lot of free spins and other promotions that I wanted to use again. For that it's great to leave a minimal balance at the casino even when we don't play there much, like that we can quickly go back and use our account again. The main reason for me to stay away from online casinos is a losing streak or when I don't have any free time. Usually I gamble 2 nights per week, one night only for poker and one night for all the other games. But whenever I have a bad night where I lose a lot of money than I need to take a break from gambling. I am not really superstitious when it comes to winning or losing streaks, but I still need to take a break when losing too many games in a row. My thoughts tend to become very negative and without taking a break from gambling I tend to disregard risks and lose even more money. |
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Will banks and BTC forever remain enemies or something new will come up? I asked this because a BTC group bought an old bank 🏦 and I don't see any reason why.
I don't think that the banks will be enemies forever with the crypto world. It is only a matter of time for all the big banks to join the crypto community themselves. The banking business is dependent on what the clients want, and if the clients want to buy crypto currencies than the banks have to adapt. There is no point in fighting between the two industries, in today's world we need both of them. The world can't function without banks and also not anymore without cryptos. The two industries will have to work together to attract more clients. I remember reading a lot about the big American banks all adding crypto trading desk during the last big bull run. Once crypto prices are going to recover again and there will be another big price jumps the demand for cryptos is also going to pick up again. In the end it's the customers choice what they are going to buy with their money. |
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Looks like the Esports matches are slowly picking up again. So far I have made only a few smaller bets on Dota 2 matches, but now the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023 are starting on Thursday. Really looking forward to some high level CSGO matches again. The first match is going to be Heroic vs Evil Geniuses which probably the most one sided game of the series, Heroic has a really strong team is going to win that match easily. FaZe vs Complexity is another one sided match that should be a clear win for Faze. Vitality vs Astralis is going to be a much closer match that could be going either way. I am going with a small bet on Astralis as they played well over the last few months and could manage to win that game. And another small bet is going to be on BiG vs G2, BiG is one of my favourite teams and I just want to be invested in case they pull it off. The chances are quite slim as G2 is a pretty strong team, but the payoff would be nice. For these high risk bets I always bet very small.
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While I don't think this illustrates the entire picture. There are perhaps a lot of things going on which are not being defined. Perhaps it is a step in the right direction.
That was a very interesting read and I agree with the author that side jobs are going up be very important in 2023. So far the economic outlook for this year is not much better and inflation will probably be around 7-10%, whereas as wages are not going to match the increase in living expenses. Looking for some form of side hustle will be the only option for some people to cover the price increase. Especially the family assistance and the nursing aide are two factors that are supported by the government in my country. You can get some extra budget from the healthcare insurance that can be used to help your family and elders. And this money doesn't need to go to professionals, if you know a friend who is willing to help out you could give him the job and not only help your grandparents but also a friend in need. |
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Thank you MrMojo for another awesome raffle. As always you are making really cool Crypto coins. Let's see if 2023 will be another lucky year, going with 73 this time:
73 - Mauser
Good Luck to All
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So, what do you prefer, to sell your coins instantly for less or to open an order and profit a slight better margin, reaching the general market's prices rates?
I am rarely selling any crypto currencies these days, in my opinion the prices are not good to sell right now. The current prices are so low that I would recommend to buy than to sell. But for the sake of your question I assume that I would need to sell my coins now. Buying and selling is a very similar transaction and I would use the same strategy. Instead of selling all my coins at once I recommend to sell them over time. The timing question is the biggest challenge in trading, nobody knows when is the best time to buy or to sell. That's why I would always choose to sell my coins over several months than at one point in time. The only exception would be if there is a new project that is very promising. If there is the chance to make a big short term profit than I would switch all my money into the new coin. |
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Well, when gambling addiction hits you, no matter how rich or poor you are, this will be a possible illness to every gambler. That's why gambling moderately.
That is really sad news having another gambling scandal of such a big streamer. Hopefully this will not lead to negative consequences for the average gambler. It's true that gambling addiction can hit anybody and we need to be careful to not get trapped into a downwards spiral. Gambling responsible and moderately seems to be the key if we not want become addicted. As streamer this might not always be possible, you want to go for the high risk high reward bets to create content. Nobody is going to watch a moderate gambler who only places very small bets and doesn't make a big profit. I would expect that there is a lot of pressure in the streaming community to deliver some exclusive content. So maybe streamers are more at risk to become addicted, but they are also professionals that should have a close eye on their gambling habits. |
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I wonder, especially in other countries, how drastic is the change in your daily life that's brought about by this economic downturn?
Life changed a lot for me and my family over the last year. The rising inflation is noticeable the most in the food prices, it feels like I am spending 50% more on food now than I did 1 year ago. My grocery bills started to skyrocket last summer, and even though we switched to cheaper brands prices are still rising. Just one examples are fresh products like salad, tomatoes and cucumbers, the price for them increased 35% in less than a year. The second big problem is heating, with the new high energy prices we lowered the temperature 2 degrees at home. Really sad times we live in now, usually we went skiing for a week during the winter, but this year we will save the money instead. |
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I heard lots of stories online that there are people who are making a living in sports betting, and honestly it really inspires me that's why I'm still gambling now. So I'm just curious, do we have members of the forum here that are making a living in sports betting? Can they share some inputs on how to be successful like them?
I hope they will share so we will know if it's really possible. I mean, as the saying goes, casinos always win because they have the advantage, so how come people are making a living in sports betting?
There is a difference between sports betting and casino games, in the casino all the games are designed with a house edge. Which means that the chances for the casino to win is higher than our chances. With that the casino ensures to be profitable long term as the more people gamble the more closely will the profit be to the expected values of the games. In sports betting we are placing bets against our people, the bookmaker takes a fee for each bet but he doesn't care much which team is going to win or lose. The bookmaker wants as many people to place bets as possible. So far I haven't met anybody who is making a living out of sports betting. Some friends of mine have been very successful with sports betting in the past and made a nice profit, but none of them would consider making it their career. Having a normal job guarantees we are getting paid every month our fixed salary, with gambling and sports betting our income will fluctuate a lot. In my opinion we need to have another form of income that at least lets us cover our fixed monthly costs, and use sports betting or gambling as a side business for making additional money. |
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I didn't buy Bitcoin until 3 years after. I really missed that golden opportunity to get it at such rate. Well the good news is that... The bear market is a good time to fill my bags and I got myself some BTC and I'll hodl unto it. You never can tell what price BTC could hit in the coming years.
That is really sad to be involved with Bitcoins in 2016 and not buying large amounts back then, I made the very same mistake like you. My first introduction into Bitcoins came in also in 2016 when I was trading CSGO skins actively. Every time I cashed out my winnings for real money the websites offered me withdraw the money from the exchange in Bitcoins at a much lower fee than via bank transfers. So for roughly 1 year I was buying and selling bitcoins a lot and managed to get my hands on a lot of coins. In one case opening alone I managed to get a 1000 USD skin which was my biggest profit. For that I bought a new bicycle which got stolen 2 years later. Sometimes I still think about if I just had kept all my bitcoins back then and not sell any, it would have been a nice profit today. Unfortunately we can't turn back time and need to live with our decisions. At least I learned from that to never sell all my bitcoins ever again. |
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So this particular guy in Nigeria around 5 years ago followed some Jersey numbers he has been monitoring for the week and according to him 3 of the numbers where consistently and regularly appearing on different TV stations for the week and he concluded some numbers and went to stake them 3/3 in the weekend draws and behold! When the matches were played all turned out draws and this guy cashed out from different pool shops where he did the stakings. It was a big winning story in the area alongside few guys he gave the numbers to try their luck.
My question is, have you experienced this kind of gambling with Jersey numbers ?
First time I am hearing about a gambling strategy based on jersey numbers  sounds fun to be honest, but I wouldn't take it serious. Does he just focused on numbers he saw on the streets the most and bet on these jersey numbers then? So if he did it 5 years ago it was probably a one time strategy and he is not going to repeat it all the time. Or if he does he didn't win big again? To me it sounds a bit like randomness, the same could happen if you pick random numbers of a long period of time. Eventually there is going to be a big win. Another explanation could be that the players who pick their jersey numbers go very superstitious like 3, 6, 9 or 13. These numbers we would see a lot on TV and in real life as people believe they are lucky numbers why itself. I would not be placing large amounts of money on such kind of bets, they seem like fun but long term will probably not lead to a good results. We should rather place bets on the strength of the players and not their jersey numbers. |
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Regardless where we live, money is our top priority in order to survive and thrive. Having enough money to fall back on means we are entitled to more choice and possibilities. Like it or not, we are chasing or being forced to chase money in most phases of our life. Financial freedom has been most people's ultimate goal for decades, if not for centuries. To achieve this goal, we will encounter endless challenges. Each of us has a unique life situation so what is your biggest obstacle to achieving it ? I know we can make a long list of problems but there must be one or two primary reasons that really hold you back. This is where we should focus and I would like to hear your story. Thanks.
There are a few reasons that make me worry about my financial future. The first one is not so big, but it limits me financially every month, I am repaying my student loan for the next few month. When I was in university I had the change to study abroad but didn't get any scholarships for it and my parents couldn't support me in the way they hoped for. It's not such a big deal because I know exactly how much money I need to pay each month. Another reason will probably be my family, my father is quite sick and already needs a lot of help from our family to still live at home. When things get worse he will need 24/7 care which is going to be very expensive as my father didn't have any special insurance for his retirements. It will be on me and my cousins to support him then. And the last reason which is going to be a big problem for my financial independence is the new regulatory targets for energy savings. All the houses and apartments in our country need to make energy friendly until 2050, which is going to cost a lot of money. I am not sure if we will able to afford that for my parents house and maybe we will be forced to sell it. |
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Reputable casinos won't really vanish into thin air with their players money because they have built their credibility, reliability, and name for a long time already. They won't do such impulsive and selfish act mainly because they care for their patrons. These casinos that are well-known in the gambling industry surely are making millions of profits out of their players loyalty to them. Hence, betraying them will not be an option. I believe this will be the case for long time operating casino that has a well-established name to speak for the quality of services they are offering.
While what the future holds is still uncertain to us, there's a higher chance that these reputable casinos won't do that damaging move because they'll profit even more if they'll continue operating anyway, instead of stealing the money stored of their players, which could be little compared to what they will earn on their daily operating basis. However, I also do not disregard the possibility that some casino might go bankrupt and do the unexpected to escape the consequences.
The best thing to do here would be just always bet what you can afford to lose. The moment you deposit that certain amount in a gambling site, you are willing to take a risk . Be disciplined enough and be smart. Always double check whether a casino is to be trusted or not if you don't want to have any regrets.
I agree with you, there are online crypto casinos who have been around for 5 years. They invested so much money and time to build up a profitable brand name that it seems wrong of them to risk everything for scamming a few customers. Once word gets out that there are issues with the casino all the customers will stop gambling and the website is dead. Online casinos are already a profitable business by itself, all their games have a house edge to make them money long term. Why risk a long term profitable business for some short term gains? Betting only with the money that we can afford to lose seems like the best approach. And whenever we make a decent profit while gambling I would recommend to withdraw some of that money. There is no real point in leaving large amounts of money at the casino as it will not give any passive income. Withdrawing and depositing more regularly will cost us a bit more in transaction fees, but atleast our coins are save. Especially when gambling at multiple casinos we should keep an eye on our bankroll and not leave it laying around. |
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It's a Simple question -
Let's all assume that luck could be measured in percentage, I want us all to rate our luck in gambling for the year 2022,
From 0 to 100, rate how lucky you were in gambling last year.
It's a bit hard for me to tell how good or bad 2022 was for me, because I am playing so many different casino games and bet on sport game as well. My best game where I make the most money is poker, for years now I haven't deposited any money and only withdraw whenever my bankroll grows enough. I made two big withdrawals and added the profit to my bitcoin wallet. In 2022 I lost money with sports betting, but managed to get a 100 USD voucher for the Worldcup, so in terms of losing my own money it wasn't so bad after all. The same goes with gambling at new casinos, due to first deposit bonuses I always start with much more money than I actually deposited. Its a bit hard to keep track over a longer period of time with multiple casinos. What I do know is that I didn't make a big loss in 2022, so overall I am more or less breaking even. My luck would be around 25% probably, I wasn't lucky enough to make a bit profit but I was lucky enough to avoid a big loss. |
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How much worse the ongoing protests in Europe are going to get in the future when inflation caused by today's crazy money printing hits their countries? The inflation is already at its highest in decades in the Union where poorer countries specially in Eastern Europe face the worse of it which leads to riots every day.
I think it all depends on how bad the winter is going to get this year. There was a lot of panic last year if we are going to be able to prepare and save enough energy for the winter. So far the winter has been very mild and the gas storage are still almost full. If the temperature is going to remain at the same levels as they are now most people won't be even heating in their homes. In many countries did they lock the maximum price for electricity and gas to give consumers a break, and right now energy prices are even falling again. At this point the ECB is just going to wait and see how this will play out, printing a lot of money is not really an option because inflation is still so high. |
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Now, let's be some superstitious and say, if you play only when luck appears to be on your side, would you call that a good strategy?
Not really, because how do we know that luck is going to appear during our gambling session or not? There are usually not many streaks like you had, at least for me I usually play around the 50% winning/losing ratio. How many games would it need for you to find out that today is a lucky or unlucky day? And once you start gambling to find out how lucky you are things could turn around quickly again. I had nights that start very terrible and I still managed to make a profit in the end. Martingale is a good strategy in my opinion and I use it quite often. It does require a lot of capital and time to be successful with it, and one bet can make the difference between having a good night and a bad night. It only takes one win to recover all our previous losses. Having superstitious based strategies in gambling is not a good in my opinion. |
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There are accusations that have or cannot be resolved because they always ended up with your words against their words, players show screenshots of your proofs and even take up or accept KYC but in casinos cases, they just hold on to their words that the player has cheated, manipulated or exploited a bug without showing strong evidence like screenshots of the log they just hiding in their defense that they cannot show proofs and add further to protect the integrity of their platform, so the accusations remain open.
Many casino's defenses are like that.
Depending on the money involved in the dispute you should get a lawyer to fight for your claims. In case you won ten of thousands of Dollars at a casino and there is a dispute then you should go in front of the court to get it settled, as long as the claims are valid of course. Screenshots are not really proofs to be honest, in today's time everything can be faked. I am not really familiar with cheating in casino games, can this be done really or did the person just violate their terms of service? Bug exploit could be one thing, but this is probably also limited in the ToS. As long as you stick to the casino games and play them truthfully there shouldn't be an issue and your lawyer should be able to proof that. |
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