Another span of the life's seesaw and I find myself crucified on the economic bottom - becoming a pauper after a month as a princess can teach you a lot.
Those brought up in wealth are often high and mighty while poverty's childen are usually niggardly and stingy. That's something steeped in prejudice and those who have experienced both sides of economic life are in a way lucky: whey strive for better results even if they are down. I am one of such.
Born in Russia in 1994 I suffered the greatest challenges of Russia's turbulent 1990s (those foreigners familiar with Balabanov's films know what I'm talking about) and was brought up in a very usual family with an average month income of less than $700. I am a child of a happy and poor epoch of those who still spent their summers playing together in the schoolyard and those who were called for dinner by their mothers.
The economic situation in my family was changing in compliance with the changes in the country as a whole, and the poor 1990s were replaced by the well-off 2005-2014, almost a decade of "fat" life when my parents could afford going abroad three times a year, hiring some very good tutors for me and my brother and feeling themselves safe and secure in their heaven of sustainable economic development.
Another hard blow came 2014 when Russia got paralyzed by the deep economic crysis and my father got sacked. That was the time when I first faced the imminent breath of the labour market and had to earn to make both ends meet, not to afford another trip abroad or a new tablet. The older I become - the more turbulent my economic situation becomes and that insecurity taught me a very important lesson: to invest and to save up.
To demonstrate you the turbulence of the latest six month, here is a kind of my bank account record showing those ups and downs I have been exposed to.
- February, 2016 - I am invited to a successful company as a freelance photographer. I work when I want to and get something like $75 a day combining my job with studies. A high period. I buy some gold and silver on the exchange and invest into my start-up (something like $600).
- March, April 2016 - I am very busy with my studies and have to cut down the days when I can work. The leisure is devoted to constructing the website for my start-up. Everything earned is spent on advertising and promoting the start-ups social media groups.
- May 2016 - the website is ready, I pay for the services (about $250) and launch some advertising campaigns on Google and Yandex. The money supplies are smelting and I spend as much time as I can at work. I get sick from the process of shooting fabrics though this is the only way out at that very moment.
- June 2016 - rock bottom. I get no profit from the website and launch a lending page eager for getting more customers but this attempt fails because of a bug in the webpage constuctor. I realize that I run a non-profit start-up that's unlikely to bring any money still I have already registered the company and have to pay taxes. Dayum. The last $500 I invest into a broker company. Then I invest half of the sum into an airline company that has announced their returning to the market but the price of their shares collapses and I sell the shares at the bottom. June 16, 2016 - a car accident. I need $30 000 to repair my car. The planned trip to Scandinavia is in danger and I am down.
- July 2016 - a positive change. Steemit enters my life and provides me with an opportunity to earn money for the repairs and funds to go to Scandinavia. I spend some marvellous weeks abroad not thinking about the necessity to earn and feel safe enjoying Steemit's patronage. I make some cryptocurrency investments on Bittrex. Still, my posts earn less and less as the time goes by and I feel that I need to find a "traditional" job.
- August 2016 - I look for a job days and nights and get an invitation from a very wealthy company (KPMG) to work there as an editor in Corporate Governance and Sustainability Group. I pass a number of tests but get a non-explained refusal in the very end. I don't have a job and have to return to the job as a fabrics photographer to earn at least something and get very empty emotionally. A null after some very good money. That's poisonous.
The gaps between up- and down-periods are becoming shorter as the amplitude is growing. Still, that is not bad at all: I know how it is when you're wealthy and value those periods making some investments that can help me survive under the down periods.
- That teaches me thinking and generating some new ideas about how I can earn.
- That makes me analyze the reasons for my failures and makes me a bit more adequate in my desires.
- That shows me how to invest and when to withdraw money if needed (neither gold or shares or currencies have been sold in the down periods, I invest to forget about those money and turn to those savings in some extraordinary cases only).
- That helps me to use the hidden resourses and talents changing professions and upgrading different skills.
- I understand both those who're rich and the poor ones. So, isn't that the doom's gift to live in turbulence?