that post rewards only pay out SBD, I am posting 100% power up from now on, and taking my rewards later as they power down. All my SBD rewards I exchange via blocktrades to Steem Power now for a few weeks.

I have accumulated a reserve of ready fiat, but my regular income now is from mining, about €400/month, and I will be exchanging that and powering it up. This is plenty of income for where I am living, as a baseline, so now I can focus on working on projects.

Running a backup witness isn't really a terribly onerous task, and the infrastructure required isn't that great. My witness previously ran for over a month without me having to stop/restart/replay or anything at all, the VPS service I use is very reliable and the price is the best I have seen, it's a total win...

I am making about 3 blocks every 4 days, it looks like, which means at current prices I pay the bill in a week and the rest is more SP in my account. I would like it if I got more votes (and blocks) but it's ok as it is, and more blocks also means more time required and probably a second server to do it.

It's an extraordinary experience for me, to have some degree of financial independence finally!

It is probably going to take me a while to settle into it though...